As of tomorrow I will officially be on winter break and will have completed a bit more than half of my required credit hours toward my master’s degree. (Yay me!) After a weekend of decompression, I will plunge headfirst into work toward preparing the first issue of a brand-spanking-new literary journal called Flycatcher: A Journal of Native Imagination. I was asked on as an assistant editor of Flycatcher in June by my classmate and friend Christopher Martin. Flycatcher is Chris’s passion, and I’m honored to be along for the ride.

Starting a new literary and arts journal is exhilarating, and an awful lot of work! Over the past roughly five months, we’ve read a healthy number of submissions, carried on some hefty philosophical discussions, done a bit of social media and word of mouth promotion, and completed some copy editing. Some of us have conducted interviews and written book reviews and even championed social causes. There’s still much to be done to get our inaugural issue ready for prime time, but it’s the kind of work that keeps you up late into the night for the sheer joy of doing it. How many jobs can you say that about?

Of course, I’ll make an announcement when the issue is live, but in the meantime here’s a sampling of what to expect: Poetry by environmental writer Erik Reece, author of An American Gospel and Lost Mountain; fiction by Raymond Atkins, recipient of the 2009 Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel for his book The Front Porch Prophet; memoir by Linda Niemann, author of Boomer and Railroad Noir; a photo essay by photographer and poet Brian Brown.

How’s that for a tease? Stay tuned!