Originally posted September 23, 2007
A few weeks ago I finished reading the latest and last Harry Potter (for fans who haven’t gotten there yet, no spoilers will follow). I love the methodical structure, how a passing remark in one book can resurface as a central theme or character several books later. And I love the characters themselves (however fantasy’s naysayers may claim the genre never produces full-fleshed characters). The more alloyed the better – Snape and Sirius are my favorites. And it’s refreshing to see children’s fiction that doesn’t shield children from the reality of loss and mortality, or the simple fact that the good guys aren’t always good.
I’ve also been surfing the fan sites to learn more about J.K. Rowling and her take on the story. I found out the first book was picked up by an English publisher for a print run of all of 1,000 before becoming a bestseller with blockbuster movies to boot. That kind of story can make a writer wonder, what if? (Though as a poet, it would be a pretty far-fetched “what if” for me.) It would certainly be lovely to have the money to buy more time for writing. And millions of adoring fans wouldn’t be taken amiss either.
But real success, as far as I’m concerned, is to touch one person – even if it’s just one person listening at an open mic or reading a class assignment who really gets it, who carries some piece of it away with them. Of course, once you’ve had that one person, you can’t help going for another. If that one person becomes, say, a couple million, that would be pretty neat. Still, to touch one person makes a poem worth its existence, a writer’s effort worthwhile.
– Sari
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Editor
Sari Krosinsky lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her partner and two cats.
She received a B.A. in religious studies and a M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Her poems have appeared in Poesia, Pebble Lake Review, The American Poetry Journal, Arsenic Lobster, Verse Daily, and others. Fiction Editor
Leslie Fox lived in Central America during her formative years and in New Mexico since the mid-70s – before it was cool.
She writes novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and creative nonfiction. Some of her short fiction has appeared in The Medical Muse, red. a journal of arts, Earth’s Daughters and Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection. She has a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico.Art Editor
Dianne Schlies is a practicing artist and has taught studio art since 1986. She received her M.F.A. from SMU at Dallas, Texas in 1990. She has studied or worked with David Bates, Mel Bochner, Squeak Carnwath, Harmony Hammond, Ed Harris, Joyce Kozloff, Mary Ellen Mark, Duane Michals and Robert Rauschenberg. Schlies presently teaches Drawing and 2-D Design in Albuquerque, New Mexico.