I have a few words I want to say about Stone's Throw #4 before it comes out tomorrow. I didn't want to litter the journal with my rambling, so I'll just write about it here. Maybe I'll take this down later, but for now, I just wanted to say my piece.
the poetry inside the pages will be scarce compared to past issues. That's because this issue of Stone's Throw was the most difficult issue I've worked on yet.
Not too long after the election I sent out a call to numerous poets for "The Democracy Benefit Issue." Initially I purposely avoided people I previously published in the journal and focused on poets associated with Black Lives Matter and other activist movements. These were the people who I thought stood to lose the most under the incoming Trump administration. I wanted their voices.
Only one of this initial group replied.
Trump has left the people as a whole atomized among people most would call "the left." Groups that would have banded together as a norm no longer did after November 2016.
I tried to figure out why.
I found that for the most part, "the left" was divided into two groups: Those who were outraged and shocked that Trump could win and those who were not only not surprised but disgusted at those who were.
Really, this "SNL" skit explains it better than I do, I should end it there, but I'll go on a bit more.
So while the former group was well represented from the start, it took some doing to get the latter group on board.
On one hand, I wasn't entirely successful. I hope that this is remedied with the next issue. I'm not sure how I will do it. Maybe I will do a Black Lives Matter issue. Maybe I'll get a guest editor who understands the second group better than I do.
On the other hand, the extra time I had to take allowed for my new selection process to be more organic than it's been in the past. I am very happy with the selection I have going up tomorrow, and I'm grateful to the contributors for having faith in me.
See you tomorrow.
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