fourwindowspress

Ethel and I just received the January issue of “Moss Piglet” today, and boy are we excited! Ethel has three pastels and two poems in this issue, and I have two poems. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the “Moss Piglet,” but I have a recommendation for you. Go to the “Moss Piglet” website, order a copy, and then submit a poem as soon as you possibly can.

Neither Ethel nor I knew about this publication until a couple of months ago when Ron Czerwien, the President of the Council of Wisconsin Writers, mentioned that we ought to consider submitting to it, that he was absolutely blown away by the publication with its full color art, superior design, and great poetry. Following Ron’s advice always seems like a good idea, so Ethel and I sent in some poems. Ethel decided to send in three pastels as well.

We were amazed when we got almost immediate acceptance emails from John Bloner, the Editor. Then, curious about what the publication was about, I ordered a three month subscription. Like Ron, I was blown away when our December issue showed up in the mail. This is maybe the most beautiful literary journal I’ve ever seen.

I’ve put together three magazines/literary journals in my lifetime. Richard Brenneman, today a Boston poet, and I did “The Rimrock Poets Magazine” in Grand Junction, Colorado when I was a young college student. Then I became the Associate Editor (or something like that) of “The New Quiver,” which won All American honors while I was at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Working with the Shawano County Arts Council I worked with Russell Ferrall, the great Wisconsin poet who was a pioneering presence in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, to put together “Wisconsin Trillium.” I’ve also published two major poetry anthologies, and Ethel and I have put out a small library of books with Four Windows Press. This doesn’t count the time that Ethel and I acted as Editors for one issue of “Bramble.”

What I want to say by saying all of this is that both Ethel and I understand how challenging publishing can be. It is a slog, working ceaselessly to find good content and then putting it together into a package that is worth looking at and reading. The truth is that “Moss Piglet” is a home run. It’s a blazing star at its beginnings in a star incubator shining out into the glory of the universe.

I urge everyone reading this post to get a copy and submit their best work to it. This is a publication worth supporting with a subscription so that John Bloner doesn’t get tired and stop producing what is a monthly series of masterpieces.

A moss piglet, by the way, is an animal, a Tardigrade, an eight legged, segmented micro-beast that is almost indestructible. It can even survive in the vacuum of space for extended periods of time.