This assertion on this web page expands on the editors’ word on this essay. 

We’re grateful for a bunch of involved readers who reached out concerning the content material of an essay named as a runner-up in our 2026 We Love Brief Shorts Contest for Artistic Nonfiction. Their letter to us was crafted with care and concern, and it opened up our eyes to issues we didn’t know concerning the adoptive and adoptee group.

The Brief Shorts Contest for Flash CNF studying staff selected the piece for its vulnerability and stage of craft. This specific name for submissions had the constraint of not more than 250 phrases, which can not permit for the extent of nuance sure matters require. We respect the readers who shared how sure language, comparisons, or stereotypes will be dangerous to the adoptee group, notably kids who discover themselves unwillingly on the heart of the method.

As a hub for artistic freedom and expression, we’re impressed by the dialogue the essay created, however remorse the damage. For that, we’re sorry.

Although we at all times learn and monitor the feedback part*, we don’t sometimes reply. On this case, cautiously monitoring the dialogue from behind-the-scenes appeared as inaction or an absence of care. That was not the intention so allow us to say right here: You might have been heard. Right here is how we plan to do higher:

• We’ve responded privately to the letter from involved readers
• We drafted and posted an editor’s word and this longer assertion
• We engaged with the creator of this piece about methods to maneuver ahead; this included an up to date creator bio on the finish of the piece to offer extra context
• We’ll proceed to actively domesticate a volunteer studying staff with numerous lived experiences and have interaction with a sensitivity reader when journal assets permit
• We’ll problem our volunteer editorial staff to establish gaps in their very own lived experiences and to acknowledge them when encountering them in submissions

When modifying and publishing tales about folks’s actual lives and views, we run the danger of stumbling upon a information hole. With out excusing our actions, we’re aware that the “full spectrum of the human expertise” — what we promise to honor and publish in our volunteer-run journal — is way extra huge than we at present know. Unintended ignorance and inherent biases might forestall us from understanding prematurely after we’re getting into a teachable second, however we pledge to at all times do our greatest.

Sincerely,

The Hippocampus Journal Staff

*We turned off commenting on the essay in query as issues had been formally addressed privately and, by way of this assertion, publicly. The present feedback will stay as a file of this teachable second. That is according to our remark coverage/group pointers.