One of the joys of editing, the greatest joy, is discovering talent. In the current issue of Oregon Literary Review, for example, is a short story Collection 300 by Julie Mae Madsen, whom I discovered because she had season tickets to the opera behind ours and because her boyfriend was a student of mine. A closet writer at the time, she now plans to get an MFA and have a career in writing.
Similarly I have a discovery in the upcoming issue, Helen Harding. A recommendation. Harding wrote 365 short shorts in 365 days and we are republishing eight of them in our upcoming issue. You can find them all at Story A Day. Harding has a life many writers would envy: retired, living in a van, traveling and writing and publishing on the net or via print-on-demand. Another example of the extraordinary talent that slips unnoticed through the mainstream publishing industry.
I put on my editor's hat for a few hours this morning, but I'm exhausted now and suppose I'll tumble back into bed. But at least I have a good start on wrapping up the new issue.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment