Dear Reader,
I’m incredibly excited to share this very special Halloween issue of Nightingale & Sparrow with you! Halloween has always been one of my favourite holidays and, as a big fan of Gothic literature and art, this was the perfect time to invite submitters to send us their best Poe-esque work.
Of course, this issue is also special for another reason— it’s our very first with an expanded staff! The N&S team tripled from the last issue to this one and I’m so grateful to each and every member of our staff. Each member of our “nest” is a volunteer, yet puts in so much hard work to make this the best possible publication.
With that in mind, I’d like to extend a big thank you to our editorial, production, and social media teams for their efforts in the past several weeks. Especially with the first Nightingale & Sparrow Press book going live (congratulations to Lynne Schmidt on the publication of her chapbook, Gravity!), it’s been all the more critical to have a great team on board to ensure the issue arrived on time and at our usual high quality.
And, as always, it’s not just our team that deserves a thank you. Each of the contributors contained herein, every submitter, and all of our followers and readers (like you) makes Nightingale & Sparrow possible. We quite literally couldn’t do this without you.
I hope you enjoy this issue of Nightingale & Sparrow. We asked submitters to send us their “best bits of gothic” and, as always, our contributors delivered just that. Step into a dark and stormy past through pieces like Elizabeth Spencer Spragins’ “In the Dungeon of Duntulm Castle” and Birdy Odell’s “Stones.” or look Death in the face through J.S. Watts’ “Earth to Earth.” Shiver as you page through ghosts, spells, and all things spooky.
Happy Halloween, and we’ll see you in 2020 with issue V!
Juliette Sebock
Editor-in-Chief, Nightingale and Sparrow
