Hi. Thanks for reading Phoebe. It must certainly be apparent that this issue is not printed and bound. Those of you already familiar with Phoebe might be aware that this is a first in the history of the journal.

As explained on our Subscriptions page, we’ve initiated a new publication model. We’re still putting out two issues a year. We’ll still publish a print edition every January. But our other issue, released each May, will be entirely online.

By now this burgeoning genre of editorial writing, in which we rationalize a shift away from print media, has become familiar enough that we can anticipate its rhetorical moves, and I don’t want to waste time with that. It wasn’t a difficult decision and I don’t feel sentimental about the way we used to do it. (I can foresee a future for the journal in which we ditch print entirely, but, as I’ll explain below, it won’t be up to me). The math is just too persuasive: increased visibility at reduced cost.

If that sounds too cynical, keep in mind that I’m saving my sentimentality for other factors. I’ve written about this on the blog before; I first encountered Phoebe at a formative time in my life as a reader and writer of poetry, and in its pages found writers who remain important to me more than a dozen years later. That sense of discovery, far more than the ink-and-paper delivery system, is worth preserving. To that end, we’re trying to put our content in front of as many eyes as possible.

So that’s what I mean by “visibility.” But before I sign off, I want to acknowledge my fellow editors, because they selected all this content for you, and because I feel very sentimental about them too, and because we’re all bowing out with this issue. I’m grateful to Josh Ambrose, Daniel D’Angelo, Ken Israel ,and Leslie Maxwell–they’re invaluable friends and colleagues, and the issue before you is evidence of their tremendous work. And I think I speak for all of us when I profess my excitement at the prospect of seeing where next year’s team takes the journal. Good luck and thanks to Jay Ivey, Erica Dolson, Alex Henderson, Steph Liberatore, and Mike Walsh.

This is Volume 41, Issue 2 of Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art. Enjoy.

Bryan Koen is the Editor-in-Chief of Phoebe