Editor's Note
Bay Laurel | Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Autumn 2012
September 29, 2012
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
Dear Readers,
Michaelmas greetings! We are overjoyed to bring you the very first issue of Bay Laurel. It's been a challenging and rewarding past few months. We received a number of fantastic submissions, and it wasn't easy to decide which ones would and wouldn't end up here. Ultimately, we emerged from the process with fifteen stellar pieces that we are honored to share with you. In this issue, you'll be treated to the creative work of eight talented writers.
Our sole work of fiction is Stephen Logsdon's imaginative and cathartic Life Afterlife, inspired by the rich traditions of Norse mythology. Moving into the sphere of poetry, we are favored first with Daniel Klawitter's witty and incredibly appropriate Rejection Letter. Bonnilee Kaufman skillfully paints us a Self Portrait in Places. With Frith's First, Matt Whitman sheds new light on the work of one of the masters of early photography. Candyce Byrne proves herself a poet's poet in her lovely Afternoon Café. Existential thought permeates Michael Mira's poignant Side Airbags. Whitman returns with a meditation on life, death, and rebirth, in Once I Dreamed of Athens. In her first of two poems in this issue, Nicole Seligman grants us a vivid vision of edna, TX. The unique language of the high seas becomes a language of love in Thinking of My Pirate, another inventive piece by Klawitter. Angela R. Lindfors presents a eerily fascinating series of vignettes to teach us that Children Who Kill Their Pets Do Not Always Become Serial Killers (But Sometimes They Do). Byrne's haunting second poem, Eleusis, parallels one of our oldest myths. I drank campires, Whitman's final poem of the issue, intrigues with its wild metaphors. The human relationship with memory and location is at the heart of Seligman's The Pink House on Wilmes Dr. Lindfors recounts a tale of cultures meeting in her charming prose-poem, Tokidoki. And in our final piece, Byrne leads us in a poetic thought experiment, urging us to Suppose We Are Leviathan.
Bay Laurel is proud to present these works. We believe them to be some of the best underrepresented writing the community has to offer, and we hope you enjoy these pieces as much as we, the editors, have.
We would also like to dedicate our inaugural issue to the memory of a very special man. Dr. Edward Shirley, a Professor of Religion and Theological Studies at St. Edward's University, passed away this August. He was much more than an eminent academic. He led his students, and all who knew him, to contemplate the mystical, the spiritual, the self, and the human family. He was a friend and teacher to everyone he met, and he is sorely missed. We humbly commemorate him, lover of words and arts that he was, with this issue of Bay Laurel, and wish peace for him and those who love him.
Our sole work of fiction is Stephen Logsdon's imaginative and cathartic Life Afterlife, inspired by the rich traditions of Norse mythology. Moving into the sphere of poetry, we are favored first with Daniel Klawitter's witty and incredibly appropriate Rejection Letter. Bonnilee Kaufman skillfully paints us a Self Portrait in Places. With Frith's First, Matt Whitman sheds new light on the work of one of the masters of early photography. Candyce Byrne proves herself a poet's poet in her lovely Afternoon Café. Existential thought permeates Michael Mira's poignant Side Airbags. Whitman returns with a meditation on life, death, and rebirth, in Once I Dreamed of Athens. In her first of two poems in this issue, Nicole Seligman grants us a vivid vision of edna, TX. The unique language of the high seas becomes a language of love in Thinking of My Pirate, another inventive piece by Klawitter. Angela R. Lindfors presents a eerily fascinating series of vignettes to teach us that Children Who Kill Their Pets Do Not Always Become Serial Killers (But Sometimes They Do). Byrne's haunting second poem, Eleusis, parallels one of our oldest myths. I drank campires, Whitman's final poem of the issue, intrigues with its wild metaphors. The human relationship with memory and location is at the heart of Seligman's The Pink House on Wilmes Dr. Lindfors recounts a tale of cultures meeting in her charming prose-poem, Tokidoki. And in our final piece, Byrne leads us in a poetic thought experiment, urging us to Suppose We Are Leviathan.
Bay Laurel is proud to present these works. We believe them to be some of the best underrepresented writing the community has to offer, and we hope you enjoy these pieces as much as we, the editors, have.
We would also like to dedicate our inaugural issue to the memory of a very special man. Dr. Edward Shirley, a Professor of Religion and Theological Studies at St. Edward's University, passed away this August. He was much more than an eminent academic. He led his students, and all who knew him, to contemplate the mystical, the spiritual, the self, and the human family. He was a friend and teacher to everyone he met, and he is sorely missed. We humbly commemorate him, lover of words and arts that he was, with this issue of Bay Laurel, and wish peace for him and those who love him.
Thank you for reading,
Timothy Connor Dailey
Founder and Editor-in-Chief