Christmas Spirits Vol. 2

Winter brings us the longest, darkest part of the year. Some believe the veil between the living and dead thins. We turn to ritual to welcome in or ward away these spirits. For generations, winter meant scarcity, loss, and fear for what or who we might lose before the next thaw. This year, we were wonderfully overwhelmed with submissions. Many stories carried that same ancestral weight: fear of what might be taken, lost, or never known. Fear of what we might become in the tides of uncertainty and reckoning. One theme that especially stood out: Stories that grapple with what it feels like to be a woman, especially now. Women facing impossible circumstance, sometimes succeeding spectacularly or viciously. Others remained trapped or became captors themselves. We included several of those voices in this year's volume. Ghost stories offer fear, but also comfort. They let us hold fear in our hands, give it a name, master it and dispel it. The best stories may also haunt us in their own powerful ways. They remind us that we're not alone in the dark. That's why we're excited to tell and share stories with you. It's the gift we can give to each other. We can face the fear and all that haunts us together.