Welcome to Itch 21.

The theme of ‘flux’ certainly drew out a much wider variety of responses than we might have imagined possible: poems, stories and audiovisual works ranging from the pain and unreliability of memory, to driving tests, to the dangers of technological advancements and more.

Once again, it was quite some task going through so much quality work, and we’d like to once again thank all those who submitted. This issue in particular was one more of curation than selection; it seemed at one point possible to make three or four perfectly viable issues based on the works we received.

The final selection represents not just individually but also collectively the theme: there is a flux, a back-and-forth, a movement between and within seemingly incongruous works that somehow, alchemically, cohere. We hope you enjoy the issue.

And, finally, this is goodbye. After three wonderful years at the helm, it is time for me to pass on the editorship of Itch to a new voice. I have greatly enjoyed reading and viewing your work along the way, and I’d like to thank you for trusting your work to us.

I would like to thank Dr Mehita Iqani and Dr Bronwyn Law-Viljoen at the School of Literature, Language and Media, as well the other editorial board members, and the rest of the team at the University of the Witwatersrand for all their support. Special thanks to Anna Kirchner and her colleagues at Quba for keeping the site going even in the face of my technological stupidity.

Please do continue to support Itch however you can: submit work and spread the word. In order to maintain our model of user-driven content that is free to create and free to read, we need you to remain involved and engaged.

I wish you all and the journal the very best going forward

Best wishes,
Elan