Dear Reader,

In Latin, et cetera means "and the rest." We use it at the end of a list to refer to afterthoughts, things barely worth mentioning. It's such a vague, unnecessary abbreviation that, as an editor, when I see "etc." in a piece of writing, I'll cross it out.

But what might happen if, instead of handwaving something away with an et cetera, we spotlighted it? That's what we asked ourselves for this issue of The Pub. We asked you to send in your oddball poems, your niche essays, and your tales of the mundane. We've got poets pushing the boundaries of form. Artists capturing light on glass, steel, bread, and skin. Storytellers nudging minor characters toward center stage. Essayists pointing us toward injustices we'd rather forget. It's an eccentric collection, and I'm so excited for you to experience it with us.

My hope is that reading these pieces will inspire you to attend to the et cetera in your own life: the small memories that resurface, the people you tend to ignore. As the contributors to this issue show, there's beauty there.

As always, thanks for reading The Pub.

Saludos/Cheers,

Monica Colón ‘23

Editor-in-chief