Editor's Note

The Cortland Review thanks David LaPorte, a self-taught artist, for his "Leaning Squares," this issue's cover. After living in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, and Madrid, LaPorte became inspired to paint, and since that's what painters do, he painted. Before long he was selling paintings which led to shows in Los Angeles and northern California and most recently at the Theater of Performing Arts in Mountain View California. He always works with a spiritual theme, and in "Leaning Squares," he uses texture and form, adding articles of inspiration along with the splattered paint and a thick heavy coating of color to give the canvas dimension, dimension that conveys diversity and relationships in life--life at the deepest levels, much like the layers of consciousness. Anyone think that artistic process sounds like writing a poem?

For this issue, The Cortland Review also thanks poets Lindsey Bellosa, Chase Samuel Berggrun, Mark Jay Brewin, Jr., Stephen W. Carter, Stephen Cramer, Elizabeth B. Crowell, G.S. Crown, Jacob Cumiskey, William Grenfell Davies, Jr., Robert Haight, Zebulon Huset, Betsy Johnson-Miller, Lillian Kwok, Devon Moore, Mary France Morris, Dan Murphy, Kathryn Nelson, James B. Nicola, Thomas Osatchoff, Supritha Rajan, B.T. Shaw, Eva, Skrande, Cathrine Stearns, Don Thompson, Ross White and fiction writers, Nick Bertleson, Jason Constantine Ford, Tim Love, and Luba Ostashevsky. It's still cold and rainy most places, so curl up and enjoy reading in these pages.

New Feature:
While The Cortland Review always thanks its dedicated and talented staff, Anna Catone, Elizabeth Cornell, Christian Gullette, Amy MacLennan, David Moody, Jennifer Wallace and, of course, Editor Emeritus and Founder, Guy Shahar, this month, we give special thanks to Audio Editor, David Moody who has come forward with his own idea for an Audio Editor's statement. "Each issue," he writes, "I get intimate with the audio--listening close, clipping, etc., and I always end up having a favorite. It often has less to do with the text and more to do with the reader's voice and reading style." This issue David selects Supritha Rajan's recitation of her poem "Domestic" as his "Audio Editor's Favorite." David goes on: "When a lyric poem is given a lyric reading, it must be heard once for words and once for the sounds and once again for the resonant silences within. Supritha Rajan's reading is as much a performance of the poem as it is a chance for the poem to perform itself through her verbal precision, enunciation, and extension of sounds. The sonic range of "Domestic" extends from the punctual click of "c" through the open humming of the final word." Thank you, David.

And why not think about spending part of your summer in New Hampshire:
THE FROST PLACE CONFERENCE ON POETRY AND TEACHING
Dates: June 21 - 25, 2015
Deadline: May 31, 2015
See http://frostplace.org/ctp/
The Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching brings together hard-working classroom teachers and highly skilled poet/teachers to share time-tested approaches to making poetry an essential element of the classroom. Both graduate and continuing education credit are available in partnership.

THE FROST PLACE TEACHERS AS WRITERS WORKSHOP
Dates: June 25 - 26, 2015
Deadline: May 31, 2015
See http://frostplace.org/taw/
The Frost Place Teachers As Writers Workshop is an intensive day-and-a-half session for classroom teachers who want to focus on their own writing and revision practices. The workshop is limited to participants who have already attended the Conference on Poetry and Teaching. Continuing education credits are available.

THE FROST PLACE CONFERENCE ON POETRY
Dates: Arrival July 12, Departure July 18, 2015
Deadline: June 15, 2015
See http://frostplace.org/conference-on-poetry/
Spend a week at "intensive poetry camp" with writers who are deeply committed to learning more about the craft of writing poetry. The Frost Place Conference on Poetry offers daily workshops, classes, lectures, writing and revising time in a supportive and dynamic environment.

THE FROST PLACE POETRY SEMINAR
Dates: August 2 - 8, 2015
Deadline: July 1, 2015
See http://frostplace.org/poetry-seminar/
The Seminar is a unique opportunity for dedicated poets to delve intensely into the poetic process in a small group setting. Participants will have their poems-in-progress given generous and focused attention in workshops and one-on-one meetings with faculty, and will be invited to think in new ways about what can be accomplished in revision. For an additional fee the Seminar will offer full-length manuscript review to a limited number of participants.

Cheers!
Ginger Murchison
Editor-in-Chief