Pictured above from top left: Katie Pelletier – Fiction Editor, Nick Depascal – Associate Editor, Natalie Scenters-Zapico – Managing Editor, bottom left: Laurel Coffey – Fiction Editor, Nora Hickey – Editor in Chief, Bonnie Arning – Poetry Editor
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the new issue of Blue Mesa Review! Since putting our last issue, #26, online, we have received some truly amazing submissions. Our readers and editors enjoyed searching for the vibrant and engrossing pieces you see here. There’s humor, meditation, exploration, and even a few cloudy pickling jars of unknown contents. I want to first thank our contributors, who give us the motivation to keep on publishing, and something to talk about in the high altitude of Albuquerque. We hope these works leave you gasping for air, too.
Above all else, Blue Mesa Review is a collaborative effort, and I want to acknowledge the dedication and effort of the editorial staff this year. Our readers were invaluable. I couldn’t think of more perfect art for our poetry, fiction and nonfiction than the pieces three local artists contributed.
When looking back at the creation of the newest issue of BMR, I can’t help but think of the journal’s origins. Recently, I went to University of New Mexico’s Center for Southwest Research to look through archived papers pertaining to the first issue of Blue Mesa Review. There were lots of administrative papers, exchanges between founding board members, and even some letters from Robert Creeley, but the paper that interested me the most was one with five phrases written out in pencil. Here, founding Editor Rudolfo Anaya was testing out different names for this new southwest literary venture: Red Mesa, Blue Mesa, West Wind, Sacred Mountain, Rio Del Norte. I’m unsure of how they decided on Blue Mesa twenty four years ago, but I’m honored to have been a part of this ultimate expression. I hope the content in Issue #27 both affects and reflects your own experience.
Best,
Nora Hickey
