From the Editors Geographica – Early December, 2015. It is nine degrees this morning here on the Bering Sea in Hooper Bay, the biggest village in Alaska, where it is dark as midnight at ten AM on a Thursday. Although Hooper Bay sits south of the Arctic Circle, sun-up comes this late because the village is perched on the western edge of a thousand mile time-zone. This editor has been in tundra country for a week, offering support after several critical, non-literary, incidents. Calamity has left the community quiet, reflective and kind to visiting strangers. Not an official staff member of this bright sub-regional clinic, though I am surrounded by high tech connectivity, the head office in Bethel won’t give me the wi-fi password. A local employee has given me moments of access to her account so that I might try to herd the last cats – corral the last reindeer – required for the thirteenth issue of Cirque (7.1). On Saturday, Cirque’s digital files will be passed to designer, Paxson Woelber. He will work on the issue during long, dark evenings on Adak, in the Aleutians, where he is flying the next day to hunt caribou. Update: Hurricane-force winds topped out at 122 miles per hour on Adak. Paxson escapes and finishes work on the issue in town. Near Taos, NM, Cirque’s founding editor, Michael Burwell, eagle-eyes each issue partnering one hundred percent in every decision and dot. We three are the core staff of Cirque, supported by Assistant to the Editors, Kellie Doherty, Portland, OR, and intern, Kenny Gerling, Anchorage. Of the genre editors, one resides in Arizona, the rest live in or around Anchorage (listed below). We pull together the strands of this geography, casting on, knit one, purl two, cast off. This issue features Tom Sexton in “Once a Laureate” and the remarkable photography of Jim Thiele. Pushcarting, 2015 – We are proud to announce our first group of Pushcart nominees. From Cirque 6.2 in poetry Carey Taylor’s “White Album Summer” and in nonfiction Amy Meissner’s “Swallowing the Needle.” In the current issue, Anne Caston’s poem, “The Cloak of Invisibility,” in fiction, Karen Tschannen’s story, “Wednesday,” and in nonfiction , Joan Swift’s, “Dacha” and James Sweeney’s story, “Break Shack.” Independently – Low costs, with a print on demand model, Cirque remains an independent journal supported by donations, readings, advertising, and sales. We build each issue with about $1500 dollars, publishing twice yearly on the Summer and Winter Solstices. Donate or subscribe at Paypal to the email address, cirquejournal@ak.net. Cirque was developed to serve the writers of our region as a print and online journal. All issues can be found full-text and perpetually online at www.cirquejournal.com. All issues are also available in print-on-demand hardcopy. We appreciate your contributions and support.
Sandra L Kleven ~ Michael Burwell
Cirque: A Literary Journal for the North Pacific Rim Sandra Kleven and Mike Burwell, Editors Paxson Woelber, Designer Published twice yearly on the Winter and Summer Solstices Anchorage, Alaska
Assistant to the Editors Kellie Doherty
Intern Kenny Gerling
Poetry Editors Kenny Gerling Carmen Maldonado Monica Devine
Fiction Editors Gretchen Phelps Jerry McDonnell
Nonfiction Editor Sherry Eckrich Cynthia Sims