Editor's Note“Got better. Getting stronger. Wrasslin’ with words. Throwing them around. Bending them to my will each & every damn day. Like Milo carrying a baby calf everyday ‘til it gets bigger than the red schoolhouse.” The above excerpt is from Megaera issue 25 Chatting With. Marty Esworthy is answering the question: Have you changed poetically since you were first published in Megaera? Welcome to issue 26. I really hope you have read the print version of issue 25. If not, that quote is a brief example of what you missed. We introduced two new features in 25, Chatting With and Spotlight On. We continue to add features debuting Taking Form this issue. Wanting our readers and contributors to know that Megaera does accept forms and to highlight any form poems that are accepted. We also want to offer a definition and insight from the author. This quarter we have Amitava Dasgupta’s haiku in Taking Form. We are bringing back Michael Salinger in Chatting With and shining our Spotlight On Michael Brown. I am very excited about all three featured sections. Other highlights of this issue include welcoming back my old favorite Sam Silva, and new favorites Janet Lynn Davis and Thomas D. Reynolds. Issue 26 also marks the Megaera debut of Jennifer Jean with three poems from the collection, Structural Integrity and I am proud to publish the first poem of Mike Mikkelsen. We are in this slightly shorter submission period that ends August 1st for both poetry and fiction. We need more quality fiction submissions. The magazine will remain quarterly coming out in September, December, March and June. The submission period from now on ends one month prior to the publication date. I hope that as poetry editor of Megaera that I am getting better, getting stronger. I certainly have learned a lot as I truly am building relationships with many of the poets. This issue was much harder to edit because there were so many good poems. I really had a hard time deciding. I continue to try to respond to every submission promptly. Then later get back with my final decision near the end of the submission period. I loved the opportunity to work on poems with poets and had such a good rapport, with many of the poets from these last two issues that I have considered sending them some of my poetry to get their view. The print version is available at www.lulu.com/megaera where you can still get issues 24, 25 and 26. Continue to spread the word about both versions and visit www.megaera.org for the online edition and lots of info about guidelines and archived issues as well. I am looking forward to your continued support in the form of correspondence. I welcome your feedback and questions. This interaction is my favorite part of being poetry editor. Poetically Yours, Keith Snow |