From the Editor

F r o m th e E d it o r As we begin this new era of Western American Literature, I would like to thank all of you who attended our open Editorial Board meet­ ing at October’s conference. We felt that we received considerable support and expressions of good will, as well as valuable advice. From that meeting and from the questionnaires we recognize that WAL serves an increasingly diverse community of scholars and read­ ers, whose needs and desires are sometimes contradictory. Many love WAL as it is and hope we won’t make too many changes; others would like the journal to devote more space to current theoretical perspec­ tives and debates within the field. Some folks read the book reviews first; others feel they are either too brief or too numerous. Some find the bibliographies very useful while others feel they take up space better devoted to another essay or two. Some would like WAL to keep its literary focus while others would like to see more interdisciplinary essays with an American studies or cultural studies approach. We hope that Western American Literature can represent the full range of perspectives and approaches of the WLA membership and continue to live up to its original goal of supporting the knowledge and enjoyment of western American literature for a scholarly audi­ ence and for the common reader. We will continue to publish essays with broad humanistic interest, as well as more theoretical essays like this issue’s “Topographies of Transition.” In this expansion of his 1996 Presidential Address, Steve Tatum offers some fascinating speculations about the evolving field of western studies in the con­ text of contemporary critical theory. We hope to provide something for everyone. With its photographs of Zitkala-Sa and Nat Love and its reprint of a Remington painting, the November issue chartered a new direction 308 Western American Literature for WAL, with an increased use of graphics, which continues in this issue with the use of Laura Gilpin photographs to help map some of those “topographies of transition” in the western landscape. We encourage submissions that include visual materials. This issue also marks another transition: it is the final bibliogra­ phy issue. We know how valuable the bibliographies are to the mem­ bership, and we will continue to provide them on-line, available at our new web site. We thank Thomas Austenfeld and Jan Roush for their excellent bibliographic work and hope they will carry on with us as we move further into the technological age. I would also like to announce some staff changes. As many of you know, Kate Boyes left Western American Literature this past summer to take a position at Southern Utah University. We thank her for her many years of service to WAL. Since her departure, Jane Reilly, whose knowledge and expertise have been invaluable to me since I arrived in Utah, has become production editor. Evelyn Funda, assistant professor of English at USU and longtime WLA member, has assumed responsibility for book reviews and essay reviews. And we have just hired a managing editor, Sabine Barcatta. Feel free to share your comments or concerns with any or all of us at wal@cc.usu.edu. And be sure to visit our new web site at http://www.usu.edu/~westlit. ...