They say that James Brown
is the hardest working man in show business. The literary
world is not quite show business, so perhaps the comparison is
not apt, but I would nevertheless put our new designer, Cody Dennison,
up against Mr. Brown any day of the week. I suspect the Godfather
of Soul would find himself ragged and run down after trying to
keep up with the Godfather of DUCTS for just a few hours. The
new design you see in this issue is the result of Cody's extraordinary
dedication and vision.
We have begun raising money,
as many of you know, so that we might some day expand DUCTS and
(gulp) pay our editors and contributors. So if you enjoy
the thought-provoking essays and memoirs, if you are captivated
by our fiction, poetry and art, I urge you to donate whatever
amount you can.
I was sitting in Phil's
apartment one day a few weeks back with Phil and his lovely wife
Julie, when Phil suddenly looked up from his massive plate of spaghetti
and said, "You know what blows me away about DUCTS? The incredible
quality of the writing! I wiped my chin on my sleeve. "Yes,
indeed," I said, and then Julie took the bottle of wine away
from both of us. But that, of course, is exactly what DUCTS
is all about. The new design is a lovely decoration -- we
now have pretty shutters and working hinges, pipes and ducts (yes,
I said it) -- but all of it would be meaningless without the remarkable
personal stories
and art that serve as the foundation of our web
pages. Special thanks, then, as always to our remarkable
editors, Tim, Cindy, Charles, Laura and Ryan for
making it happen and congratulations to all our amazing writers.
And one last thanks: to Josh Levine for hosting DUCTS on his server.
For those interested in sending humor our way, note that the illustrious
Daniel McCoy, heretofore known as one of our illustrators, is taking
over the reigns from Laura Buchholtz. Thanks for the hard work
over the years, Laura! And good luck to you Dan -- we're delighted
to have you on board.
If you've read this far you are truly sucked into Ducts. I hope,
as always, that you'll enjoy this splendid issue and return, again and
again, to explore and rediscover all of the wonderful work within.
Jonathan Kravetz, Editor
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