All of the Things

Greetings! All the celebrities may be dying, but here in Uppagusland it's spring. That counts for a lot, in my book. Cliches have their reasons, and that business about spring being a time of change and renewal may be tired but it's true. So let's talk about what's new.

We've gotten a few inquiries about our Bowietry theme issue since we announced it in Uppagus 16. It's still scheduled for January of 2017, and we're taking submissions now. We also have an official deadline: December 15, 2016. In short, Bowietry is enough of a certainty that we've updated our submission guidelines to include it. Check those for additional details, and feel free to contact us if you still have questions.

As always, we're excited about this new issue. Peruse at your leisure and you'll find a potpourri of poems by the likes of Romella Kitchens, Mike James, Changming Yuan, and others. Dive into a short story by Alan D. Harris and enjoy another installment of the Michael Wurster interview series, where we're getting close to the present day. Soon you'll know the full history of Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. This picture on the right shows the original slogan of Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange as declared by Wurster himself. I hope you'll get to read the whole story behind it (and see this picture again) in a future interview. And don't forget to stroll through our online art gallery of "poetry comics" by Jessy Randall.

We chose the cover for this issue because of its synchronicity with how things are at our house right now. The fleshworld Uppagites are moving to new digs shortly. Last time this happened it delayed our issue release by a month, but I'm proud to report that we planned way ahead and even though we're in the thick of (all the) things, this issue is right on time.

That's what's new with us. And now it's time for another oft-repeated phrase that remains true: We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together. See you next time!