I’m terrible with birthdays and anniversaries. Even my own. I was so consumed in April with final grading for my composition students, my own final projects and papers, tying up loose ends for the Delta Mouth Literary Festival 2018 (oh my, I still haven’t blogged about that—but I will soon. Spoiler alert: it was fantastic), preparing to summer in California with the fam, and publishing cahoodaloodaling‘s 26th issue, The Lyric Essay, that it dang near slipped my mind: our tiny piece of literary cyberspace turned six this May!

So here are a couple of things I’d like to share. First, our latest issue, for which all our contributors deserve a shout-out for their rockin’ art and lyric essays: Ivars Balkits, Nora Bonner, Ann Bowler, Samuel J Fox, Anne Gorrick, Kristen Hold-Browning, Dennis Humphrey, Kristine Langley Mahler, Emily Townsend, Eric Dean Wilson, Bill Wolak, and Colee Wong.

And secondly, my editor’s letter on turning six—and all the changes we’ve undergone at cahoodaloodaling recently.

I’ve been thinking, too, that while we’ve been pretty international in the past (and I’d love to get some additional staffers from around the globe—if you know anyone good, send them my way cahoodaloodaling AT gmail DOT com) we’ve slowly become deeply rooted in The South. Although I shouldn’t find it surprising; we’ve been headed that way for a long time.

Rachel Nix, my poetry editor who goes way beyond her job description, was the first I pulled (or bamboozled, take your pick) on board from below the Mason Dixon line. And, for a time, we had the wonderful Ben Walls on our poetry team, too, so I knew The South would be good to me.

(Also, can we take a moment to just admire her cute puppers?

Gosh almighty, these sweet faces.)

I aggressively targeted MFA programs in The South, got into LSU, and never looked back. And somehow in the last two years, between blessing the hearts of all the Baton Rouge drivers and eating as much crawfish as possible, cahoodaloodaling, too, has found a regional home. Hannah Hamilton, who I knew through Rachel, joined us for a while, first as a guest editor and then as our assistant editor. She’s moved on to allow time to do some pretty awesome things (which I can’t tell you about, but take my word for it: Hannah is a force to be reckoned with) but she certainly left her mark on the journal. I also have Rachel to thank for Sam Singleton and Tara Wood, both of whom she’s charmed into joining us, and who also add to our southern flavor.  Ann Bowler, my roomie-extrodanaire, just joined the staff, although truth be told, she’s lent her eye for design to a few of our most recent covers; Kate has moved southward; and we’ve got another soon-to-be-southerner in the works as Wes Jamison joined and then promptly decided to move down to good ol’ Louisiana to pursue his PhD. I’m just about as happy as a bayou gator suckering tourists out of marshmallows.

While I can’t say its going to be cahoodaloodaling‘s permanent residence (or only residence, really—staffer Michelle Panik keeps part of our heart here in California), The Deep South has been good to us.