{"id":1006,"date":"2026-01-05T15:07:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:07:07","slug":"letter-from-the-editor-od-n-6-dec-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/05\/letter-from-the-editor-od-n-6-dec-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Editor: OD N. 6 Dec 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lauren Mouat. Published in\u00a0Open Doors Issue N. 6 Dec 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The word inspire comes from the Latin \u201cinspirare\u201d which meant, like the current Italian ispirare<\/em>, to breathe. Only in medieval times did the word take on the mean- ing of \u201cdivine guidance.\u201d The writer\u2019s search for inspiration – that stimulation that urgest you toward the act of creation – can feel daunting, awash as we are in a del- uge of images, flashpoints, memes, jokes, sketches, skits, cat videos, etc. But I like to remember the ancient orgins of the word – a guidance from an otherwordly, divine source, coming to you as simply as as a breath of air. We take in sights, memories, experiences, and we breathe out art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The works in this sixth edition of Open Doors are a roadmap to the varied doorwys to inspiration. Jack Stewart <\/strong>takes us to the Non Catholic Cemetery in Rome <\/em>in his poem of the same name while Jacky Stephenson <\/strong>evokes Ravello in Poesia Ai Rav- ellesi<\/em>. Cole Henry Forster <\/strong>brings us to Rome in three poems and Nancy L Weber<\/strong>\u2019s Luck <\/em>has us contemplating the nature of chance and strategy in a beach side amuse- ment park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language and form are the starting point for Emma Prunty\u2019s <\/strong>The Poem<\/em>, Chloe Yelena Miller\u2019s <\/strong>Italian Vocabulary <\/em>and Ron Riekki<\/strong>\u2019s Sonnet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two essays take us into the world of authors and directors in Giorgio Fontana<\/strong>\u2019s Our Need for Stig Dagerman <\/em>and Jack Wardynski\u2019<\/strong>s Italy behind the Lens <\/em>about Ital- ian filmmakers Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A discovery in her own building of a french book of memoirs led Monica Sharp <\/strong>to create a delightul translation that sheds a new and delightful perspective on young Napoleon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the issue, we are honored to display a variety of works from Tatiana Stadnichenko <\/strong>which reveal the artist\u2019s connection to place both archiectural and the healing quality fo nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books, poems and paintings provide a foundation for Nathanial Cairney<\/strong>\u2019s I fianlly get Noah\u2019s Ark<\/em>, Priscilla Atkin<\/strong>\u2019s Pierrot <\/em>and Stephen Campiglio<\/strong>\u2019s Daimon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memory seems to be the source of inspiration for Mark Anthony Jarman\u2019<\/strong>s Twa Corbies<\/em>, Martin Pedersen<\/strong>\u2019s Clean Scan<\/em>, Irene Mitchell<\/strong>\u2019s Direct Action and Use- ful Knowledge<\/em>, Timothy Houghton<\/strong>\u2019s More by Fear <\/em>and Jonathan Vidgop<\/strong>\u2019s Meat<\/em>. Although as a fiction author myself, I wouldn\u2019t presume that events described nec- essarily \u201chappened.\u201d The truths of fiction more often come from a story or poems vicinity to memory rather than a factual retelling of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of K Eady<\/strong>\u2019s Havaianas<\/em>, it was a writing prompt at the monthly gener- ative writing activity in Florence that was the jumping off point – a prompt itself gleaned from a New York Times experiment in which they proposed a list of words to both a real author and AI to produce a \u201cbeach read\u201d with interesting results (dis- cussed as a foreward to Eady\u2019s story.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That AI will replace and parallel many human pursuits seems inevitable but the idea that it will sideline human creativity or lead to the end of writing our own works and reading the creative work of our fellow humans to me is simply impos- sible. As long as we breath, we will in one way or another create and share and in sharing, create… and on and on. To breathe is to be inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-LTM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Mouat. Published in\u00a0Open Doors Issue N. 6 Dec 2024. The word inspire comes from the Latin \u201cinspirare\u201d which meant, like the current Italian ispirare, to breathe. Only in medieval times did the word take on the mean- ing of \u201cdivine guidance.\u201d The writer\u2019s search for inspiration – that stimulation that urgest you toward the act of creation – can feel daunting, awash as we are in a del- uge of images, flashpoints, memes, jokes, sketches, skits, cat videos, etc. But I like to remember the ancient orgins of the word – a guidance from an otherwordly, divine source, coming to you as simply as as a breath of air. We take in sights, memories, experiences, and we breathe out art. The works in this sixth edition of Open Doors are a roadmap to the varied doorwys to inspiration. Jack Stewart takes us to the Non Catholic Cemetery in Rome in his poem of the same name while Jacky Stephenson evokes Ravello in Poesia Ai Rav- ellesi. Cole Henry Forster brings us to Rome in three poems and Nancy L Weber\u2019s Luck has us contemplating the nature of chance and strategy in a beach side amuse- ment park. Language and form are the starting point for Emma Prunty\u2019s The Poem, Chloe Yelena Miller\u2019s Italian Vocabulary and Ron Riekki\u2019s Sonnet. Two essays take us into the world of authors and directors in Giorgio Fontana\u2019s Our Need for Stig Dagerman and Jack Wardynski\u2019s Italy behind the Lens about Ital- ian filmmakers Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino. A discovery in her own building of a french book of memoirs led Monica Sharp to create a delightul translation that sheds a new and delightful perspective on young Napoleon. Throughout the issue, we are honored to display a variety of works from Tatiana Stadnichenko which reveal the artist\u2019s connection to place both archiectural and the healing quality fo nature. Books, poems and paintings provide a foundation for Nathanial Cairney\u2019s I fianlly get Noah\u2019s Ark, Priscilla Atkin\u2019s Pierrot and Stephen Campiglio\u2019s Daimon. Memory seems to be the source of inspiration for Mark Anthony Jarman\u2019s Twa Corbies, Martin Pedersen\u2019s Clean Scan, Irene Mitchell\u2019s Direct Action and Use- ful Knowledge, Timothy Houghton\u2019s More by Fear and Jonathan Vidgop\u2019s Meat. Although as a fiction author myself, I wouldn\u2019t presume that events described nec- essarily \u201chappened.\u201d The truths of fiction more often come from a story or poems vicinity to memory rather than a factual retelling of events. In the case of K Eady\u2019s Havaianas, it was a writing prompt at the monthly gener- ative writing activity in Florence that was the jumping off point – a prompt itself gleaned from a New York Times experiment in which they proposed a list of words to both a real author and AI to produce a \u201cbeach read\u201d with interesting results (dis- cussed as a foreward to Eady\u2019s story.) That AI will replace and parallel many human pursuits seems inevitable but the idea that it will sideline human creativity or lead to the end of writing our own works and reading the creative work of our fellow humans to me is simply impos- sible. As long as we breath, we will in one way or another create and share and in sharing, create… and on and on. To breathe is to be inspired. -LTM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-editor"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoorsreview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}