Editor’s Column: Twenty-Five Years

This issue marks the beginning of Narrative’s silver anniversary year. What a long, wonderful trip it’s been! In the October 2017 issue, as we mark the end of this twenty-fifth year, I plan to offer more extended reflections on the journey. Here I just register a few initial notes that make the anniversary remarkable to me.

1. 1. We now have readers who were not born when the journal’s first issue appeared in January 1993.

2. 2. In that first issue, all the contributors were from the United States. It is now rare for an issue to have contributors only from the USA.

3. 3. The idea of hard-copy submissions now seems quaint.

4. 4. In January 1993 Narrative was the official journal of The Society for the Study of Narrative Literature. Now of course it is the official journal of the much more aptly named International Society for the Study of Narrative.

5. 5. The journal has sustained a symbiotic relationship with the Society’s annual conference throughout its existence. It’s not just that the journal often publishes plenary addresses and other papers given at the conference, but also that the spirit of inquiry that pervades the conference, I believe, is reflected in the journal and that in turn feeds back into the conference.

6. 6. The journal has both reflected and contributed to the impressive growth of narrative studies over the last twenty-five years. For that I thank all the contributors, readers, editorial assistants, and personnel at the Ohio State University Press: all of you have made working on the journal a rich and rewarding experience.