A Note About Transitions

As many of our readers may know, Fred Hobson is retiring after 23 years as coeditor of the Southern Literary Journal. In those years, he has shaped the course of southern literary criticism. Consistently open to new approaches and directions and graciously ushering in new scholars and their work in southern studies year after year, he has made the journal what it is today by always insisting on high standards and responsible, meaningful scholarship. He will be sorely missed, though we will continue to call on him to read manuscripts and offer his always sage, always calming advice (when he's not busy climbing up and down the Grand Canyon, exploring the Australian Outback, or enjoying hikes in his beloved western North Carolina mountains). Fred is a modest, unassuming man, but his massive and profoundly meaningful scholarship and editorial labors in the field of southern studies cannot be overstated. Fred, we dedicate this issue to you.

At the same time that I look backward at Fred's many contributions and the sheer joy of working with him, I am delighted to welcome Florence Dore as the new coeditor of SLJ. Florence's interests in post-1945 American literature and southern studies, especially her interest in globalized approaches to southern literature and southern modernism, as well as her editorial experience as coeditor of Stanford University Press's Post45 Series, will be of great value as we move forward. Florence's first book, The Novel and the Obscene: Sexual Subjects in American Modernism, works extensively with feminist theory to trace the emergence in American modernist narrative of new forms of sexual identity. Her new book, Forms of Privacy: Reading Transparency in the Postwar Southern Novel, now approaching completion, examines the influence of middle-class expansion and racial desegregation on southern novels written in the 1950s and 1960s. A talented singer and songwriter, Florence has a strong interest in music that we hope to put to use in a future special issue; she recently codirected the "Post45@The Rock Hall" conference, an interdisciplinary gathering at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. This is Florence's first issue, and we're very excited about it.

Fred was also the journal's book review editor for decades. Over the past two years, Harriet Pollack, whose scholarly work on Eudora Welty, southern women writers, Emmett Till narratives, and civil rights literature is well known among southernists, has graciously taken over that role. Her most recent edited volume, appearing in January, is Welty, Whiteness, and Race. Most of our reviews take the form of review essays, and Harriet has been working hard to find appropriate reviewers for book sets. Please let us know if you are interested.

Meanwhile, on the front lines of our operation, Patrick Horn has stepped down from the Managing Editor's position after serving the journal faithfully and well for the past four years. Patrick has been an incredible Managing Editor. Unflappable and diligent, careful and innovative, Patrick has expanded the function of the Managing Editor in a number of important ways. As he turns to the final stages of a brilliant dissertation on narrative empathy — certainly a quality that he has put to good use in his editorial duties — we wish him the very best. He has graciously agreed to stay on as a consultant to the journal during his last year at UNC.

Jameela F. Dallis, our new Managing Editor, has hit the decks running, and after working steadfastly with Patrick as Assistant Managing Editor last year, has ably taken the helm. Jameela's research interests have coalesced into a dissertation on the contemporary American and Caribbean Gothic; her coursework in southern literature, history, and memory will play a large part in this project, and we feel fortunate indeed that she has chosen to work with the journal.

As if things weren't stirred up enough around here, there is a special issue on Gulf literatures in the offing, with Keith Cartwright and Ruth Salvaggio, whose scholarly works have examined writings borne out of Gulf currents and crossings, having graciously agreed to serve as guest...