Editor’s Note, Issue #3

Thanks to everyone who read and contributed to our January issue. We’re beginning to get more and more quality submissions from all corners of the globe. We’re proud to be able to feature great folks from right here in Alabama alongside along with established writers and artists from the rest of the world. This has been a primary concern of our mission from the beginning. When you are an artist in Birmingham, it’s easy to feel disconnected.

We are beginning to post our entries for February. First up are three poems by Len Kunz. I really connected with these pieces as soon as I read them. Kunz skillfully combines images of Birmingham with a stunningly dramatic characterization of heartbreak.

I’ve also just posted two poems by a fascinating character named Catfish McDaris with whom I’ve been corresponding for some time now. McDaris is a journeyman bricklayer and retired postal worker from New Mexico whose poetry and prose have been published widely, including a chapbook called Prying, which he co-authored with Jack Micheline and Charles Bukowski.

Matthew Dexter’s short story “Waiting for an Amputation” takes a savagely humorous look at parenting and political correctness.

Craig Legg’s essay “Soul Trail” recounts some of his experiences growing up in the suburbs of Birmingham during early 1960s, somewhat oblivious to the revolutionary protests happening only a few miles away but clued in through his love for R&B music.

This month we are also bringing back a couple of STR veterans. First we have two poems by bl pawelek, whose photography was featured in our January 2011 issue. In addition, we have the pleasure of including fiction from Louis Bourgeois for the third time in our short history.

For Valentine’s Day, we have a story from Jessie Carty about sex and food. We followed this with two poems by Katie Berger, the first of which is especially apropos in the wake of recent tree poisonings in Auburn. We finish out our posts for the month of February with  two poems by Geoff Munsterman, whom we met in November at a book fair in New Orleans, and we’re very happy to have these highly evocative pieces from him on our site.

– M David Hornbuckle