This issue of Cordite Poetry Review is my last as Managing Editor. After eleven years I feel that the time has come for renewal and fresh energy.
Therefore I’m also very pleased to announce, after a lengthy selection process, that our new Managing Editor will be Kent MacCarter.
You’ll be hearing more from Kent over the coming months but for now, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish him every success in steering Cordite in new and exciting directions.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank each of the editors, contributors, subscribers and readers who have helped make Cordite what it is today. In the words of Jeff Fenech, I love youse all.
When I first took over as Managing Editor of Cordite in 2001, I had precious little idea about how to run a magazine, let alone any knowledge of HTML. But somehow, and with the assistance of Adrian Wiggins (who, together with Peter Minter, founded Cordite in 1997), I managed to bumble through and over the years have managed to convince a number of other loons to join me in what seemed a very fragile and crazy enterprise.
Today, I’m glad to be leaving Cordite in an orderly fashion (oh how great it is to jump rather than be pushed!) and will of course continue to provide assistance to Kent and the remainder of the editorial team for as long as I am required.
In the meantime, for anyone who’s interested, I’ve assembled a list of my ‘top eleven’ moments as an editor of Cordite over on my blog.
So long, and thanks for all the poetry!
Vale, Davey! Vale and Farewell! Hard to think of cordite without ye. If you never contribute anything to the poetry community again (which I sincerely doubt) its debt to you will still be impossible to repay.
Also – I was a contributing editor? You learn something every day…
Thanks Adam! And oh, um, you weren’t a contributing editor? Well … hmmm. Waaah?
I think it must have been when you wrote those small press features; at the time I think we gave anyone who wrote more than one article for us contributing editor status. Not that you didn’t deserve it, of course.
Waaalll, you warned us you would disappear. but man, so many fish! So maaaaany beautiful shiny fish …
Thanks, Jen!
Thanks David, for the poetry you’ve cared to present in Cordite and for writing your own. WHO would have/could have pushed you if you had not jumped? If you did jump, of course. Having me wonder if there are forces behind the scenes who’ll decide who is to be heard, who to be silenced by omission? Leaving me to say, consider dying only with a pencil in your hand and a blank piece of paper beckoning you to blend hours of solitude and engagement. Best. Joyce.
Hi Joyce, well there’s nothing sinister about the manner of my departure – although I guess somewhere, in some back room, someone is plotting to overthrow OzPo as we know it.
Good one, David.
You edited one of the most exciting, inventive and irreverent institutions of 21st century OzPo. You asked the big questions about what OzPo means and you helped find answers for some of them. Cordite wont be the same without you.
Thanks Liam – and thank you for your work as poetry editor too. I still think Children of Malley I and II are among the best issues we’ve ever done. Maybe you should start planning for Volume III!
Sad news, David – but it must be a exciting too? I think everyone will miss your wit and vision, and I’ve certainly appreciated your support over the last few years. Looking forward to what comes next!
Hi Ashley,
Thanks for your comment! I guess it is a little sad to leave the role behind, but I’m really glad to be handing Cordite over in good shape, and to a talented group of editors as well. I also can’t wait to see what comes next!
Sorry to see you go David. You set a great standard which won’t be forgotten. No doubt we will now read more of your excellent poems.
Adam Aitken
Hello Adam, thank you for your kind words! I’m also looking forward to penning some more pomes! :>
Hello David, good luck with your future projects. Cheers,
Ralph
Thank you Ralph – and I hope post-Famous Reporter life is treating you well. Maybe we should start up an ex-editors club ….