Every time I do a themed issue, I say I’m never going to do another theme issue again. Yet, I somehow keep doing themed issues!
When I first had the idea to create a humorous issue, I knew it would be a massive challenge, but I just couldn’t help myself.
I had to go there. And I’m glad I did.
Sometimes humor is not given as much attention or thought of as serious work in the literary world (and beyond), so I wanted to celebrate it as much as I could. This is the main reason I created a humorous issue.
I just want to encourage any fellow editors out there who are reading this to create their own humor issues. What I felt most conflicted about was that we could not accept many pieces that were great. The problem is that we had about 700 submissions, and were trying to narrow it down to about 20 (we ended up with 30-ish).
The other thing is that humor is SO subjective, and we are only ONE journal with our own tastes. I would love to see what other journals do with the theme.
I just want people to keep that in mind–we may have gone for more subtle, cynical, not as slapstick humor. Perhaps the issue is not so much of an LOL type of thing, although I did, in fact, laugh out loud while reading several of these pieces! I’m not sure how each individual person will interpret the issue; as I said, I think humor is especially subjective.
I hope that you will enjoy this issue and laugh or at least smile while taking in these incredibly imaginative and creative pieces.
Speaking of that, I was so happy to include Bianca Stone in this issue, as I have admired her poetry comics and humorous posts about the poetry biz/being a poet for a long time! She contributed 3 comics about poetry land.
I also created a few pieces of my own–a parody of a gossip magazine about poets and a top ten list à la (fellow Hoosier!) David Letterman— these ideas in my mind had been percolating for awhile, and I had to get them out! The juxtaposition of pop culture and reality TV with poets and poetry is something that I can’t get enough of! I love both of these seemingly antithetical genres.
As always, thanks so much for reading, and take care,
Natalie Solmer
Editor In Chief
Indianapolis, Indiana
October, 2021
