Oxford Magazine Vol XIX, 2005
Well, it's been an eventful year. Those of you who visited the former site can see we've undergone some changes. There has been a turnover in almost our entire staff. That, and the continued process of moving from print to a web-only journal, has led us to some new beginnings, which is a good thing as Oxford Magazine nears its twentieth birthday.
It is said that, given the rate at which new cells are made and old cells die off in our body, we are completely new every seven years. With a journal run entirely by Master’s degree students, that gets shortened to about every two years. Still, not everything is lost. We have worked hard this year to maintain a balance between the quality and traditon that our loyal readers are familiar with, and the new energy and innovation that a fresh staff inevitably brings. We feel we’ve done pretty well, and hope that you’ll agree this year’s issue is one of our best.
One of the biggest changes OxMag underwent as an organization was in the size and quality of our local sponsored readings. Poet cris cheek, who was interviewed in our 2001 issue, arrived as a visiting professor last fall, and was highly influential in helping OxMag focus on our public readings as performance space. Luckily for us, he has taken a full-time position here, so we expect our readings will keep raising the bar.
Miami’s English Department brought in a number of visiting writers and poets this year. One, Lisa Jarnot, was kind enough to allow OxMag to record her performance for the site. Hopefully this will be the beginning of an archive of the performances, both visual and aural, of visiting poets and writers. We highly recommend you take a listen.
We've also added a new section to the magazine. Whereas we will continue to print the best of the poetry and fiction we receive (as well as the occasional literary interview), we are also adding essays in to the mix. This section will attempt to showcase a variety of quality non-fiction — ideas on current issues in the world of poets and writers, reviews of books or authors that should be read, and philosophical meanderings on the effects of being literate in the early 21st century. We're starting with a brilliant essay by jUStin!katKO. Go check it out.
Well, that's it. Karen's here to pick this up, so I have to go. Enjoy the magazine, and let us know what you think.
Love,
Christopher Michel,
Editor
5.1.2005