Editor's Note
December 15, 2010
Last night, on the eve of Gulf Stream's Online No. 4 launch, it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit—here in Miami.
Living in South Florida, you learn what driving on Biscayne or I-95 at rush hour means. You understand the importance of "gator-safety," the Everglades looming just beyond the margin of I-75 and sometimes finding itself in our backyard. But layers of clothing? A wind chill factor? Iguanas falling from trees? We're not familiar with such things.
I suppose we can grow accustomed to these changes. We're learning.
We're also settling in rather nicely to our new realm of online publishing. Gulf Stream Online No. 4 marks our second year as an online journal. Sure, we still receive the occasional snail-mail submission, but our online submissions are up. We're still proofing stories and poems by hand, but everything gets digitally stored on hard drives. And we're still making decisions as a group in meetings held under fluorescent lighting. But most importantly, we're still publishing high caliber material, and I believe this latest issue is a testament to that fact.
Gulf Stream Magazine started publishing in 1989, and a lot has changed since then. But in the Gulf Stream office, in Miami, Florida, it's as if everything has stayed the same: The editors and staff work every year with the unmitigated belief that good writing matters.
I can't say enough how much of a pleasure working toward this issue has been. I owe a debt of gratitude to the entire staff and editors, our faculty advisor John Dufresne, Gulf Stream's founder Lynne Barrett, Denise Duhamel, Pete Borrebach, and everyone in the Creative Writing Department at Florida International University. And, of course, a big thank you to all the writers in this issue.
So stay inside, stay warm, and enjoy Gulf Stream Online No. 4.
Happy Reading,
David Svenson
Editor