Bear with me; I’m new here.

I should always lead with this, perhaps with a please in front. After all, I don’t want to be too ingratiating. You, dear reader, can decide if the please is necessary and comment below. Please reply, if you have an inkling. Inklings aren’t very pushy.

Basically, this note is a declaration that my title has fully integrated into my being. Other than being a writer and teacher, I am JR Walsh, Fiction & Online Editor at The Citron Review. Maybe you can already see that I want your participation. No money will be asked for, I assure you. That’s outside my skill set.

In this new year, which will herald the tenth anniversary of our beloved journal of brief literature, I am making some resolutions: to honor, to cherish, to represent, and holler from snowy mountaintops about our contributors.

I want to connect us like so many dots. So many Citron-shaped dots.

My resolutions are an extension of the good work that The Citron Review has always done. One such example: Citron’s tradition of nominating our contributors for further recognition. This dedicated staff believes in the quality work of our writers; the extensive mental and emotional efforts it takes to make anything in the world that is all too happy to shush us; the lives lived in the pursuit of sharing our words; and the pursuit of words in order to share our lives.

I’m not just an editor ― I’m also a former contributor. And before that, I was a reader just looking for the right place for my weird little pieces of microfiction. Now I get to read wonderfully weird and not-so-weird pieces that drop my jaw, lift my brows, and make me squint at my screen wondering, how did this writer pull that off in so few words?

For me, this really is the most wonderful time of the year; it’s nomination season. The Citron Review nominates annually for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize, and now for the first time, we’ve put together eight pieces for Best Microfiction, 2018. In a world full of poison shoved through our eyeballs via the internet, The Citron Review can offer an antidote a little bit at a time.

We can push back by pulling closer together. As we laud the work of the past year, why not also celebrate 10 years of quality brief literature? So lately, we’re a little more chatty on social media. You’ll see beautiful pull-quotes made from our current issues appearing twice a week. On Wednesdays, you’re likely to spot an old friend who is doing something exciting. We’ve already reconnected with writers who teach, host an NBA podcast, make films, record music, perform Butoh, and publish novels, chapbooks, memoirs, and poetry collections. Join us, like us, follow us, and share with us. We can’t wait to share with you our increasingly contributor-centric journal.

There will be many more wonderful discoveries during our upcoming anniversary year. This is exciting to me, since my favorite elements of the short form are the quick turn and the surprise.

When I said bear with me, I felt an overwhelming urge to hunt for emojis. Is there a good bear emoji? If it’s winter, should the bear be hibernating or out looking for citrons, what with all this climate change? What about an emoji of a bear holding a citron? If you have an inkling….

JR Walsh
Online Editor
and Fiction Editor
The Citron Review