Preface to the September 2021 Issue

From the desk of the editor
September 17, 2021

Dear all,

I am delighted to welcome everyone to the September 2021 issue of Carmina Magazine. This issue is our second in our new online home and brings with it the work of many diverse, beautiful, and introspective voices from all across the globe. The September issue features our largest lineup to date, with contributions including original art, mythological retellings, modern re-inventions of old tales, ghost stories, and much, much more. An author's or artist's statement accompanies almost every piece (except where the contributor chose to go without one). These statements provide insight into how the piece was inspired by an older tradition and gives readers a glimpse into the creative processes that went into each piece's creation.

With the release of this issue, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you—readers, contributors, and supporters—for helping Carmina in its transition to its new online home. If you were previously following the magazine, you may remember that Carmina has undergone a metamorphosis in the last six months with its move to a new domain and other related changes. I founded Carmina on a free Wordpress site in 2018 when I was fresh out of undergrad. As a lover of mythology and writing, I wanted to create a place where modern writers and creators could take stories from the past and rework them into something new, but I didn't know if it would be successful. After all, the literary landscape is full of many fledgling markets that disappear as quickly as they appear.

But Carmina has been thriving, entirely thanks to you. In March, I moved Carmina to a dot-com domain of its very own, as well as a new server, in order to give Carmina more creative space and freedom. These changes will help the magazine continue to evolve and expand, as well as better showcase the wonderful work of our growing number of contributors. There were over 300 submissions sent in for this month's issue alone, and I am so grateful for each and every one. Carmina would truly be nothing without all of you. Thank you again.

One more quick update before we dive into September's offerings: along with this month's issue, I have also launched an updated version of our previous March 2021 issue. This updated version features refactored and streamlined code, as well as pictures and other small changes to make it shinier and prettier than it was before. I am also planning on beginning to slowly transfer the old issues on our Wordpress site to our new domain here. Whether you are reading our content on Wordpress or on our personal domain, I hope everyone enjoys Carmina Magazine, and I hope you all will come back again next year for our March 2022 issue!

Until next time,

Clarabelle Miray Fields

Founder and managing editor