It started happening to me sometime in April. Maybe it was due to National Poetry Month and the frenzy of poetry activity that occurs during this time. I was lying in my bed around 2 or 3 am (the time I usually go to bed) and I could not get the idea of starting an online literary journal out of my head. I could not sleep until I got up and started researching, web-paging, and crafting weird Indianapolis skyline/fish artwork. Maybe I was struck by divine inspiration, or maybe I was just riding the collective high coming off of thousands of poets doing their 30/30s. Whatever the case may be, a few short months later, I am amazed that this journal is a real thing ready to be unleashed into the interwebs for your viewing pleasure!
To be honest, after a few years of intense submitting (and a little bit of publishing) of my own work, I had been feeling that I wanted to give back to the poetry community. I was planning on becoming a reader, not an editor, but it seems some late night muse had other ideas.
One of those ideas is that (free!) online journals are really important. I love their speed, their low cost, and their ability to be created by and shared with people who may not have much in the way of resources or be a part of academia. Many of us poets struggle financially, but I am so eternally grateful for the richness of free (and amazing!) poetry that can be accessed on the internet.
In addition, I love Indianapolis, where I have resided for 13 years now, and Indianapolis just doesn’t get enough love, am I right? I couldn’t believe there was not an official “Indianapolis Review!” There are some amazing poets/people in Indy who I am blessed to know, and who agreed to help me with this project. I could not have done this so efficiently or quickly without Rachel Sahaidachny, Lydia Johnson or Bri Pike! While we do strive to promote writers from our region, we are also interested in publishing writers from all over the country, as evidenced by this issue.
That being said, I am so happy you are here and hope that you enjoy our inaugural issue. I am known for my eclectic taste, and we have an wide array of poems in this issue: prose poems, haiku, surrealist poems, plain spoken poems, poems about raising an autistic child, poems about jazz, poems about abs and aging, poems about drinking tea, poems about missing a lover, poems about people who don’t agree with your sexuality and how to deal (or not deal) with them, poems about shame, poems about lizards, poems about invented Gods, poems about Gary, Indiana and poems about grandmothers peeling oranges, just to name a few things.
These poems are interspersed with portfolios of fascinating artwork by 5 different artists. In addition, we have an interview with Adrian Matejka, who grew up in Indianapolis and writes very compellingly about it in his latest book, Map to the Stars. We are so grateful to him for contributing to our journal.
In all, there are 20 poets (including Adrian) in this issue, and 5 artists. We plan to publish quarterly and thus to promote 100 writers/artists annually. If you like what you read here and are interested in submitting your work, submissions are open year round and we plan for them to always be free. Please see our guidelines under “Submissions.”
Thank you so much to all who contributed to this issue, and to all the art and poetry lovers out there.
Peace,
Natalie Solmer
Editor In Chief