The Barefoot Muse

A Journal Of Formal & Metrical Verse

Issue #8, Winter 2008

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Editorial

You could be forgiven for thinking that you would have a better chance of appearing in this issue of the Barefoot Muse if you had "Peter" in your name, since this describes five of the contributors. This is of course, pure coincidence.

Still, one of the delights of editing a literary journal is discovering how best to take advantage of the coincidences which come one's way naturally. The idea being to produce each time an anthology that coheres organically, rather than a collection of strong but unrelated pieces.

So, you can imagine my delight when, having agreed to publish Maryann Corbett's unmissable essay on Gawain translations, I received Ellie Biswell's sonnet "White", which is about Gawain. Or how I smiled to myself on transcribing C.E. Chaffin's "On Intellectual Substance" to see a poem by Keats mentioned, knowing that Scott Miller's sonnet "The Dying Artist" would appear in the same issue.

Pagan that I am, it's still almost as though some unseen force for poetic good were moving throughout the universe. And the sense that fate is coming to my aid increased when, just as I was tearing my hair out over this business of editing two literary journals, an email arrived in my inbox offering me the (free) services of an assistant editor.

So, henceforth the slushpile will be manned by one Nicholas Friedman, Assistant Editor, and I am sure that once he gets his (bare?) feet under the table he will have plenty more to contribute to the Muse.

I have decided, however, that it makes no sense to operate the Barefoot Muse on exactly the same production schedule as The Raintown Review--currently both journals release issues in June and December. With that in mind, and because I'm anticipating a certain amount of site redesign between now and the next issue, I am changing the Barefoot Muse's release dates to September and March. In other words, the next issue will be out in nine, not six, months time, on March 1st 2010.

All of which gives you more time to enjoy this issue, be inspired to write new and excellent poems, and send them to us (And from now on there really will be two of us) here at the Muse!

Anna Evans, Editor, The Barefoot Muse

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