The calendar whirls 'round, and all good things (including my recent sabbatical) must come to an end, as well as some new beginning. I am delighted to resume the reins of West Branch and want to thank, profusely, my remarkable colleague K.A. Hays for her stewardship during the 2013-14 academic year.
I'd like to welcome back our senior Stadler Fellow, Justin Boening, who will be continuing as Associate Poetry Editor this fall. I'd also like to welcome back our crack squad of Associate Fiction Editors: Bill Riley, Cam Terwilliger, Hasanthika Sirisena, Carrie Messenger, Matt Pitt, and Jaquira Diaz. They are exquisite beings of refined taste, and we are very happy to have them on board! They, in turn, will be happiest if you send your very best stories our way.
(I was asked recently why we have no Associate Nonfiction Editor, with the implication that we are not actively seeking CNF. On the contrary: we are passionately, even desperately, seeking CNF that will delight, terrify, and/or move us. All CNF goes directly to me. I promise I will treat it gently, as a butcher treats his finest chop.)
As those who know and love us will have already noticed, our on-line submission manager is now open and at your service. A quick reminder that, all of us also being writers, and together with a few other journals (Threepenny Review et al.), we try to respond within two weeks to most submissions, very often within 2-3 days — which is meant as a gesture of respect to those of you who are writers, rather than the opposite. We keep work we are actively considering for the journal up to 8 weeks. Send us your darlings: alive, please, this time.
Finally: the latest issue of West Branch Wired, our web edition, is just up and awaiting your perusal: www.bucknell.edu/WestBranchWired. It features a story by Gabriel Urza (introduced by Bucknell's very own Claire Vaye Watkins), poetry by Emilia Phillips and Shane McRae, reviews, and an interview with Matthew Neil Null, whose story "Gauley Season" we plucked from our slush pile just before both his collection and his first novel were nabbed. ... Among many other excellent things. We recommend it.