When Katie and I first agreed to begin this project, I was living in Alaska. Almost a year later I am 4,098 miles away from that far-flung, snow-capped place, and now sit in the rolling hills and thick kudzu of Eastern Tennessee. Distance is something I am comfortable and familiar with. The wide, green/blue Earth that stretches between Katie and I has shrunk just a little bit, thanks to our shared love of the art of writing. The concept of Far Away is to help shrink the Earth a little more. We have contributors stretching from Moscow to Anchorage to London to Adelaide. All of us little lights blinking into space. Through our art, through this project, we’re really not that far away from each other.
–
Another goal in the creation of this magazine was that contributions not be juried. Too many publications wear their personal artistic vision like armor, carrying their guidelines and expectations like shields and swords into battle. What should be great joy is instead exclusive, stressful, and tense.
–
Well, this is a party you’re all invited to. If you want to share what you see when you dream we want to share it with the world. We’re all born intrinsically making things, making songs, making up stories. Why do we stop? Does someone tell us we’re not good enough? That the little stories and pictures we create aren’t viable?
–
Let’s forget about all of that. Let’s share what’s inside us without judgment or self-righteousness or pretension. Will you join us?
–
PS – I have included some haiku and short poems from readers/contributors in the white space around the contributor biographies. I would love to make reader/contributor haiku and short poems a regular feature. Send me your thoughts and visions (to christine.dano.johnson@gmail.com) and I’ll print them in future issues.
Far Away Literary Magazine 