“I can no longer stand this miracle that is knowing nothing in this world and having learned nothing but how to love things and eat them alive.”

-Pablo Picasso

As writers we go forth, exploring the world, devouring our surroundings and recasting them within the realm of words. At 12th Street we take those words and interrogate them, hold them to the highest standard of “do they actually mean what they are saying?”

This question seems most critical as we bring to life 12th Street Online, giving an immediate voice to our ever changing world and the way in which we are digesting it.

By the time 12th Street’s 2009 print issue is released, what we know today—our nation’s economy and politics, our elected officials and our place within the global community—will all be very different. Our print issue, I hope, will have a timeless quality about it, whereas here online, we will be able to give voice to the daily shifts in our country as both artists and as citizens.

Great change is often accompanied by trepidation and nervousness, but the changes already occurring here at 12th Street fill me with confidence. As the new Editor-In-Chief, I want to welcome the new staff members and say how excited we all are to be getting to work. Our submission period is lengthening and is set to begin next week on October 15th and will remain open until December 15th. That is four times as long as it was last year. We are also expanding the parameters of whose work we publish to now include the entire New School community. Both of these changes speak to the promise and potential of 12th Street’s future.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome you, the readers of our blog, to visit us often and participate in the literary community we are attempting to build. Our mission includes promoting literature as an engine of democracy, and that guides our sensibility in maintaining this blog as an open forum for creative expression.

The vastness of this world inspires me and encourages me to constantly seek out more, and I am lucky enough to have been given a public voice to share what I find. 12th Street Online extends the offer to you, use language to interpret this world we inhabit and share it here, with us. I look forward to reading about what you find, love, devour and offer up for others to enjoy.

Sincerely,

Anna Utevsky

Editor-In-Chief