Welcome to our final issue of The Writer for this year. Within these pages, you will find an interview with a new young voice from the Twitter generation and another with a poet of wisdom and time-tested truths about the craft. Other voices come from the world of magazines, journalism, fiction, memoir and the reflective nature of writers, whether on Facebook or network TV.
While we were putting this issue together, we were thinking of the ways in which you as a writer might be assessing the last 12 months. What did you accomplish? What made you proud? How did your writing move to the next step, stage or discovery? We hope you hear some echo of your own achievements in these pages. That’s what we were aiming for: Without being too obvious, how can we feature the outrageous and awe-inspiring achievement of writers to make your work easier?
It’s a good way to end a year.
And if you’re looking for encouragement, something to propel you forward as you step into a new year, be sure to read M. Evelina Galang’s thoughts in the last-page How I Write feature. Her candor and porousness about writing are a wonder, and she serves as a kind of angel – appropriate, given the spirituality of her work – over this issue, opening a window on best practices and pointing us toward the important binary combinations of talent and discipline, imagination and research.
How will you finish out the year? It’s a natural time to take the temperature of your career. Take a minute and write down five qualities that make you proud of yourself as a writer. Then take a stab at five actions you still need to take to get your book, poem, script, screenplay, memoir or essay published.
Here’s what we know: You can do it. That’s why we’re here every month – 12 months a year – cheering you on, lobbing stories and interviews and howtos your way. We want you to succeed.
T.S. Eliot wrote in “The Four Quartets”:
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
We wish you a new beginning. And lots of voice.
Alicia Anstead
Editor-in-Chief