Creating the Review has been a literary adventure for me—many months of planning and discussion, hope and even a bit of terror. I was astonished and excited at the number of excellent submissions. It’s wonderful to know how many people are exploring spirituality through the written word and how superb their work is.
Ironically, this is also where the terror comes in. It was wrenching deciding among such excellent works, each one deeply felt and written with love—especially when I found myself in the uncomfortable position of turning down poetry that was much better than I have ever written.
After I’d made the selections, a different kind of terror sunk in. In my hands were thirty poems and essays—works people had labored over, the expressions of their souls. The way those works would be read by others depended on how I formatted, organized, and designed the Review. As I worked, it became very, very important to me to give each contributor’s writing a venue that honored it. I have never been as keenly aware of the trust that exists between a writer and an editor. I wanted deeply to keep that trust.
I could not be more pleased with this first issue of The Whirlwind Review. I’m deeply grateful to all the contributors and to everyone who gave me support over these months. And I’m looking forward to starting work on Issue # 2 (still just a little bit terrified).