Welcome to Bodega’s first guest-edited issue, featuring seven poems from seven poets to celebrate National Poetry Month. It’s also our 80th, which feels incredible. 

 

From the beginning, we’ve wanted Bodega to be about finding essential pieces and creating a space for emerging writers to do just that: emerge. Back in 2015, we had the pleasure of finding Arden Levine and becoming the first national journal to publish her poetry. Since then, she’s gone on to publish widely and has continued to be a friend to Bodega. We began considering guest editors as a way to bring in new perspectives on the essential—to ask members of our wonderful community to show us what makes a piece necessary. Who better to be our first guest editor than Arden, whose poem was so essential to our beginnings? We hope you enjoy this issue—we think you will! Be sure to check out Arden’s note for more on why these poems are indispensable in her Bodega.