Editor’s Note: This special issue, published on July 3, 2022, features 18 artists responding to the topic of war. Their work, which many of the authors describe as a part of their healing process, documents war’s tragedies that have cursed soldiers, civilians, families, and children throughout the globe. These pieces in particular touch on the destruction of war and those affected in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, Greece, America, France, Austria, Russia, and Germany—from WWI and II, before and after. These pieces are anti-war, historical, and critical; they speak of trauma, our collective search for peace and meaning, and the challenge of surviving—the grief and guilt of it—in a violent world. As Jon C. Schweitzer writes in the 1967 edition introduction to Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, “No matter how significantly our own lives may differ…the struggle to find a satisfying, meaningful existence in a troubled world is one with which we can most certainly identify.” These words hold as much truth today.

– Janel Galnares

Note from HHR Contributor Galina Itskovich: The Ukrainian war is being fought by so many different people. Before the governments, organizations and serious sponsors moved in, the grassroots teams already started their support of the military and civilians in Ukraine. I donate to several groups, but the most courageous and least funded is “Station ‘Kindness.'” They are city and village volunteers who deliver underwear and supplies, medicine and wound care to the hard to access areas. They are based in Volyn but their van travels all over the country delivering to those who are in greatest need currently. They had no time for building a website, nor did they advertise. At the same time, there is no overhead, and every donated dollar gets to work. They also provide detailed spending reports. It would be great if their information becomes public and they get some more donations. The need is great.

PayPal viktoria.shybkovska@gmail.com