My Sparkly Splitters,

Issue seven is here. It’s late, but it’s here. Sorry about that, guys. We fell a little off pace with our readings and web projects and we hope to regain momentum in the coming weeks. That’s not to say that there are a couple underlying developments that have also taken priority in the meantime. A slight restructuring is in the works. First, I’d like to shine the spotlight on the long-overdue announcement of our new fiction editor Shanae Brown joining the team. While pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, she graciously accepted our proposal of loving fiction just as much as we do. She’s got a lot on her plate, but she’s eager to take on this task and I’m glad to share it with her. Additionally, we are looking at a foray into print (yes, I said print!!!) in the near(?) future. So keep an eye on our twitter feed where we’ll likely break any news there first – I’m known to preemptively shoot off my mouth.

Back to business: for issue seven, we asked you to give us your best interpretations and manifestations of the word “Spark” — a playful challenge that was met rather faithfully. Again, we were a bit underwhelmed with the response volume but we still were able to publish #7 with some surprising pieces, this time with some animalistic touches. Laura Lehew‘s poem starts us off with an annoying bird. Tony Rauch‘s story introduces us to “Froggy.” Matthew Dexter, gave us a second-person account with a cougar in the title. And Holly Mitchell includes a frog and a pair of pit-bulls. While these creatures were not the central-focus by any means, I found the common thread a bit amusing. I hope you enjoy this issue’s spark.

Always,

Rich