Lori Huskey, our dear Poetry Editor, is hitting the road, moving by, going upward by way of onward. Taking the ski and daddling.  Which is to say we’ll miss her. Lori has been a rock-solid teammate, bringing to our humble magazine her wonderful gifts as an editor, reader, writer, and collaborator.

Rock on, Lori. We wish you hot fudge sundaes and millions of dollars and other splendid successes…

That said, our doors are now open for a new Poetry Editor. I have a couple potential replacements in mind, and one kind fella has already agreed to come onboard as a reader, but I wanted to post here to see if someone I haven’t even thought of yet might be interested.

DSM has got many cool projects in the works. And I’d love to have a Poetry Editor who is involved in all of them — reading submissions, building out our Web and Print issues, blogging, promoting, helping us with the book publishing side of things, etc.

There’s much to be done, yes. But we’re an easygoing group that simply wants to conquer the world. Nothing to it, right?

Then shoot me an email, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks.

News from the University!

The University of Washington wants its common book — the one book that’s required reading for all incoming freshman — to be a book of poetry. For once it seems poetry will be read and studied by more than just future generations of smart, underemployed MFA candidates!

Seriously, what’s not to love about this model?

If more colleges and universities pressed poetry like this more people would know the math behind scansion or who Hart Crane is.

Right? Right.

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Today we’re here to give graphic novels some well-deserved street cred. Just recently in Seattle, The Stranger presented cartoonist Jim Woodring with its 2010 Literature Genius Award.

Our response? Hell yes.

Apparently, Stranger Book Editor Paul Constant’s feels the same way. Here’s a snippet from his resplendent review of Woodring’s work:

There are only a small number of medium-changing geniuses in the history of cartooning who have managed to develop a singular visual language, and Jim Woodring is one of them. His re-creation of the world in gorgeous, obsessive-compulsive, wavy lines—which he calls the Unifactor and which first saw print in 1992—has its own freestanding physics and morality.

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Fall is fast approaching, which means football, network television, blathering about new sitcoms! What a great reason to turn that TV off! Oh wait, we mean turn off your already turned off televisions, you wordy readers!

While seemingly every guy out there is busy following his fantasy football team, we’ve been busy drafting a fantasy team of own — made up entirely of poets…

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Bumbershoot is not called Bumpershoot. There are no bumpers and there are no shootings (we hope!). Rather, bumpershoot is another word for umbrella. Obviously, for Seattlites, the umbrella is a common and useful accessory. But we grow weary of hearing the word, and of carrying one with us wherever we may roam. That’s why it is important to call this annual Northwestern event by its appropriate name: Bumbershoot.

Say it with us now, Bumbershoot.

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