Issue 1

SAND was born out of a sense of community, and issue 1 features conversations with veterans from Berlin’s literary scene as well as poetry, prose, and artwork from at home and abroad.

From the Editor’s Note:
Like many ideas in Berlin, the idea for SAND began over a beer or three; and was formulated loosely around a line in a song performed by the Berlin band Einsturzende Neubauten: “I am a stranger in your land, wandering man they call me Sand,” which, multiple parties informed us, was actually originally written by Lee Hazlewood. Maybe it was also the thought of time slipping by as through an hourglass, maybe the summer evenings spent sitting out on Berlin’s strandbars, or the way writers and artists matriculate, constantly sifting and circulating like a million moving grains; or perhaps the rough-rubbed edginess of art, or the uncomfortable grit of foreignness—whatever it was, we were inspired to start SAND, a new English literary journal in Berlin. To prepare this collection we sought to talk with many veterans from Berlin’s literary scene and one thing which was very pleasant to discover, which has been so vital in bringing us this far, is community. This first issue of SAND is a overview of this community’s art and writing in English (and sometimes in German!), and because of what we just said about community, we are completely not responsible.