...from the editor

Once, many years ago, I listened to Eliot’s reading of The Waste Land, every day for a single year. Hearing his words, his voice ... on vinyl was intimate, moving, timeless. The poem is such a strong work of collaboration … and here I’m thinking of the structure of the poem itself, its many forms, voices and languages, of the vital input and notes by Vivien Eliot and Ezra Pound. The work brought me in touch with many separate worlds, but the relationships between those worlds created something new, and did, in fact, turn my own notions of literature on its ear.

Works of collaboration, somehow, move out into the world in a larger way, in a way more relevant, in some regards, and more direct in their abilities to connect readers... and writers... with community. And maybe that is the secret of collaborative power – an ability to find a greater, a stronger level of acceptance.

It is no mystery that the writer, the artist, the musician creates works for the self, but surely there must be that need for those creative works to find a place in others – an ear, an eye, a tongue. That is one of the essential goals of art.

Enjoy this special issue.

Sam Rasnake

Current Issue - Spring 2009

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