I use the same approach on all works, whether poetry or prose: I tacitly assume that the first fifty ways I try it are going to be wrong. ~ James Dickey

Writing is an adventure. We often start out heading in one direction with a piece and, many drafts later, find ourselves moving down another completely undreamed of path. Reading is another kind of adventure. When we begin, we might think we know where the writer is taking us and, again, wonderfully, end up going down a completely different road.

The various forms of love are explored in several prose pieces in this issue: sexual love, one-sided love, first love, mother love, parental love and parents-to-be love – and fear, and taking a chance on love. You’ll also find stories from three teachers, a mythical tale inspired by Australian Aboriginal culture and the usual nine superb poems which will take you in numerous other directions: graphology, instinct, the importance of being watchful when seeing, cold comfort, Prague and more.

Visual art this summer includes stunning and mysterious photographs, dreamy, ethereal encaustic paintings and surprising mixed media works that bridge the gap between drawing and painting.

On another note, this one to writers: We never fail to be surprised by how much good writing we find among the submissions to SHARK REEF. (To be honest, there are always some that make us wonder: what was the writer thinking?) And we wish we could publish more of your work but we do have to draw the line somewhere. We did have more “maybes” than usual this time; if you were one of them, we encourage you to try again.

As always, we exhort you to Write on!