We are proud to present Issue 17, ᜑᜒᜎᜓᜋ᜔ HILOM, a transformative new edition of The Polyglot where artists offer collective intercultural expressions of grief, gratitude, and glory.

Edited by Candice Joy Oliva and April Angeles, in partnership with PHIDEAS and supported by the Alberta Ethnocultural Grant, this issue gathers voices from across the globe in a shared act of care and witnessing. As the editors write:

“Alchemy was at work with artists answering our call, transmuting their solitary grief into communal ᜑᜒᜎᜓᜋ ᜔ (Hilom). Together, they map out a journey for us to follow.”

Moving through luksa (mourning), returning to angkan (lineage), and arriving at pamana (inheritance), this issue reminds us that grief is not linear, nor solitary. It is ecological, linguistic, cultural. Held in the body, carried across generations, transformed through ritual, memory, and art.

Across poetry, essay, collage, and hybrid visual forms, these artists explore what it means to feel deeply in a world that often demands numbness. They resist desensitization, choosing instead to sit with complexity, to nourish themselves and one another, and to find healing in community: magsama tayo sa paghilom.

From intimate reflections to expansive cultural reckonings, HILOM offers not resolution, but a space to process, to remember, and to begin again—together.

🌍 Multilingual and cross-cultural expressions, including Baybayin script.

🌀 Price: $12 for digital, $29 for print copy, available at Edmonton Poetry Festival

☀️ Launch Details here.

Contributors:

Adrienne Adams
Janet Adebayo
alex carreon
Diana Crețu
Francesca Elena Dabdoub
Renato Gandia
Kelly Kaur
Hoho Kuo
Abbie Langmead
Sandy Lubuguin
Metalhead Melankolis
Khin Ohiman
Orevaoghene Jenkins Okpokpor
Eunju Park
Ting Pimentel-Elger
Hajer Requiq
Jesiebelle Salcedo
Trisha Mae Tolentino
Janvic Victorio
BuffNa Vũ

Layout & Design: Brett Boyd
Art on Cover: Eunju Park
Managing Editor: Tamara Aschenbrenner