... and launched!

We went out for Thai, which, has been mentioned a few times on social media, in celebration.  With our families, so that meant, essentially, that Brett and her husband Will and I talked about things like the subject GREs and Shakespeare in the Park and Ryan chased after our kids.  (Thank you, Ryan-who-did-the-coding-for-the-website and father-of-my-children, you are amazing.)

The first issue is up, and we've gotten so many good bits of feedback:

- Diane Lockwood gave us a shout out in her blog post "Promising New Online Journals."
- The blogger Miss Fickle Reader featured us in her post Good Writing Break: Post-Summer Solstice Edition by saying we have "an attractive site" with "an impressive lineup of work in its debut issue."  She mentions Ray Gonzlalez's poem "In the Cottonwoods", Ed Bok Lee's sonic translation, Emily Yoon's poem about the Korean ferry sinking, and Kelli Russell Agodon's moving piece on mourning.  And then:  "Bravo, editors!"  Thank you, Miss Fickle Reader.

Other words I've seen floating up on Facebook:  badass, gorgeous, stunning, wonderful, beautiful, etc.  (I'm a bit fond of 'badass,' myself.)

One poet said, "It turns out the world needed Tinderbox!"

Another, "This is beautiful! I'll admit that at first I thought, gee, *another* journal? -- but these poems are spectacular. Congratulations!"

I know, I know.  There's that silly phrase "humble brag," and there's absolutely nothing humble about my post, and that's OK.  I'm celebrating myself, or rather--I'm celebrating this thing Brett and I did, along with my husband.  It started as a seed in late winter and here we are, the start of summer, and we have done something so good.  I'm proud of all these poems, separately and together.  I'm proud of these poets for writing such beautiful, stunning poems we had to create a home for them.  They are why I wanted to do this.  I'm proud of how hard we worked to get this thing where it is.  I'm proud (and terrified) of its potential.  I'm glad for this opportunity to edit like a motherfucker.