About The Fall 2005 Edition
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the Fall 2005 edition of The Fairfield Review. A few days ago, driving east on the Post Road in Connecticut we were startled by the first harvest moon, cradled in the tree limbs, looming large like a tall familiar guest found unexpectedly at an opened front door. It was a reminder that, in this part of the world, summer slips beneath the horizon and fall rises with a chill in the evening air. So it is fitting that on this last day of summer we are writing these words for our fall issue.
We welcome a number of new and returning authors for our readers. Twelve of our sixteen authors for this issue are new to The Fairfield Review, two are students and five are teachers. We are please to include, once again, Bonnie Enes, Taylor Graham, Nancy A. Henry and Michael Keshigian, who appeared in recent issues.
We begin with a tribute to fall, explicitly portrayed in Michael Keshigian's Harvest Moon, and implied in Bonnie Ene's Thirteen Ways of Looking at Red (with deference to Wallace Stevens, a Connecticut son, whose birthday is early in autumn.)
Four poems remember summer, or what could be the heat of summer. Travel first with Annette Basalyga's Postcards and July 4th. Go back in time with Nancy A. Henry's Melbourne Beach, 1965, with the wonderful opening line "It is the forgotten things that will eat / your brilliant skin like rust." Dare to peek at Willie James King's From an Opened Window.
Given the September release of this issue, read the timely 9/11 tribute by Brad Buchanan, Death of a Fireman. Then accompany Judith Sarah Schmidt in For Natasha at Eighty, and follow the loss in Robert L. Welby's Wilton Elba and Erin Dorso's Breaking.
It's time for some fun now-- perhaps a trip downtown? Start with a music store, browse the CD section and check out John Grey's Daylight Robbery. From there, visit the bookstore and go to the poetry section with Willie James King's I Want A Poem. Finish up at the artist's gallery, with Adele Annesi's story The Palm Reader.
Three poems complete the cycle, looking forward to winter and spring. Read Simon Perchik's Where is this tree going... Then finish with Taylor Graham's Dog Walks with its ripple of fear, and Uprising, with the uplifting closing lines "In waves they carry us away / What can we do but dance?"
Two authors plumb the pungent memories of the past and the forbidding fruit of the future. Read Irene Sherlock's essay Second Chances, followed by Joe Trocino's story The Photographer's Eye, The Photographer's Heart.
We end with a trio of love poems-- a genre we do not often find well served, but for which three of our author's have risen to the task. Read Harvey K. Slade's Why? and then climb Kyle Burkhart's Fifth floor walk up. Finish with a poem that ends with the hopeful surprise "and you-- / even though you know all this-- / still want me," Nancy A. Henry's Even Though.
Our classic poem for this issue is Carl Sandburg's Child Moon.
Editors' Choice Awards go to three poets: Nancy A. Henry for Melbourne Beach, 1965, Taylor Graham for Uprising, and Judith Sarah Schmidt for For Natasha at Eighty
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| Thank you to all have supported The Fairfield Review with your donations, but importantly by your reading and telling others. We continue to receive encouraging feedback on our first printed publication: The Best of the Fairfield Review: 1997 - 2002. The book, which highlights our favorite offerings from our first six years, is available on-line. Please take a peek, and order a copy for your winter reading. Your support goes directly towards the continuation of our free, on-line publication, and we thank you for your ongoing interest and enthusiasm on our behalf. Please be sure to send us your comments and suggestions for future issues by filling out our Guest Book or dropping us a note via email to fairfieldreview at hpmd dot com ** You can find a complete list of this issue's writings in the table of contents and information about contributors in About the Authors. Starting with our Winter 2005 issue, we have changed the closing dates for submissions. Based on your feedback and the volume of work we are now receiving, we agreed that it was too long from the time authors sent us their work and when they heard our final decisions. Closing dates for the Winter issue are now September 30 and for the Summer issue March 31. Our reading cycle will start thereafter and run for 90 days. |
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As the deep, abundant green drains from each leaf and the floral curtain falls to reveal the naked yellow, orange, red of each, we are reminded that the varied and creative spirit finds so much more beneath the names of "leaf" and "tree." This kinship among poets and writers of each form is one that extends to those whose horizons are not illumined by harvest moons and gentle autumn breezes-- those whose lives have become one of exile in the face of wind and rain and flood. We reach out to them as our own.
Edward Granger-Happ
Janet Granger-Happ
Editors
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