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Welcome to Volume III Issue 1, the summer issue of Poemeleon.
Dedicated to the persona poem, in this issue you will find, in addition to exciting new poems by both emerging and established poets, the insightful essay, "Why We Wear Masks", two full-length book reviews, as well as a new mini-reviews section focusing on four fantastic debuts. Speaking of reviews, we would like to officially welcome Tom C. Hunley to our editorial team. Tom is our new Book Review Editor, and as such he is responsible for soliciting as well as writing reviews of books that may be of interest to our readers. By way of an introduction, Tom is an assistant professor of English at Western Kentucky University, and the director of Steel Toe Books. We first became acquainted with Tom when he submitted poems for the ekphrastic issue. Later he submitted a review which we ran in the issue dedicated to form. Then late last year we were contacted by a poet who specifically requested him as a reviewer. And so when Tom generously volunteered to join our staff, we were ectastic. We're lucky to have him.
On the table of contents this time you'll find, in addition to the authors' names, the names of the persona(e) they have assumed. And, as with every issue, we have asked each of our contributors for some brief thoughts on the use of the persona in poetry: some likened it to ventriloquism, some as a way to think through the implications of history, some as a brief escape from our ordinary lives, some as a means of giving ourselves permission to say what we ordinarily cannot say; as a means of exploring the psyches of others. So be sure to check those out as well -- they appear at the top of each contributor's page.
We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.