It’s been beautiful here in Portland these past couple weeks, which has been the perfect backdrop to our work on the CALYX anthology. The anthology has been seeing a lot of development this term. For instance, we are now well into drafting author bios, creating a list of author contacts and affiliations, and finalizing the marketing plan, as well as completing the cover design brief which is due to go out sometime at the end of next term. After a meeting last week with Abbey, Ooligan’s Publisher, and Alicia, the Managing Editor of CALYX, we discussed the structure and layout of the pieces that will be included. There will be about five themes, ranging from Illness and Caretaking to Humor, and each theme will include a brief introductory framing essay. We also talked about the front matter and whether we will be featuring an introduction, foreword, or preface. The opportunities for additional content in this book are endless and almost overwhelming. We have already had to make sacrifices, and I anticipate making more in the future.

Something that I was very excited to learn was that the book will feature an excerpt from the memoir of Margarita Donelley, who was a founding editor of CALYX and an integral part of the selection process for this book in particular. She passed away Christmas Eve last year, and her unfinished manuscript is now in the hands of fellow CALYX editor Beverly McFarland.

For the rest of the term we will be receiving and reviewing pieces of the manuscript as they come in, with a finalized table of contents scheduled to be complete by the end of the month.