Editor’s Note by Kristina Marie Darling


It is truly an honor to introduce the newest issue of Tupelo Quarterly, TQ16.  We are pleased to celebrate the winners, finalists, & semifinalists of three juried contests:  The Second Annual Tupelo Broadside Prize, The TQ16 Poetry Open Prize, and the TQ16 Prose Open Prize.  Thank you our extraordinary final judges, Kevin Prufer, Jennifer Chang, and Bhanu Kapil, respectively, for their time and expertise.  And of course, gratitude to the writers who honored us with their work.  We were astonished by the quality of writing submitted, and grateful for the opportunity to consider new poetry and prose by National Book Award Finalists, former N.E.A. Fellows, and past winners of the Barnard Prize for Women Poets, among many other honors.

Thank you to our wonderful editorial staff for making this one of our most memorable issues yet.  We are pleased to offer new essays, interviews, and other features by our esteemed staff in our “Editorial Features” section.  These pieces offer insight into the curatorial hand shaping the magazine, as Tupelo Quarterly is the ledger of a community, its conversations, and its confluences.  With the launch of this issue, we are pleased to welcome three new editors to our staff:  Vi Khi Nao, Associate Editor, and winner of the FC2 Prize for Innovative Fiction; Kara Candito, Associate Editor, and winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize for Poetry from the University of Utah Press; and Rebecca Hazelton, Senior Poetry Editor, and author of three stunning collections.

Our editors have also solicited and introduced some gorgeous work, including new poetry by Jessica Stark, Julia Madsen, and Hadara Bar-Nadav, which can be found in our Editors’ Selections section.  It is always a pleasure to see the conversation that unfolds in our issues, and equally exciting to see that dialogue take place across the boundaries of form and genre.  Our Collaborative & Cross-Disciplinary Texts range from video poems to digital broadsides, visual poetry, archival excavations, and text and image projects.  We are thrilled to showcase new hybrid work by Mary-Kim Arnold, Jose Avergue, Kate Greenstreet, Kristy Bowen, and more.  Our Editors’ Selections in Visual Art, curated by the inimitable Elaine Sexton, continue to bridge the gap between the literary and the fine arts.  Happy autumn, and enjoy!