Being independent

Primus stopped by my office, and we talked about some exciting future directions for the review. He likes to talk about it as put together "by a couple of old guys" who know what they're doing. He's using his influence to attract some major voices our way, W.S. Merwin upcoming, for example. (At the same time, I'm no dummy: I appointed a hot young talent as video arts editor!)

He also let me know that a dean here had approached him about getting me to "attach" the review to our Center for Excellence in Writing, where we could get "free" bandwidth. I already went over this option and decided I wanted absolutely no official connection with the university because I've been down that track before. Eventually some committee wouldn't like what I was doing! No, this was my idea, my vision, and I had the good sense to hire damn good area editors and to give them lots and lots of freedom. We're ahead of the curve here, we all know that, and we're doing it as independent writers and artists, with no committee to satisfy. Each editor is responsible for his or her section (mine, besides overall editor, being scripts and hypertext/hypermedia except for video arts). I am delighted with the job my editors are doing.

We're about the apply for our first grant, for operating expenses and advertising to libraries. I don't think the granting institution has ever received a literary magazine on a CD-ROM before, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

This is a damn exciting project, and Primus' enthusiasm matches my own. So did Evelyn's at the party. So has John's in the past. We're in the right place at the right time and with the right approach: Oregon Literary Review.