“Today, the terrain is blowing crazy --/Land moving its side winding/Body of loose skin, riding easterly gusts,/Shaking squat mobile homes/And their tinfoil windows.”

These opening lines of Megan Merchant’s poem “Tin Can Love,” about life in the Mojave, help set the tone for the inaugural issue of Helen: A Literary Magazine.

Designed to capture the spirit of Southern Nevada through art and literature, Helen: A Literary Magazine launched this month with a 56-page issue featuring work by more than 30 contributors. The Vegas-based magazine, named for Las Vegas pioneer Helen J. Stewart and created with an emphasis on women artists and writers, chose the theme “strong female lead” for its inaugural edition.

Created by Las Vegas writers Jocelyn Paige Kelly and Kari O’Connor, Helen’s poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, art and photography will resonate with any Southern Nevadan in love with (beholden to or frustrated by) the unique, the beautiful and the bizarre that is Las Vegas. Works by artists and photographers—including Nancy Good, JK Russ, Jonnie Andersen, Su Limbert, Jennifer Henry, Ginger Bruner and Shelbi Schroeder—capture different narratives of the larger story. But Helen isn’t restricted to locals or women. Kelly says submissions are accepted from national and international writers and artists interested in Las Vegas as a community and an idea not necessarily defined by physical boundaries.

Copies can be found at helenpresents.com.