In this issue, instead of the Featured Poet we
bring you something different —The Online Poetry Symposium. To our
knowledge it is the first of its kind. Featured are the distinguished
panel members, R. S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, Mark Jarman, A. E. Stallings
and Diane Thiel. The energy of the West Chester
University Poetry Conference which all the symposium panelists attended
this past June continues here, generating a new energy all our own, and I am gratified with
the result. Be sure to browse through the symposium topics and discussions
as well as the panelists' poems.
In this issue, we also have our first Featured Artist interview with Dr. Linda
Spencer, who brings us her vibrant collection of encaustics and collage.
Further, Misha Gordin is back with his latest Conceptual Photography
work.
Of course, we have our usual selection of poetry, fiction and nonfiction
from both new and familiar poets and writers.
Another major part of this issue is a new look for
the Eratosphere
online forums and workshops, totally redesigned
with a long list of new features. It is scheduled for release one week after the Symposium
Issue hits the Cyberstands in order to maintain our initial focus on the outstanding work of the poets, writers and artists featured in this issue.
I am also pleased to welcome as our new Fiction
Editor the talented Karen
Bjorneby, whose poetry you might
remember from the Millennial Issue.
Alexandra Sternin joins us as our new Art Editor, and she even
contributed illustrations for a couple of poems! We
also have new moderators at the Eratosphere
online forums and workshops. Michael Juster moderates the Metrical
poetry forum; Julie Carter is our long-standing moderator for the Other
Poetry forum, where we welcome all other forms of poetry. Our newest
moderator, Gary Keenan, has recently joined Julie on that forum. Alan
Sullivan moderates our one-of-a-kind forum, Musing on Mastery, where you
will find choice postings of the work of past and present-day masters and
discussions of what made them classics … or why they fail to make the
list of classics.
As usual we have all the automated ease of use features you’ve come to
expect of Able Muse, and a few new ones — you can now
automatically recommend the new issue poetry, prose and art pages of
your choice to your friends, or post a comment or response to articles
in our forums.
I would like to conclude with special thanks to our Associate
Editor
Beth Houston, who, as is her custom, did a stellar job with proofreading
this issue. Yes, she will detect even that extra space in a page
crammed with words!
As a final note, our sponsor
pages are now automated for instant acceptance and
processing of your kind contributions.
Thank you for your visits and support of Able Muse and our
authors.
Welcome to the Symposium Issue of Able Muse!
Sincerely,
Alex Pepple
—Editor.
