Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
There’s a certain anxiety that comes with picking up the 25th issue of a beloved indie publication. You brace yourself for the inevitable “special anniversary” missteps: the sudden switch to glossy stock, the self-congratulatory foreword that runs longer than a novella, or the safe, crowd-pleasing curation that feels more like a yearbook than an avant-garde manifesto. I am thrilled—no, relieved—to report that Ls Land Issue 25 commits none of these sins. Instead, it does something far more impressive: it delivers the raw, unfiltered, and beautifully chaotic spirit of its earlier issues while demonstrating a maturity and curatorial confidence that only a decade-plus of dedication can forge.
From the moment you hold it, this issue makes a statement. The signature matte, recycled cardstock cover remains, but this time it features a breathtaking gatefold thermographic print of Shiori Akiba’s “Vestiges of a Static Sea”—a piece that shifts from deep oceanic blue to a bruised lavender as the light catches it. It’s tactile, haunting, and promises a journey inward. The editorial team has wisely kept the interior paper uncoated, preserving that essential, intimate fanzine feel where ink sinks into fiber like a secret. The design, however, has tightened. Margins breathe. Typography (a lovely pairing of Stanley Morison’s Times New Roman with the jagged, handmade strokes of a font called “Truckers’ Tapeworm”) creates a visual rhythm that never distracts from the content but constantly underscores its duality: traditional vs. transgressive.
Content Deep Dive: Where the Heart Lives
Ls Land has always prided itself on being a “cartography of the unseen,” and Issue 25’s theme—Liminal Thresholds—is threaded through every poem, photograph, and polemic like a vein of silver in dark rock.
The issue kicks off with a gut-punch of a short story: “The Beekeepers of Pripyat” by new contributor Mira Vos. In just twelve pages, Vos accomplishes what some novelists fail to do in three hundred. It follows a Chernobyl evacuee who returns to the exclusion zone not to mourn, but to harvest honey from hives that have turned radioactive gold. The prose is sticky and gorgeous, laced with a quiet horror that never raises its voice. “The Geiger counter doesn’t sing,” she writes. “It stutters, like a child learning the word for gone.” This is the kind of discovery reading indie journals is all about.
Equally arresting is the visual folio from veteran Ls Land photographer, Diego Hua. His series “Concrete Palimpsests” documents the erasure and re-emergence of street art on the Berlin U-Bahn walls between 2019 and 2024. The centerpiece—a four-page spread of a ghosted mural of a woman’s face, half-scrubbed by municipal workers, now sprouting woven yarn graffiti from her eye socket—is nothing short of iconic. Hua’s accompanying essay on “authorized decay” is brief, bitter, and brilliant.
The Poetry Section: No Darlings Spared
Poetry editor Jun Yi has outdone herself. This is not the airy, vaguely metaphorical work that clogs submission queues elsewhere. The poems here have teeth. “Inventory of a Failed Resurrection” by Samira Noor is a devastating prose poem listing the tools you cannot use to bring someone back from the dead: “a hammer only builds a house, not a heartbeat. A lock of hair is just dead protein. Your memory is a liar with a kind face.” It reads like a eulogy written on a toolbox.
Then there’s the collaborative sequence “The Möbius Dialogues” between poets R.F. Langley and Tomaž Šalamun (the latter posthumously, using archival fragments). The effect is jarring, surreal, and oddly tender—like two voices passing each other in a revolving door, each convinced the other is a ghost.
Standout Interviews and Non-Fiction
The centerpiece of the issue is a 20-page interview/conversation between founding editor Lena S. and experimental filmmaker Caden Void. It’s ostensibly about his unreleased 9-hour film “Sleeping Through the Apocalypse,” but it quickly dissolves into a sprawling, hilarious, and deeply unsettling discussion about boredom as a political act, the tyranny of narrative, and why Void insists on screening his work only in abandoned dentist’s offices. At one point, Lena asks, “Do you even want an audience?” Void replies, “No. I want co-conspirators.” It’s the kind of interview you read twice—first for the quotes, second for the quiet fury between the lines.
