By Meghan Phillips, Fiction Editor
I’ve started and restarted this editor’s note at least five times, but everything I write reads like an overly-gushy awards show speech or rejected copy for a Hallmark card. I can’t help it. When I think about this issue—the talented writers and artists who trusted us with their work, the readers and editors that make Third Point possible—I am overwhelmed with gratitude.
If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be an editor at a publication like Third Point, I wouldn’t have believed you. I was taking a flash fiction workshop at the Lancaster Literary Guild, writing assignments during my office hours or after my closing shift at the library. I had no idea what I was doing but I was hooked. I was inspired by the writers I met, especially Tyler Barton (I still can’t believe that he offered to give me feedback on a story after hearing my workshop group talk about it). I was amazed by this new-to-me community of online literary magazines. A community of writers creating work I couldn’t find on the shelves of the local library. A community of writers who support each other and lift each other up.
Every issue of Third Point is special to me. This issue is Special-with-a-capital-S because it is my first as fiction editor and getting to write this note is my Sally Field-style Oscar speech.
I would like to thank:
Tyler, for a whole heck of a lot, but especially for suggesting that I step in as fiction editor.
Matt, Erin, and Michelle, for being patient and kind when I clog up their in-boxes with questions and suggestions and general anxiety.
Eliot, for asking me to tell him if I’ve got too much going on to help with events or outreach and laughing when I told him that I probably won’t.
Matt Mastricova and Danielle Zaccagnino, for bringing their fresh perspectives to the fiction and poetry teams, and Delia and Rachel, for continuing to share their impeccable taste and insight.
The writers and artists, for sending us their work because they want to be part of something that means so much to me (and all of us).
And last but not least, I want to thank you, dear readers, for reading and sharing and submitting.
Dig in.
Art: “But I Remember Mamet’s Camel” by Featured Artist Roger Leege.
Roger Leege started out as a painter, printmaker and analog photographer, earning BA and MA degrees in Visual Arts from Goddard College. During post-grad university study in computer science, he was an early adopter and evangelist for digital art and artists’ tools. With gallery, print, and online publishing credits in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom, he especially enjoys working with writers and the “literate” press. His portfolios are located at rogerleege.net.