Publication is a critical part of the art of writing. It's a joy to have a publication in a new issue of a magazine or lit journal. 

 

Appreciations is designed to celebrate and continue sharing published pieces by writers without a first “full-length” book, as well as the labors of love journal editors undertake in order to create a forum for reading, consideration, and recognizing the excellent works of writers of all kinds.   

 

Not every piece written or published is part of a series, a collection, a cycle. Journals allow pieces to stand on their own and to sometimes stand separately from a writer's longer works. For writers without full-length books, having places to publish shorter works, whether those works are building towards a book or not is valuable, especially because a full-length book is just one of many possible approaches to publication.

 

We wanted to showcase outstanding writing from recent journal editions, so we’ve invited journal editors to sit down with us and share some of their favorite new work from peer publications, issued in the last year. Please enjoy these conversations, use them for yourself or for your classrooms—and, of course, read, subscribe to and support these fine magazines!