Note from the Editors



Amal says: Well, we had this very serious note planned.

Jess says: It had all the seriousness. ALL of it.

Amal says: But then we learned that C.S.E. Cooney won the Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem with "The Sea King's Second Bride."

Jess says: And then this* happened.

  Amal: OMFG~!!!!!!
  ASDIHFaljwkfsh a;oiwefh
  JESS
  CLAQIRE
  CLAIRE
  WON
  FIRST PLACE
 Jess: Yes? Yes?
 Amal: RHYSLING
 Jess: Yes?
  YES??!?!?!?!!?!?!
 Amal: SEA KING
 Jess: AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME
 Amal: WE HAVE A WIN FOR GF
  AND IT IS CLAIRE
  OMFGF
  aslkdfna;iuws hfaliuwhgfa;oigha
 Jess: WHAT REALLY WHAT REALLY AWESOME AWESOME
  AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  SEA POEMS YAY
  EEEEEEEEEEE
 Amal: SHRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK
 Jess: EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Copied verbatim from Gchat

Amal says: Let it never be said that in the face of excitement we are anything less than completely possessed of both solemnity and grace.

Jess says: We also have all the dignity, you see. Good show, Claire. Well done. Mannered exultations! Congratulations!

Goblins: [a tumult of cheering]

Jess says: Speaking of good shows, everyone who participated in our Fifth Anniversary Prize Draw/Contest - thank you. Thank you for showing your support for Goblin Fruit and the small press poetry community. We were touched by the response.

Amal says: The donation drive exceeded our wildest expectations. We received $1043 in donations, which will enable us to run more poems per issue again, as well as fund exciting new Goblin Fruit projects in the next couple of years. We also received many notifications of donations to other small press 'zines, which made us very happy indeed. And then we got to give the following people exciting prizes! Congratulations to C.S.E. Cooney, Cheryl Ruggiero, Robyn Nielsen, Rose Lemberg, Christi Clogston, Joshua Gage, Hélène Pedot, Paula Morgan, Robin Mayhall, Brittany Warman, Alan Yee, and James Roberts, among whom the swag was all dispersed.

So go on, read this issue. Fourteen poems teeming with gold and copper and roots and shells, gods of sky and earth and story, witches of the sea and spindle. There are stalks of wheat and of rye; there are map-daughters and the worlds they end. We have laid out a geography of summer for you to wander in; let your hunger be your compass, and step out.

Thanks as ever to our contributors; to Oliver Hunter for this issue's art, the first of his to be produced entirely digitally; to our web-beast unconquerable, Dmitri Zagidulin, for banishing the flesh-eating toad owls from our orchards; and to you, dear readers, who have made it all possible.

Enjoy.