Editor Roundtable: On the Brink of Obsession

Re:View by Hannah Bonner

Winter 2026

RE:VIEW

Have you ever been curious about the process behind each issue of Brink? Brink editor in chief Hannah Bonner and Brink founder and publisher Nina Lohman discuss the formation of Brink Issue 11: On the Brink of Obsession, from the conception of this issue’s theme and the discovery that emerges through the issue’s curation. We’re excited to share this glimpse into the process of making Brink.

Hannah Bonner: Most people might not realize you select the themes for each issue. What’s your process like for curating those themes?

Nina Lohman: It’s true! The themes are a moving current connecting the issues. Take Reverence (Issue no. 5) for example. The word evokes exaltation and elevation. When I picture this word, the current lives high above my head. I’m curious what will happen when we open this space for contributors and editors to explore. What follows the excavation of something elevated? Naturally, something low to the ground: hence, Gravity (Issue no. 6). What’s below the low, what lives underneath? The Relief (Issue, no. 7), obviously. And once you’re done exploring the underbelly, where do you go next? To the farthest edges, to the Boundaries (Issue no. 8), of course. And once boundaries are set, we must then discuss Access (Issue no. 9). 

HB: What was swirling around for you when you landed on On the Brink of Obsession for Issue 11?

NL: I spend more time than I care to admit researching etymology, and this is an example of how that research completely shifted my understanding of a word. The root of the word obsession indicates the action of besieging, or, as we might say in today’s language, sitting. When you obsess, you place yourself before something—an object, an idea, a task. This posture is not passive; it is active. Your presence is an investment. Your presence indicates your desire to absorb, encompass, and command. To learn. So the hope was for this theme to open space for contributors to explore that new space and perspective. What was the last thing they actively sat down to learn? How can they think about their time creating art as an investment, as something active and alive? 

HB: What were some stand-out pieces to you in this issue? What are you most excited for readers to discover in these pages?

NL: This is an impossible question! The curation of this issue is impeccable and the work throughout is astonishingly strong. I was especially taken by Mac Crane’s homage to Jenny Boully, “Alive: An Essay of Footnotes to an Erased Text.” I was absorbed in the momentum that builds in “61 Possible Reasons [Why I’m Recovering]” by Laura Adrienne Brady. Finally, this issue features “BLACK _____, UNBOXING: An Essay in Archives” by Rae Josephine, Brink’s 2025 Emerging Writer Fellow. Rae worked with editor in chief Hannah Bonner on this piece for months leading up to its publication, and it’s a joy to see it in this final form. 

HB: To close, what are you reading right now?

NL: I just finished and highly recommend The Way A Line Hallucinates its Own Linearity by Danielle Vogel. I’m now reading and completely engrossed in Mammoth by Eva Baltasar. 

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NINA LOHMAN (Brink Publisher, she/her) is the author of the book The Body Alone (University of Iowa Press, 2024), a lyrical nonfiction inquiry into the experience, meaning, and articulation of pain. Originally from California, she lives in Iowa City and is the founder and publisher of Brink. Lohman serves as the Literary Programming Director for the Mission Creek Festival, an annual immersive music and literature festival honoring independent expression. A 2023 Iowa Artist Fellow, she is currently working on a collection of micro-essays on the subject of release. Nina is always on the brink of wanting to cut off all of her hair.

HANNAH BONNER (Brink Editor-in-Chief, she/her) is a writer, film programmer, and educator. She was a 2023-2024 National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critics Fellow and the 2024-2025 CLAS Visiting Writer in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Iowa. Currently, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Brink as well as the Film Editor for TriQuarterly, and her writing has been supported by the Breadloaf Environmental Writers' Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, among others. You can find her criticism in BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Cleveland Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Sewanee Review. Another Woman (EastOver Press 2024) is her first book. She is always on the brink of wanting to do without language altogether and take a modern dance class.

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