Editor's Note

How appropriate that Tom Sanford's bright and bold "Perkus Tooth" should grace Cortland Review's bright and bold Website redesign on the anniversary of our 15th year. Inspired by Jonathan Lethem's Perkus in "Chronic City," Sanford's painting, like "Chronic City," captures the "slipperiness between reality and fiction" in the character of Perkus, the "dwelling place," says Lethem, "for dozens of human lives."

With a B.A. from Columbia and an M.F.A. from Hunter college, Sanford lives and works in Harlem and has exhibited his paintings, drawings and, on rare occasions, his photographs all over the world, including solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Copenhagen and Luxembourg. Look for his one-person exhibition at BravinLee Programs in New York opening December 31, this year, and see more from Tom Sanford at tomsanford.com.

The Cortland Review cordially invites you to fully take in "Perkus Tooth" on your way into Issue 54's poetry and fiction by 21 authors and poets and into David Rigsbee's review of Joseph Millar's newest collection, "Blue Rust."

The Cortland Review expresses gratitude to Yulia Laricheva the creative designer of our brand new look and to Guy Shahar for unerringly leading that project and being on speed dial during the transition, as well as being founder, inspiration and editor emeritus to the entire TCR team—all of us beaming from the wings. And we are more than proud of Guy Shahar's entrance into theatre as producer of "Ghost, The Musical," opening April 23rd on Broadway.

It's always imperative that we thank Poetry Editors, Jennifer Wallace, Anna Catone and Christian Gullette; Fiction Editor, Elizabeth Cornell, Managing Editor Amy MacLennan, and Contributing Editor David Rigsbee. They are the force that upholds TCR's standard of excellence on the page.

Then there are our contributors. Step inside and meet 22 of them and some of the best writing you'll find anywhere today.

AWP Chicago: TCR invites each and every one of you to our birthday celebration at AWP, Chicago with poets from our pages, Claudia Emerson, Thomas Lux, Jamaal May and Glenis Redmond. Look for us in Wilford A (3rd Floor) of the Chicago Hilton on Saturday at 10:30am. Catch Guy Shahar, too, as one of the panelists presenting "A Year in the Life of Electronic Publishing" at 10:30am Friday in the Chicago Hilton's third-floor Marquette Room.

Cheers,
Ginger Murchison
Editor