In the pink even though the end is nigh.

Well, for me it is, as regards my tenure at the magazine. Just another couple days and the editorship will slip out of my grasp.

Editing IR has been amazing; working with Associate Editor Nina Mamikunian, Poetry Editor Ryan Teitman, Fiction Editor Chad Anderson, and Nonfiction Editor Andy Cartwright has been amazing. All together, it's fair to say that this has been the best professional experience of my life. And although I'm looking forward to having more time for my own reading and my own writing, I'm already missing the magazine.

For three years now, I've had the pleasure of reading the manuscripts submitted. Competition for inclusion in IR is pretty rigorous, so not everything we enjoyed reading gets printed. But do know we enjoy reading the submissions. That's one of the things I'll miss.

But in a few weeks, I'll have the pleasure of reading the summer 2009 issue, 31.1. Today I sent off the list of this issue's subscribers to one of our distributors. First, however, I reviewed the thousands of names and addresses to make sure the magazine would make it to all you generous subscribers. Even though that proofreading was a little mind numbing, it was also delightful because of the miniature discoveries found in the mailing list:

Issues are going to writers I've worked with, writers I've read, both. Issues are going to the libraries on the campuses of colleges I've attended, and issues are going to people who live on streets on which I've mosied or caught busses. Issues are going to people who live just a stone's throw (if you have a really, really good arm) from my parents' house. And issues are going to people in the same zip codes where I've worked in offices. Issues are going to my house--and I'm looking forward to the subtle community of reading the magazine with you all this summer.

Then again in the winter, that the subtle community will reemerge, when the new editorial staff has begun to settle in; I can't wait to see what they do, what we'll all be reading together.

--Jenny