It's a bit late to say "Happy New Year!" at the beginning of February. I've taken a bit of a hiatus from the blog (no posts at all in December or January; no posts from me since November). But there's good reason for that—refer to my "Stealing Time" post of October 7th. I mentioned that I'd been fighting an illness. In November, that illness was finally diagnosed (Lyme Disease*). Since then I've been busy putting my recovery protocol in place and dealing with exaggerated symptoms (the Lyme does NOT want to go away—it was very happy having me as its unwitting host). After a little over two months of treatment, I am beginning to see tiny glimmers of better days ahead. So it's time to get back to the Aurorean blog and say (a very, very belated) "HAPPY NEW YEAR!".
One of our first happy surprises of 2011 was a wonderful review of the 15th Anniversary Issue in NewPages. Reviewer Sima Rabinowitz ended with a gem of an endorsement: "This little journal will fill you up." :-) {This is us, smiling.} Rabinowitz honed in on poems by contributors Steve Ausherman, Brigit Truex, Bridgette E. Hahn, Kenneth O'Keefe, and Connie Post. We are honored as always to have such fine talent grace our pages. To read the full review: http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazine-reviews/2011-01-30/#Aurorean-v15-i2-Fall-Winter-2010-2011. If you're not familiar with NewPages, it's THE go-to online site for everything-literary. Journals, contests, chapbook publishers, writing programs and more.
As we move into our 16th year of publication, what's in store? We want to consistently offer our readers and contributors what they've come to expect—from our New England theme, our love for Nature and haiku, our upbeat quality, to our timely response to submissions and our punctual publication (I'm proud to say that from Volume I, Issue 1 to now, we have always published in the month promised). But what else? New ideas!
In the coming months, we will be announcing new ways for poets to recieve more reward and recognition for outstanding poetry. Poets' work will be showcased in the Aurorean with designations in addition to our now Featured Poet, Best Poem of Last Issue, and Creative Writing Student Outstanding Haiku Award. We are carefully reviewing ways to do this without taking any of the distinction away from the Featured Poet position, and without taking emphasis away from poets who may have multiple poems in an issue.
Stay tuned to our Announcements page on our website {http://www.encirclepub.com/poetry/aurorean/announcements} as we formulate these new ideas and put them into place. 2011 is just the beginning. To use Browning's words, "…the best is yet to be." Of course, at the beginning of that statement, he said, "Grow old along with me"—let's just leave the "old" part out.
*See my new brand-new blog, WritingLyme: http://writinglyme.blogspot.com
