Volume 3 houses very pointed and nuanced perspectives on race and ethnicity, identity, spirituality, relationships, and sexuality, to name a few.
 
In exploring these themes, these pieces showcase the individuality embedded in issues that have become largely generalized. This volume features characters confronting normalcy and conformity in their self-expression, while others highlight what it feels like to see oneself through another person’s lens. Nature is portrayed both as a consistent stronghold, reliable in the face of human limitations, and as a restrictive force that traps us.
 
Migration is both an understanding of power and endurance and an emotional and physical gap. As a collective, these pieces teach us that the human experience cannot be concentrated into a single theme, a single word. We, as editors, acknowledge the effect of curation and our individual preferences, but we are simultaneously grateful to have the opportunity to receive work that speaks to issues that intersect with first-generation experiences, family dynamics, and identity, which intimately intrigue us. The contributors in this volume have characterized these themes, and more, for us and have illustrated their plurality. We consider Volume 3 a special and defining collection for iō.