Greetings, readers! It might not surprise you to see an editor professing excitement over the content of his magazine. But, while I’ll cop to my role as hype man, please trust that I’m sincerely thrilled to announce the release of our latest collection of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art.

The centerpiece of issue 41.1 is our annual poetry special feature. This year we’re showing you the “Guts” of Julie Doxsee, Rebecca Farivar, Kate Greenstreet, D.A. Powell, Zach Savich, and Mathias Svalina. Ten other poets round out our selection for the current number–check out Gary Jackson’s “Letters to my Daughters: Siri” for a taste.

For fiction lovers, we’ve got short-shorts by Toni Mirosevich and Marianne Villanueva,  Corina Bardoff’s formally adventurous “A Good Life”, as well as stories by Trevor J. Houser and Sean Carswell. And our nonfiction offering, George Such’s “Metal”, is absolutely true and absolutely harrowing.

This time around we’re also sporting a comic, by cover artist Warren Craghead. His mind-bending graphic adaptation of Wallace Stevens’ “A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts” continues the cross-genre investigations of Craghead’s own HOW TO BE EVERYWHERE. Stay tuned to this blog for a forthcoming interview with Warren.

Two other announcements while I have your attention: 1). We’re looking forward to AWP this year. Come say hi, meet our editors in person, and get free Phoebe swag in the process. 2). We’re looking forward to announcing all of our fall contest winners soon after receiving a record number of entries here at the Phoebe office. Our (awesome) judges are currently reviewing the submissions now; we’re excited to share their results with you ASAP.

In the meantime, check back frequently for new online-only poems, stories, and reviews, as we build toward our first all-online issue, to be released in May. It’s gonna be a doozy. But if you check out 41.1, perhaps that won’t surprise you either.

Bryan Koen is the editor-in-chief at Phoebe.

Issue 41.1