This special 20th anniversary anthology invites you to journey outside yourself: float in a capsized rowboat, downward-dog through a yoga studio adapting to covid-19, reflect on the legacy of residential schools, find purpose on the Camino de Santiago, and make peace with your raccoon neighbours. These are stories of ego, loss, birth, renewal—the salient issues of our time. In emerge 20, stories in fiction, narrative non-fiction, speculative fiction, young adult fiction, poetry, and lyric prose isolate the everyday tales of human resilience and solidarity that will leave you wanting more from these emerging writers. CONTENTS Betsy Warland—Foreword FICTION Dora Joella Prieto—The Last Wisdom Tooth Elliott Gish—Grey Dog B. B. Randhawa—The Woman Who Thought She Was a Cow Teminey Beckers—My Name Is Badger Dora Larson—The Apartment Prachi Kamble—World Class Education Barbara Cameron—Unconsecrated Ground Angela Kruger—Hotel Blue: Stories Frederic Sahyouni—The Fragrant Harbour Colleen Doty—All About Isaac Libby Soper—The Anniversary Cake eve nixen—Two stories Sarah Phillips-Thin—Grasping at the Pineapple Francesca Mauri —The Day of Her Disappearance Anya Wyers—Romilegal: Downtown Uttara Krishnadas—Infectious Judy Dercksen—Not the Namib Desert Magnus Lu—Ten Days of Undoing Stephanie Peters—The Upset DK Eve—Lunch Shift at the Castle Café Tanya Belanger—The Last Stop Višnja Milidragović—Happy Hour Rebecca Chan—An Unnatural Widow Hugh Griffith—The Snake Club Sandra Sugimoto—Sisters Christina Kruger-Woodrow—Lie Fallow NON-FICTION Katie Lewis—Nuts William W. Campbell—Amusia and Ravel’s Boléro Kim Spencer—Two pieces Lori Greenfield—The Tuesday Ladies Emily Chan—Living in Ms. Shauna Roberts’s Apartment Justyna Krol—System Failure Emma Brady—The Bedroom Nancy Jin—Guifang Deborah Folka—Dessert in the Desert Shenul Dhalla—Hope for a Cure Christine Pilgrim—Goodbye Maryanna Gabriel—Get Thee to a Nunnery Ola Szczecinska—Big Sur Calvin McShane—Catching the Way Zendo Margaret Miller—Two pieces Anne Rosenberg—Two pieces Kate Covello—Disruption and Innovation: Yoga Teacher Training After covid-19 Ankush Chopra—Stay the Course SPECULATIVE AND YA FICTION Jenn Marx—Electric Blue Tongue Jess Wesley—The Curse of the Fairy Queen Hannah Costelle—The Dressmaker of Drumchapel Diane Dubas—Enough Clare McNamee-Annett—We Are Doing Fine Libby McKeever—What Came Before Katherine Fawcett—Ursula Medium Sky Regina—We Are Apricots Tim J. O’Connor—Kath’s Party Erin Pettit—Gilded City Elizabeth Page—Price of Privilege Daniel Ortiz Rubio—Purple Stain Sofia Pezentte—The Blameless One Stephanie Charette—To Hunt the Mountain Léa Taranto—Kiss the Ground Susan Taite—Glimmers Jack Murphy—Hyper Neon Cowboy Bailey Bjolin—Dome Danica Longair—Hope Is a Necessary Delusion Robert Weber—The End Is … Mundane? POETRY Alana Cheyne—Three poems Ela Przybyło—Two poems Anna Lee-Popham—Three poems Brandon Houston—Can I Pray for You Kuldeep Singh—Five poems Pinki Li—To the Family of Raccoons Who Moved in Late Last Week Sarah Jessie Tucker—Four poems F. J. Erica Yang —The Frightfully Pale Yellow Laura McGavin—Two poems Clare Adam—Two poems Amrit Kaur Sanghera—Moving Another Way Marco Melfi—A Model From Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights Reminisces Michael Edwards—Two poems Tharuna Abbu—Three poems