From the Editor

I begin this issue with an affectionate and sad farewell to Sarah Theobald-Hall, who has resigned as Managing Editor of the journal in order to move with her family to a new city. This has been hard news for Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature and for me in particular. Sarah's connection with the journal is a close one that encompasses many years, with her first working as a graduate student intern in 1990 and then as the journal's Book Review Editor from 1992 to 1996. In 2002 she returned to the journal after a successful career doing development work for Tulsa-area non-profits to work as Managing Editor, first sharing the position for a year with Linda Frazier, who had been Managing Editor for seventeen years, and then succeeding formally to the position in 2003.

It is Sarah who deserves ultimate thanks for the journal's consistently polished appearance, its new cover design, and its keeping to a regular publication schedule from year to year. These are the aspects of the journal that are most visible to our readers and authors, but they constitute only a portion of the immense contributions she has made to the journal. Sarah has run the journal's office and staff over the past seven years with both skill and grace, providing a crucial core of stability while the editorship changed hands from Holly Laird to me, while the position of Book Review Editor saw transitions among our advanced graduate students, and while many aspects of the journal's operations transitioned from paper to electronic formats. She has trained the many interns who have rotated through the office since 2002, and, perhaps most importantly to the editorial staff, her welcoming, calm presence in the office simply has made Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature a wonderful place to work. Finally, Sarah has become a friend even more than a co-worker, and I personally will miss her greatly. The rest of the staff and I wish her all the best for her new life in Dallas.

It is no small consolation to me to have a ready successor to Sarah, whom I am pleased to re-introduce to our readers. I say "re-introduce," for in the last editorial preface I wrote, Spring 2009, I said goodbye to Karen Dutoi, one of our doctoral students who was just completing a term as Book Review Editor. I now welcome her back to Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. Since she started in the University of Tulsa's doctorate program, Karen has been notable for her ability to combine organizational skills with intellectual heft, having served for example as President of our English Graduate Student Association while writing an impressive dissertation, "'Yours in a mixture of anger and love': Tensions in Female Friendship and Narrative in Victorian Women's Novels." She also has an article, "Negotiating Distance and Intimacy in Female Friendship in Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," forthcoming from Brontë Studies, and she looks forward to remaining an active scholar in the study of Victorian women's writing. I am simply delighted that she has agreed to become our new Managing Editor. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank our readers and contributors for the great patience they have shown as this transition in our editorial staff has slowed down our production schedule. Our highest priority over the next year will be to catch up, having the issues appear in synchronicity with their stated publication date. This strikes me also as the right moment to thank our authors, who have been consistently prompt in working with Sarah and me, and now Karen, in completing the work of copyediting, proofs, and permissions so that we can expedite this schedule.

Three years ago I invited the members of our editorial board, all of whom had served for between fifteen and twenty-six years, to join our advisory board. I then initiated a process of creating a new editorial board whose members would serve for three-year terms. Since then I have appointed three new board members with every...