Editor’s Note
PETER LABERGE
FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Born on November 19, 2010, weighing approximately a pound, The Adroit Journal was a healthy, fully functioning baby. When it gurgled, you knew you had to change its diaper; when it cried, it was hungry. There was a simple process, governed by repetition: submission period, issue, submission period, issue… Slowly, but surely, you watched its hair grow in, watched its little stomach plump.
Now, nearly four years later, the journal is nearly ready to head off to preschool. It has come along way – garnering recognition from a handful of online and print anthologies we respect and admire, establishing solidified programs to support young writers (such as The Adroit Prizes and The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program), and ultimately serving to feature what the global staff of nearly seventy high school, college, and graduate students sees as “the future of writing and art.”
In fact, this issue is filled with everything you might expect from an almost-four-year-old: the innocent questioning of culture, the gentle intrigue of human attraction, the fascination with the natural world, the prophetic wisdom, the mistakes & regrets, and the quiet contemplation of history. We can also see the spirit and spunk of youth in other ways, such as through those recognized by the 2014 Adroit Prizes for Poetry and Prose, judged by Richie Hofmann and Wendy Rawlings. Overall, we are intensely proud of this issue – selected from nearly 3,000 submissions. There’s simply no other way to be!
That said, this place is admittedly a rather strange place to be: watching your child grow from a baby, to a toddler, to a member of this earth, to a citizen of this world. You begin to see its attitude, a glimpse of what it will likely be for the rest of its life. For the first time, you understand the meaning behind its smile, the quiet habits that have solidified, gradually, right under your nose. In time, you know it might earn the same wrinkles that you’ve earned, but you also know that it will manage to, somehow – in this turbulent, energetic, unforgiving world – grow into its own being.
So that’s where I leave you, dear reader, and that’s what I ask you to consider while reading this issue. Ask yourself, where have these people been, and where are they going? Where do I fit in? If you’re careful, you might find an answer.
Graciously,
Peter LaBerge
Founder/Editor-in-Chief
The Adroit Journal
http://www.theadroitjournal.org