Welcome to the first issue of Alternating Current Press’ annual Poiesis Review that contains fiction and creative nonfiction right alongside the poetry you’ve always loved. We’ve expanded the journal to contain prose, and now this beast of a journal sits pretty at 200 pages of writing by some of the best writers in the independent press today. There are lots of literary journals out there, so why take a chance on this one? Because, after 20 years in the small press, Poiesis Review is one of the only literary journals in existence that features a blend of today’s up-and-coming promising rookies alongside the staples and legends of the last few decades in the literary underground. You can buy in confidence knowing that nowhere else will you find such a smattering of the writers’ spectrum or such a truly accurate cross-section of all walks of the literary world-what five-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Wisconsin Regional Writers Association Award winner, Charles P. Ries, called young blood running with old blood. We are proud to be one of the holdout bastions representing the full and true independent press. The Featured Writers in this issue are Norman Mailer Award finalist, Nathan Graziano; Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, two-time NEA Fellowship recipient, and Pushcart Prize nominee, Sean Brendan-Brown; and multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and three-time PEN grant recipient, Doug Draime. Their work is showcased beside 37 other artists and over 100 pieces of writing, including two of Alternating Current’s six 2013 Pushcart Prize nominations, the two grand-prize winners and four honorable-mention winners of our 2013 Luminaire Award for Best Poetry and Best Prose, and stunning cover and back cover art by the tremendously talented Terry Fan. This journal is hands-down one of the finest collections to which we have ever had the pleasure of affixing our name. If you’ve been wanting to give Alternating Current a try but didn’t know where to start, then this is the place.

Other writers featured in this issue are: Leah Angstman, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, Harry Calhoun, Paula Cary, Alan Catlin, CEE, Christina Elaine Collins, K. M. Dersley, Aleathia Drehmer, Michael Estabrook, Jason Fisk, Lawrence Gladeview, George Held, Kevin M. Hibshman, Justin Hyde, Merilyn Jackson, Angie Turner Jeffreys, Patrick Kindig, Angela Consolo Mankiewicz, Hosho McCreesh, Frankie Metro, Shauna Osborn, David S. Pointer, D. A. Pratt, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Charles P. Ries, Christopher Robbins, Robert James Russell, Janette Schafer, Robert Schuler, Neil Serven, Denis Sheehan, Jane Stuart, William Taylor, Jr., Travis Turner, Paula Anne Yup.

Thank you for taking a chance on Alternating Current. Find out more at alternatingcurrentarts.com.