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From the Editor’s Desk

Winter, 2012

A little over twelve years ago, two naïve New Yorkers had a dream:  to build a rocket that would travel near the speed of light and enable them to boldly go where no man has gone before.  Alas, that dream didn’t work out (who knew rocket science was so tricky) and instead they put their over active imaginations to use on a less lofty, but perhaps equally important project:  Ducts.org.  And in the past I’ve taken this space to say a few words about where we’ve been and where we’re going.  Today, however, I realized I didn’t have anything in particular to say about all that.  That’s because Ducts.org has been on a steady course for many years.  We’re proud that we’ve managed to carry our readers to strange new worlds, to familiar psychic landscapes and to hilarious, moving and heart-wrenching dreams. 

With that in mind, then, here are a few of the things our sister organizations, New York Writers Workshop and Greenpoint Press, continue to do:

With the September release of We’re Not Leaving, by Dr. Benjamin Luft who, by the way had his own segment on the special 9/11 edition of 60 Minutes, Greenpoint Press has joined the elite of small presses, by selling nearly 3,000 copies of his book. And gOld Harry Getzov’s collection of interviews with men and women over the age of 70, also continues to sell very nicely. We hope to continue the trend with two more wonderful memoirs to be published this spring, Fierce Joy, by Ellen Shecter, and The Call of the Lark, by Maura Mulligan.  http://greenpointpress.org/

This past fall, the New York Writers Workshop held sold out fiction and non-fiction pitch conferences.  Writers from all over the country travel to New York to pitch their novels or book ideas to editors in person.  So don’t wait too long to sign up for the next sessions, non-fiction the weekend of March 2-4, and fiction, April 27-2.  http://newyorkwritersworkshop.com/

We continue to raise money as part of our effort to bring you the best personal stories on the web.  If you enjoy the thought-provoking essays and memoirs, if you are captivated by our fiction, poetry and art, I urge you to donate whatever amount you can. Every little bit helps!

As always, you’ll find great essays, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and art within these pages.  And as I smash this bottle of champagne against the hull of our steady ship, I would like to thank you for your support over the years.  Please return again and again! 

-Jonathan Kravetz, Editor-in-Chief

This issue of Ducts is made possible with a regrant from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

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