Dear Reader/Contributor,

The world of art is illusory; there is a prevailing perception that art is both plentiful and varied enough to satisfy and peak interest in many. Art is plenty. Yet, there is so little of that necessary component of variation, which may also mean representation, considered and/or made available to a broad readership, hearership, and viewership. The vastness of the American literary landscape is much wider than we've ever imagined or bothered to publish.

There are tons of works published, often the same voices from the same perspectives from the same places. This current landscape is colored by a few, whose work cinches the aesthetic tastes of some. Some presses publish special issues devoted to specific socio-cultural groups as a means of including those artists/writers who would generally not have the opportunity to grace the pages of their publications. I applaud the openness. Yet, this openness is deceptive, temporary and too programmed for art as a profession, a thing of pleasure and may wind up being more damaging despite attempts at good will.

The future has the benefit of so much awesome work from the literary past and present that it can create a critical semblance of vastness and variation in the American landscape. The future, guided by those who have been inside the gate and who have chosen to step out and mingle, has a call to be brighter. The future comes without complaint to make the space we can support and believe in whole-artedly.

We, the founders of Tidal Basin Press, openly admit to be of a very specific aesthetic. We trust in the natural liberties of our aesthetic to regularly (or irregularly) alter and vary itself when possibility arises and possibility is always present in artistic creation and process.

We invite you to follow the gradual progress and the promised struggle of our endeavor to amplify the voice of the human experience through art that is intimate, engaging, and audacious, to expressively and fiscally support artists who represent the rich American landscape by publishing high-quality, well-crafted literature, visual and media art, and ultimately, to provide a space for inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the creative arts.

Be there with us. Challenge us. Vary us.

Welcome!

Respectfully,

Melanie Henderson, Founding and Managing Editor

letter from the managing editor

melanie henderson