Welcome! We are ecstatic you're here and we invite you to join us in celebrating language and imagery, creativity and community--otherwise known as Duende.
Because the website launched just a few days ago, this post feels like it welcomes us, the team behind Duende, too. It's exciting to see the research, the planning, the fried memory boards and brainwaves, and maybe even a sprained finger manifest into this literary journal. Wide-eyed, we greet Duende alongside you.
The journal launches with its inaugural issue in October; thereafter, new work will appear once each month. In the meantime, and long after the launch, you'll find updates to the blog twice monthly. March 1st brings the next post. We'll be spinning like a well-balanced top that day, in the aftermath of AWP, but given a good set of blackout shades we will post Duende's conference highlights. (If you're attending the AWP conference in Seattle be sure to track us down for conversation and swag. The matchbooks alone, designed by our own Kate, are worth the trip!)
On March 15th, when submissions open, you'll find a gentle reminder to SUBMIT. After that, expect a bridge mix of literary delights. Initial blog topics and invitations for conversation will include: getting past fear into submitting, creating gender equality for a diverse literary future, what to do with a BFA, is an MFA right for you, improve your writing by reading at readings, and other treats. Regardless of the topic, we aim to encourage engagement--with your community, Duende's, or a new one that you choose to create.
If you hadn't noticed, we think having a sense of community is kind of a big deal. Duende is a way for us to extend the intellectual, creative, and ethical intensity that occurs during a Goddard residency. As students in a low-residency program, most of us live elsewhere. Once every semester we come together for eight days. The magnitude of what transpires during those eight days is difficult to explain. Besides, we'd rather show you. So grab a coffee, a tea, scotch, whatever excites you, and join us.
Want more interaction? We do, too. Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you in the Duende digi-sphere!