With the heat index regularly in triple digits, the constant threat of afternoon thunderstorms, and a hurricane looming off the coast, the summer is fully upon us here in central Florida.

For me, it has been a summer of change: we moved closer to campus last month, and our daughter started college this week. And there is change here, too, at Willows Wept Review.

Not only did we add Kathleen Kraft to our masthead as associate editor this summer, but we are also adding a print edition to WWR beginning with this issue. Many of our readers and contributors have requested a print version of the journal, so I’m glad to announce that beginning with Issue Twelve, the journal will be available in digital and print formats through HP’s print-on-demand service, Mag Cloud. Digital versions of the issue, including iPad and PDF versions, will (of course) be free. Perfect-bound print copies of the issue will cost twelve dollars.

I hope that readers who choose to order the print edition of this issue will have the same experience of fascination and joy that I had on the day the proof copy arrived in the mail–I had read all of the work many, many times, but it was wonderful to hold it in my hand, to experience something of what Walter Benjamin might have described as the aura of the issue.

And so I’m very happy today to offer Issue Twelve in both digital and print formats. The issue features a striking cover image by the 15-year-old award-winning photographer Eleanor Leonne Bennett, and it includes work by John Paul Calavitta, William Cullen Jr., Jim Davis, Howie Good, Timothy Gray, A. H. Hofer, B. J. Hollars, Rose Hunter, Colleen Khachatourians, George Korolog, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Tarn W.P. MacArthur, Florence Major, Dave Malone, Neila Mezynski, Lisa Roney, Rae Spencer, Judith Skillman, Nicol Stavlas, Alison Carb Sussman, and Helen Vitoria.

For trusting us with their words, I am thankful.