Today I must be brief, because I have duties at the Hayden’s Ferry Review offices and I am already late. Incidentally, HFR just released our 25th anniversary issue (i.e. issue 50)!

Please take a look and pick one up if you are at all inclined – I was the International Prose Editor for this issue, and I can tell you that the whole thing is FANTASTIC. The issue is themed around “artifacts” and contains writing or artifacts from Haruki Murakami, Carolyn Forche, David Troupes, Aimee Bender, Jim Shepard, Ilya Kaminsky, and more! This issue also contains the first English translation of fiction out of the Ethiopian language Amharic to appear in the U.S. – the opening chapter from a novel by beloved Ethiopian writer and political activist Baalu Girma.

Finally, before I sign off, I must dedicate this comic to my dear dear friend Branden Boyer-White, who has never met a pun she hasn’t been able to make dirtier in her own head, without even trying.