Don't miss out on our "Isn't It Romantic?" edition of Margin (the question is meant to be a little pointed). Love masquerades as all sorts of things besides what we've come to expect. Imagine:

an unanswered question dropped into a bowl ~ a love letter to the dead ~ a zombi's touch ~ a lover's bed in a city showered by bombs ~ the weight of feelings like so much baggage ~ a postcard depicting the explosion of a heart ~ the fondling of gills ~ the original song between the world's first lovers

Featuring:

Ellen Behrens ~ Allison deFreese ~ William Orem ~ Amy Ratto ~ Alicita Rodriguez ~ Tamara Kaye Sellman ~ Erik Sheldon ~ Rosanna Warren (as Anne Verveine) ~ artist Shwydkij Andrej …and Lord Byron

Other announcements:

• Congratulations to Stephen Gibson, G.L. Grey and Nnedimma Okorafor, who Margin nominated for the SLF Fountain Award. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

• Check out the crystal ball icon on our contents page. Roll your cursor over it and you will foresee into a bit of Margin's future for 2006!

• ACTIVE CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! Our Hurricane Relief project, Southern Revival: Deep South Magic for Hurricane Relief is off to a good start. We're collecting donations and manuscripts for this special edition of Periphery, which will be released in Spring 2006. Interested in reserving your copy, submitting a manuscript (deadline March 1) or giving a donation? We're asking for $10 minimum, 100% of each donation forwarded to First Book. Our goal? $2,500. That amount of money will enable First Book to provide 5,000 books to hurricane-devastated libraries in the South (including all communities devastated by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma). That's almost an entire library for a small community!

• Our general reading period is still CLOSED. Sorry, we've got 2006 filled! Stay tuned for news about upcoming calls for submissions, and see Southern Revival, above.

• Because we're in the midst of a vortex of cool changes at Margin, we're inviting everyone and anyone to give us their FEEDBACK. What's worked for you? What hasn't? What would you like to see at Margin that we haven't already done? What really isn't worth our effort? Go to the survey page to download your poll and let us know how we're doing. Your responses will help shape the coming future of Margin.

• Not yet a subscriber? You should be! Seriously. It's free, automated and private. Also, after August 2006 we'll be revamping our subscription service and it could mean that new subscribers will have to pay a little something in order to join the Margin community. If you like what you see, please subscribe; you won't be disappointed.

• Coming in March: a special feature on Women's History Month.