Charles Jensen
31 MAY 2008

THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE

When I first developed the idea for this project in 2006, I had hope that it would evolve to become not "just" a literary magazine featuring exceptional work by emerging and established poets, but that it would, over time, begin to serve as a resource to communities, to help poets find each other, work together, and build connections where they live.

A kind of "Poet seeking Poets" service, if you will. A literary Craigslist that featured, instead of "missed connections," desired connections.

For writers, whose work can be so isolating, I think developing relationships with colleagues is one of the things that keeps us sane, keeps us writing. The internet facilitates relationships now through the myriad poetry blogs and journals that crop up, but what about real life?

In an odd twist of fate, it seems now that the LOCUSPOINT project will become an even more important resource to me personally as I pick up my life and move to a new city, a new job, and—I hope—a vibrant and eclectic poetry community.

The second edition of the project launches today with Brent Goodman's Madison. A fitting way to begin this edition as well as the next step in my life as I spent the first 18 years of my life living just 45 minutes from "Madtown," and then spent the next four attending the University of Wisconsin's rival school. Interesting bookends for me; fantastic, innovative, and unique writing for you.

Stay tuned for the rest of this edition's cities: they each promise to surprise and inspire you. And, a hint: I will be moving to one of them in less than four weeks.

I am always on the look out for new editors, so please contact me if you're interested in participating in LOCUSPOINT.

Best regards,

Charles Jensen

CHARLES JENSEN is the author of three chapbooks: The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon, new from New Michigan Press; Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O'Hara Chapbook Award; and Little Burning Edens (Red Mountain Review 2005). In 2007, he received an Artist's Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. His poems have appeared in Bloom, FIELD, The Journal, New England Review, No Tell Motel, Quarterly West, Washington Square, and West Branch. With his collaborator Sarah Vap, he has published interviews with Lynn Emanuel, Beth Ann Fennelly, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Frank Paino, and C. D. Wright. He works for the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University and maintains a blog on cinema and poetry at kinemapoetics.