Luna Park Letters

I found Thomas Washington's report on his AWP 2007 bookfair experiences interesting. At the Cave Wall table one of our greatest AWP joys is meeting our contributors, putting a face with a name, getting to shake hands with someone whose writing we fell in love with over the slush pile. Of course, I understand that larger journals that have been around many years and have a changing masthead of readers and assistants, might have manning the table someone who is unfamiliar with contributor names (after all, these wonderful journals have published hundreds of writers over the years—it would be difficult for a new assistant/reader to familiarize himself with all the names and all the great literature that preceded his run on the journal). I guess I just wish Thomas had stopped by the Cave Wall table to talk to us. My husband and I enjoyed conversations with contributors and submitters and subscribers. We were not there trying to make a sale. It was nice when we did, of course. But we were more interested in talking to readers and writers—published and unpublished alike. Many such small journals are represented at AWP, with the main editors available and interested in meeting people like Thomas. I understand his frustration, but would urge him to seek out the smaller journals for a more personal bookfair experience.

Sincerely,
Rhett Iseman Trull
Editor, Cave Wall Press

Thomas responds:

Any frustration I did experience at the AWP Bookfair was of my own making. Like many writers, I'm more cut out for sitting at home alone drumming up another essay idea than I am cavorting among my peers in the bookstalls. It's unfortunate. I was thrilled to finally attend a national conference where I could "be myself" within a gathering that didn't necessitate wearing a professional cap—librarian, public accountant, social studies teacher—but each time I made the rounds through the fair, the cat got my tongue. I actually do better at the annual American Library Association conventions, of all places. Maybe this will change when I get to the writer luminary stage and prop up my own stall next to the ______________Review.

Dear Luna Park,

The Georgia Review just forwarded on to me Luna Park's kind words re my essay "Everybody's Nickname" (already outdated by a newer issue of the journal—sheesh!), and I wanted to thank you for the good close reading and the empathy. It's had me toying around with the idea of a booklength collection of similar essays—if one ever appears in the far future, I'll surely thank you for having been inspirational.

I'm assuming Luna Park is available on-line only, not in standard print. (My loss, as I'm a staunch stalwart computer refusenik—never owned one, never touched one; evidently such purity counts only if sacrifices are made for it, and perhaps Luna Park joins my list). But I very much admire your self-descriptive mission statement: so if I'm wrong, and if there's a print version that's escaped my notice here in sleepy backwater Witchita, KS, do let me know.

In any case, I'm obviously wishing you good luck from across intervening miles.

Best wishes,
Albert Goldbarth

Hi,

I've been enjoying the website, and wanted to send this [McSweeney's 26] along—it'll be out everywhere real soon. Thanks for taking a look, and for the very compelling and well-tempered posts—it's a neat thing you're doing.

Cheers to you,
Jordan [Bass]
Managing Editor, McSweeney's

Hey Luna Park,

What a great idea! As an editor and writer and (maybe more important) reader of little literary journals, I love what you guys are doing.

Thanks again,
Dave Housley
One Fifth of the Barrelhouse Editorial Squadron

* Letters and emails sent to Luna Park quoted above are almost always excerpted in order to highlight specific arguments, points, or neat-o bits.