Signs of a replenishing imaginary

Guy Gunaratne introduces the Autumn 25 issue and writes on the real-world hope that springs from speculation and fantasy

Cover art “Ecce Homo” by Khaver Idrees

Editor’s Note by Guy Gunaratne | Originally published in the print edition, October 24th 2025

---

In trying to capture our unimagined futures, good writing compels us toward possibility. It’s with this compulsion that our Autumn issue has been themed. Our editorial team has collectively been thinking about possibility, speculation and hope, all of which today feels vital and immediate.

In this issue’s Stage, for instance, we have award winning playwright Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, who comes to us almost mid-sentence from the speculative midsts of writing her new play about the future of the British care system. As she says: “The writing becomes rehearsal for the world I want.”

In our Notable pages we have Sarah Shaffi casting her eyes over titles as visionary as The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler to R. F. Kuang’s Katabasis, while our Glimpses section has an excerpt from Dalia Al-Dujaili’s new book A River Has Two Mouths, which reads as deeply engaged with the ‘seeds and roots’ of imaginative storytelling.

Among our reviews, Monisha Rajesh considers two ambitious works of fiction. Moderation by Elaine Castillo and To The Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage deal respectively with the permissive violence of virtual worlds and the formally inventive ways we might relinquish burdensome legacies.

Oluwaseun Olayiwola brings his acute sensibility in reviewing two books of poetry which perceptively braid the autobiographical with the wounds of erasure and colonialism in coal by Remi Graves and Guaracara by Fawzia Muradali Kante.

Hiba Noor-Khan offers us another exceptional review following rebellious, sure-hearted protagonists in two YA novels – Storm Singer by Sarwat Chadda and Augmented by Kenechi Udogu – while the brilliant Musa Okongwa takes a look at a pair of outstanding writers, Mai Serhan and Khairani Barokka, whose non-fiction books I Can Imagine It For Us and Annah, Infinite both emerge as ‘beacons’ that allow for us to dream.

From across the world in Sri Lanka, amidst communities struggling to overcome decades of economic devastation, comes our Last Word essay from the Nebula award nominated author and data scientist Yudhanjaya Wijeratne. Yudha delivers for us a stirring charge to recommit to forging new societies.

It may be premature of me to suggest that signs of a replenishing imaginary appear herein, and yet, no other issue in our first year at Jhalak Review has filled me with such abundant hope. My immense thanks to my editorial team Jamilah Ahmed, Sarah Shaffi and Sunny Singh as well as our designer Estelle Karp.