Spring 2024 | Volume 6, Issue 2

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

This space is often one of personal and artistic indulgence. And while I’m sure you would all agree that my track record of literary brilliance and philosophical vision is unblemished, there is a far more important matter to address on this page this spring. Sean Forbes is stepping aside as poetry editor of New Square after this issue. When I founded The Sancho Panza Literary Society, Sean agreed to join our first residency cohort. Despite being more prominent than me, more accomplished than me, more determined than me, and at least half as good looking as me, he granted me faith, and supported a project that had no history. On paper, he lent us instant credibility, and I traded on his good name over and over again. In the room he gave us that inscrutable thing, that no arts organization is worth a damn without. I barely knew him when we started; today he is my son’s Godfather. He will continue on as Associate Director of the organization, a member of our executive board, and add a new role co-directing a poetry specific residency in Dublin, but these pages will miss him in ways that any space would suffer from the absence of immense talent, and great heart. Thank you Sean. Thank you brother. 

-JR

Ps—This is a transitional issue in many ways—as we are coming up in the world a bit. As such, we will be expanding and reopening our review sections in the fall; we’re now part of the conversation, so we might as well drive it. Let me formally welcome our new editorial team in the review sections—Margherita Galli (literature), Harry Lowther (music), Thomas Keith ( film), and Chris Flakus ( staff picks)—and congratulate founding members Amber Smith and Kevin Carr on ascending to editor at large positions. Let me also thank wonderful poet and professor Sandee Gertz  for agreeing to step into Sean’s role as poetry editor. I also want to pause to recognize our existing team—if you’re ever looking for a genius, just read our masthead and point to a name at random.

Pps-- I recently saw the most fascinating short documentary on ESPN. Apparently, and by order of magnitude, Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” is the most popular pregame song among NBA and NFL players. It may sometimes feel like literature, and all artistic forms, are receding into deeper and deeper niches, but here’s a vote for rejecting that sequestration. If old 5’6 Phil can get Lebron going, well, translatable greatness is closer than you think. Just write like yourself; the rest works itself out.