Thirty First Bird Review

I have been extremely happy about the rate at which the site has grown. Wehave published almost twenty authors so far, with several from the Pittsburgh area, but even more from throughout the United States, and as far as Mexico, Belgium, and Australia.I have been really satisfied with the evolution of the journal as a distinctly Pittsburgh institution (I can use that word, right?) with a growing U.S. and international component. The quality of writers has been incredible to me, with established authors from Edgar Aviles, published in an anthology of the best Mexican short story writers, to Hal Sirowitz, the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York; as well as several current MFA students who are just rising to prominence now. The submissions I have been sent so far have been exemplary in terms of embodying what it is that I am trying to do: to create a journal that looks at religion, problems and all, and tries to evoke what it is that humans find so crucial in the search for the transcendent. We receive dozens of hits each day (but let's try and make it hundreds - no thousands!) from throughout the U.S.and the world, with readers on every single continent. Please send submissionsin, and encourage your friends who are writers to contribute as well. We especially need more submissions in stories, drama, criticism and reviews, theory, and theology. I want this to be a gathering of the unexpected, where seminary students try their hand at fiction and poetry, and where creative writing MFAs put down their theological thoughts, where literary theorists do a bit of philosophy, and philosophy PhD's do literary theory. I will also be in attendance at the Pittsburgh Small Press Festival, and I hope that this further promotes this project in the public eye. There are a number of (I hope) great ideas that I would like to implement, to publish an even more diverse range of concepts and voices. If you are in the area (or can get to the area) I am hoping to plan some sort of literary reading mid-summer, so get the word out. Maybe a little bit of fundraising, some donations, some grant money, and we can have a top notch first edition print journal at the end of the year, a reading and release party to match the quality of our work, and maybe, just maybe, the possibility of being able to pay authors (just a little bit) more then in copies. Keep me updated on how you think I am doing.

-ES