The non-fiction section also features a blistering essay from cultural critic Mariam Idris: “The Aesthetic of Overexplanation,” which dismantles the current trend of artist statements, trigger warnings, and content notes that precede every piece of art like a legal disclaimer. Idris argues that by explaining our art to death, we are “building a glass cage around mystery and calling it accessibility.” Whether you agree or want to throw the journal across the room, you cannot deny the fire of her logic.
Criticisms (Minor, But Noted)
If I have any quibbles with Ls Land Issue 25, it’s that the sheer density of heavy material can be exhausting. There is very little levity here. One short comic piece by Ezra K. (“My Therapist Says I Have Boundary Issues With Fictional Characters”) tries to inject some absurdist humor, but it feels like a clown at a funeral—welcome for a moment, then quickly drowned out by the next requiem. Additionally, the letters to the editor section has been reduced to a single page of QR codes linking to online forums. While I understand the ecological and spatial reasoning, I miss the old days of angry, misspelled screeds on paper. It was part of the charm. Ls Land Issue 25
Final Verdict
Ls Land Issue 25 is not a “best of” collection. It is not a victory lap. It is a working journal that has somehow become wiser without losing its willingness to bleed. It challenges the reader’s attention span, emotional bandwidth, and very definition of what a literary magazine can be. It refuses to be coffee-table decoration; it demands to be read in one sitting, preferably with a pen in hand and no notifications buzzing nearby.
For new readers, this is actually an ideal entry point—the production quality is the highest it’s ever been, and the thematic focus gives the variety of content a strong backbone. For longtime subscribers like myself, it’s a reaffirmation of why we kept the faith through the smaller, scrappier years. Ls Land has not arrived. It has simply continued, and in that continuation, it has become essential.
Get it. Read it. Argue with it. Then read it again.
Available now from Broken Sleep Books and select independent shops. 144 pages. $18 USD / £14 GBP.
Based on the context of LS Land Issues (likely referring to the LS Tractor forum or a specific series like the MT125), here are a few options for a "good post" to generate engagement or seek advice on a tractor issue, similar to the discussions in Facebook LS Tractor Owners Group. Option 1: Seeking Troubleshooting Advice (High Engagement)
Title: 🚜 Need Help! LS MT125 "Issue 25" - No Start after Sitting?Post:Hey everyone, finally getting the This split has defined all subsequent issues
out after a few weeks of rain. Turned the key and... nothing. Just clicks. Battery seems fine, checked the starter connection, but I’m seeing similar behavior to some online posts. Has anyone else dealt with this specific "Issue 25" starting quirk? Is it a safety switch, or is the fuel pump acting up? Any tips appreciated! 🔧 #LSTractor #MT125 #TractorTroubles #FarmLife Option 2: Documenting a Fix (Community Building)
Title: 🛠️ Solved: LS MT125 "Issue 25" Starter RelayPost:If your
is acting up, check that starter relay! I was stumped for two days, but I finally traced the issue to a loose wiring harness connection under the seat. Solid connection, and she fired right up. Don't forget to check your grounds! ⚡️ #LS125 #LSTractorTips #FixIt #TractorMaintenance Option 3: Positive Engagement / Product Spotlight Title: 💪 Finally tackling the overgrown brush with my
!Post:Just finished clearing the back pasture. Even with the hydraulic load, this little beast handled it, as seen in this 80 Series LS swap video. A few small issues (gotta love those 25-hour break-in quirks! 😉), but it's a workhorse. What’s everyone else using their LS for today? #LSTractor #MT125 #HeavyEquipment #FarmCheck To give you the best post, I need to know:
What is the exact symptom? (e.g., Won't start, hydraulic leak, warning light, weird noise?) What is your goal? (e.g., Get help, share a fix, or just discuss the model?) Is this an LS Tractor ( ) or something else? (e.g., Farming Simulator 25?) Common issues with mt122/25 tractors? - Facebook
"Ls Land Issue 25" appears to be related to a specific issue of a publication or magazine called "Ls Land." Without more context, it's challenging to provide a detailed write-up. However, I can offer a general approach to how one might structure a write-up for an issue of a magazine or publication:
Post-Issue 25, the Ls Land fandom bifurcated. or the safe
This split has defined all subsequent issues. Issues 26 and 27 saw a 40% drop in sales among legacy subscribers but a 200% increase in new, younger readers drawn by the controversy.
Contributing to the discussion around "Ls Land Issue 25" could involve:
