Volume 14 Number 4
Publisher's Comments
Volume 14: 2012
6 February 2012
by Robert Whitsitt
The staples of fiction are conflict and love. Often both. This issue is big on examinations of all sorts of love. I find it to be an amazing issue. Check out the Contents!
We are at approximately 540 works published since our first issue in 1999. While there have been much larger publishers of literary works, as Amarillo Bay continues to turn them out, quarter after quarter, year after year, and other magazines fall by the wayside, we will eventually have published more than any other publication of our size. And we do it all with volunteers!
I see that some magazines are now available on the Amazon Kindle and/or other electronic means outside of the Internet. I am considering looking into making Amarillo Bay available those ways. I would be interested in your thoughts. Please write me and tell me if you think it's a good idea, if you would prefer reading Amarillo Bay electronically, and any other thoughts you have. Thanks!
21 May 2012
by Robert Whitsitt
Technology enables many things, not the least of which is online literary magazines. Recently I saw and chatted with my fellow Amarillo Bay founder, Jerry Craven. We didn't travel a long distance, though. We used Skype on our computers. We had a nice talk about a situation with our work, and caught up with each others lives. Doing that from 2,000 miles away is astonishing. (We didn't get the flying cars we were promised in grade school, but we do have free video chat!) Jerry and I haven't seen each other, and have barely talked on the phone, for nearly 15 years, so seeing that he had aged a bit wasn't really a surprise. I'm sure he thought the same of me.
This issue has a story about a visit to old friend in addition to stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry about love. This is one of the best groups of poetry we have had. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a poetry person, I recommend you take a look at the ones in this issue.
As I write this (20 May 2012) an annular eclipse is about to happen. It won't be a full eclipse where I am (San Francisco Bay area of California, USA), but at the maximum I suspect it will be noticeably darker and cooler outside. I've seen only one full eclipse—on the east coast of the States nearly 45 years ago—and it was one of the most eerie events of my life. And it totally freaked out our Labrador retriever. Maybe in the next issue we'll have a poem about an eclipse.
6 August 2012
by Robert Whitsitt
Does Amarillo Bay look a little different? Did we get a haircut? New shoes? Nope, we changed the font. Now that so many people have really good screens, it's okay (I read somewhere) to use a serif font for the main text. I tried several different fonts, and looked around, and found the font that the New York Times uses. It looked good, so that's what we're using. Our font size is larger, though. They have to fit in all of that news that is fit to print, while we just try to do a few quality works.
We have often remarked that, without planning, we get issues that look like the stories and creative nonfiction and poetry were along a similar theme. Well, this time they are all over the map! I suspect that means that you'll love some of them and hate some. But you won't know which are which until you try!
My wife and I have made our second trip of the yea to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Excellent plays, as always. My favorite is a fast-paced, funny (in parts), and very moving version of Romeo and Juliet. If you get a chance, it's well worth seeing. We're going to see it a second time in September when we go to see the final plays.
Now, take a look at the new issue!
5 November 2012
by Robert Whitsitt
This issue of Amarillo Bay says good-bye to Jeffrey DeLotto, who has served ably as our poetry editor since June of 2004. I have enjoyed working with Dr. DeLotto and wish him the best of luck in his continuing work. As an aside: I've never seen or spoken to Jeffrey, communicating exclusively by e-mail. Maybe someday we'll get together. I know I would love to talk with him!
Our new poetry editor, our fifth, is Laura Kennelly. Laura is an arts writer in the Cleveland area. She, like many journalists today, wears multiple hats to feed her writing habit. She has worked as a freelance arts columnist and reporter for the Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio. She currently serves as associate editor for BACH, a scholarly journal about J. S. Bach and his circle, published by the Riemenschneider Bach Institute at Baldwin-Wallace College. (She minored in journalism as an undergraduate at the University of North Texas where she was editor of The Avesta, the campus literary magazine, as well as an arts writer for the Campus Chat. After teaching college English and raising a family, she's returned to journalism. Funny how things circle round.) She writes a weekly column for the webzine CoolCleveland.com.
In yet another sort of circle, the five poems Laura selected for this issue are by H. Palmer Hall, who was the Creative Nonfiction editor for Amarillo Bay from August 2001 through February 2005. We have published five previous works by Dr. Hall, plus one work of Creative Nonfiction. (See his listing in our Author List to find them all.) I think you will enjoy the selections this time.
Our Creative Nonfiction entry this time, chosen by editor Rebecca Balcárcel, is about the very strange (to me) people who believe that triathlons (consisting of swimming, bicycle riding, and running) are fun ways to spend time. I think you will enjoy Beth, Make Me Some Eggs immensely.
The Fiction in this issue is particularly strong. Of course I always think that, and have since Richard Moseley became our first (and only) Fiction editor way back in 1999.
I hope you enjoy all of the new issue!