Welcome to Other People Magazine’s third issue, Self-Identity. We are thrilled to hit the presses with our newest major collection, shining a light on the talented and diverse artists among the UCSD undergraduate community. The whole team is excited to start the year by bringing you these outstanding works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art. As a literary and artistic community which seeks to explore the collective human experience, it is our hope that the creativity within this collection resonates with you.

The majority of the pieces in this issue were conceived, created, and assembled for publication in the late stages of California’s lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic. The writing and artwork in our third collection reflects the sheer amount of time our contributing artists spent with themselves this past year. The self may never be fully known, but through finding and embracing our self-identity we strengthen our abilities to make sense of the world, our relationships, and our reactions and preconceptions. With Self-Identity, Other People Magazine hopes to pay homage to this era of introspection among the undergraduate artistic body while welcoming students—both old and new—back onto campus. The conclusion to the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to be seen, but in the pages of Self-Identity we know you will find proof that this time spent within has made us stronger, more empathetic, and more appreciative of our loved ones.

Family played a large role in this collection. In reviewing submissions, our editorial team found that many of our contributors had centered their work around their families or their cultural backgrounds. It is through family that we gain our original roots of self-identity; the love, challenges, responsibilities, and growth we experience with family shape our own selves. So, too, does family lend shape to this issue of the magazine and its works of art.

So many thanks to everyone involved with this project. First, thank you to all of our incredible team members for the beautiful work you do. Team members who have graduated—you played such a huge role in lifting up the project of Other People from the beginning Special thanks to Geraldine, our recently graduated Design co-director, whose artistic touch transformed the magazine drafts into stunning finished products. To the authors and artists of this collection: we are honored to showcase your work in this issue. Thank you, too, to the authors, artists, photographers, and other creative individuals who sent their pieces to us—although we had to limit the length of this issue and could not publish every piece we received, reading your work is a highlight of this entire process. We owe so many thanks to the professors and faculty of the Literature Department who have supported, encouraged, and spread the word for us. And thank you to our mag-zine’s online followers and our readers. We hope you find this collection to be a journey of self-identity, whether to experience a piece of someone else’s through their creativity, or to find a piece of your own through the lens of the artwork here.

—Montanna Harling (Co-Editor-in-Chief) and Isaac Kopstein (Head Editor)