Thanks for clicking on the Heritage University webzine of literature and the arts, Pahto’s Shadow. For those of you whom serendipity have brought this way, Heritage University is a small, private liberal arts college located on the Yakama Indian Nation in Toppenish, Washington. “Pahto” refers to Mount Adams in Sahaptin (AKA Ichishkiin), the tongue of the Yakama Indian Nation. Pahto looms large on the horizon here in the Yakima Valley, and all who dwell here live in its shadow.

Like many of you we return in 2021 after a year away. Pahto’s Shadow began life many volumes and almost three decades ago as a hard-copy literary magazine produced by my English 452/555 Editing and Publishing class at Heritage and later gave birth to this, its first-born webzine. It features the same blend of artwork, photography, poetry, and fiction as the hard-copy volumes, but we now have the opportunity to share music and other audio or video genres. We hope that it receives the same friendly and tolerant reception as its parent, or it may follow the locust’s lead and return to hibernation (preferably not for seventeen years).

Thanks also to this year's editorial staff: Co-editor-in-chief Dr. Kirstin James-Dunn and Assistant Editors Anjuli Barragan, Perla Bolanos, Crystal Rojas Cruz, Dung Huynh, Lupe Rosales, and MaKayla Schilperoort. We welcome poetry, fiction, personal essays, music, artwork, and photography which reflect the rich life and diverse heritages of the Valley. Correspondence and submissions should be sent to me either through e-mail or via snail express: