Editor's Note

We're back from the pool and still wet behind the ears, and we're sorry we're a little late on the Summer 08 issue. But we've been working really hard these past few weeks to put together a great issue, and we hope you concur. First, we're delighted to have author, professor, and journalist Michael Downs provide this issue High Five on literary nonfiction. It is a first-rate primer of work from some excellent nonfiction stalwarts (Hershey, Didion). Michael would know, being a stalwart himself. His book House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City, was the winner of the River Teeth Prize for Literary Nonfiction. We're happy to have him in Maryland, teaching at Towson University.

Our featured artists, Christine Sajecki and Joseph Young, collaborated earlier this year to bring Deep Falls to the Antreasian Gallery in Baltimore. We've included excerpts of the exhibit in this issue, which paired Sajecki's paintings and animations with Young's microflash fiction, in addition to music from Caleb Stine and Nick Sjostrom, Shodekeh, and James Sarsgaard in a moving, living tribute to the lower Falls Road area between Hampden–Woodberry and Maryland Avenue in Baltimore City. This issue also features a few painting by one of our favs, Peter Schwartz.

As always, we feature some really great authors, poets, artists, and books reviews, so dive right in and check us out! For some reason, the stories really fed into each other this issue to weave a poignant, soft sorrow. They long and gnaw at you long after you've stopped reading. We still think they work well with a beer and popsicles by the pool, though. There is one policy change I'm sad to mention, and that's we will no longer be sending personalized responses to our submitters. We just don't have the time any more, like many journals, due to our continued increase in submissions. (And an online submission system may be looming on our horizon.) However, we are no longer working with deadlines. Although we'll still put out issues in September, January, April, and July, our submissions period will be cotinuously open. Therefore, don't despair if the issue is up and you haven't heard from us. However, do get in touch if you haven't heard from us by three months. Our submission flowchart is still a work in progress and subs sometimes fall through the cracks. We're greatful to receive your submissions, though, so keep sending. And in the meantime, we'll work on fixing the cracks.

Jen Michalski, Editor