Curator’s Note to Nickole Brown’s Guest-edited Feature
When I was first asked to lend a hand with Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, it was to be as an Advisory Editor. I had recently concluded an eleven year relationship with the print journal, Kestrel, and I had no great ambition to get back into the day to day business of editing any time soon. I remembered all that I disliked about editing. Then I had the idea to curate a feature that would be Guest-edited by folks who live the life of poetry, folks in the trenches. This shouldn’t be too much trouble, shouldn’t take too much time, I thought. For good measure, I decided to edit the premiere issue’s feature myself; it would serve as a template for Guest Editors who followed, and it would be fun. It was. It was fun, and I remembered all that I enjoyed about editing. I asked Ken Robidoux about editing my own poetry feature, A Poetry Congeries, and this has come to pass. And, as curator of this Guest-edited feature, I welcome you. I hope you’ll agree that Nickole Brown, a talented writer and vibrant denizen of the literary world, has done an outstanding job. November’s Guest Editor is James Harms. As the Editor of A Poetry Congeries, I hope you’ll click on over right after your visit here is through. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “And so it goes.” And it does.