A Review...

Since we were in college, I have had the desire to create a literary & arts journal with Amanda and now – with the addition of a couple of our good friends – we have made the first step toward bringing our dream to life with the creation of Black Willow Review.

We have a lot of steps in front of us before launching the Online Literary & Arts Journal next year – we aren’t sure if we are going to shoot for a January 2008 or a Spring 2008 launch – which involves the creation of a website and the submission of “high-quality, broken-out-of-the-mold and burned-the-box work that is accessible, fire-starting, and initiates & documents a new movement in the world of literary and visual arts. We are not interested in one aspect of art, but are drawn to a variety of fields. By bringing together writing, visual art, criticism, interviews and reviews, Black Willow Review strives to put forth a quarterly sampling of literature and art along side a critical and technical view of these crafts. The journal is for the lover and the creator. The artist immersed in this world. And for the person who appreciates their work.”

I know that we have bitten off a great deal, but I think that it’s a mountain that we will be able to climb, because we have each other and we are driven by the project. I am excited by the prospect of finding and bringing together high-quality work! I am excited by being part – as a publisher, an editor, a writer and an artist – of a literary and artistic world filled with people I respect and look up to.

I grew up in an amazing World filled with lecturers and scholars, who would sit around dinner tables and in living rooms discussing art, politics, and religion, amongst other things. And I have always been fascinated by the groups that are formed by the writers, artists, politicians, scholars, and diplomats. People who shaped our World through their words, their art, their knowledge and their actions.

By creating this particular Journal, which we would like to be physical in 2010, I feel that we are doing our part in bringing together art and literature and articles and reviews that might not have found a way together. And in doing this, we are making each other aware of what else is out there.