In heading the return of Turning Tides after its five year dormancy, I really hoped to highlight the high-quality of creative undercurrents of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy campus. A STEM-focused institution, it can be easy to overlook the energy, individuality, and expressive qualities of the campus community. We have a wealth of intelligent and thoughtful human beings in every corner of this campus – from faculty to staff to students (and yes, they may be called “cadets” here, but in my classroom they are “students” and, more importantly, human beings).

Speaking of students, heading this return to publication and transition to a digital platform for the journal, I was tasked with doing so in a classroom setting itself. Working with students on a project like this can be a challenge in time management and workload distribution in a normal university journal setting of a handful of volunteer student-editors, but managing that in a full classroom of students seeking to fulfill credit obligations on their way to graduation was initially an anxiety-producing concept as I prepared for this spring semester. Luckily, I found myself with a classroom of students who, even though they by-and-large noted that they had taken the class because of how it fit their schedules, nonetheless committed passionately to the work. They made the editing, design, and review process engaging and fun, and put in thoughtful and considered work through the entire process of getting this edition of the journal from a skeleton website to a full-fledged and, I think you will find, quality publication.

I want to acknowledge a grateful thanks to those who have contributed their work to this spring 2026 edition. It takes a certain level of courage not just to produce creative work, but to send it out into the world for others to see. We have a wonderful selection of work from all corners of the academy, displaying the wide-array of the courageous creative force of the MMA community.

I also want to express thanks for the support and assistance of others on campus for helping this spring edition come to life. Special thanks is afforded to the MMA library staff – Mary Kane, Jessica Connelly, and Carey Zigouras – who enthusiastically stepped up to help us to promote the journal in every way possible, including to organize and host our launch event. And a very sincere thank you to Amy Wright who got the website up and running for us and helped myself and the student-editors to learn and maintain the design software.

It is also important to single out for thanks Margo Connolly-Masson, the creator of our cover image, Slipper Snails. Margo’s piece was an easy choice to represent this relaunch of the journal. A unanimous decision by the editorial team, we feel that Slipper Snails represents how we hope to reveal the variety of incredible work and contributors within the MMA community in the same way the revelation of unique and beautiful seashells comes with the turning of the tides.

The revelation you will find from the efforts of everyone involved is a clean and clear design that connects you with some truly fantastic works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art, music, and photography. There is beauty, drama, humor, heartbreak, tragedy, victory, and hope here, representing the full spectrum of human experience. What the Turning Tides of spring 2026 reveals is that, in the midst of its STEM preoccupations, the core of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy community is the strength of its humanities.

Eric Kennedy
Assistant Professor of Humanities, MMA
Managing Editor, Turning Tides, spring 2026