Editor's Column: A Brief Travel Narrative about Narrative

In 1992, when George Perkins passed the editorial baton for the Narrative Society's journal to me, I had only a dim idea of the road ahead. I knew that, by changing the name from the Journal of Narrative Technique to Narrative, I would be putting up an important signpost, and I had a vague sense of destination in the goal of making conversations in the journal more like conversations at the annual Conference, which had been going strong since 1986. I also wanted the essays to make mutually illuminating contributions to both the theory and interpretation of narrative(s). But of course a road sign and a fuzzy destination are no substitute for an actual route.

I soon learned, however, that I could stop worrying about the road ahead because it would be co-constructed by me and by the journal's authors, reviewers, and readers—and that these people would be making contributions far richer and more important than my own. As the years went by, I began to love the process of co-construction because I realized that it was advancing Narrative toward the goal behind the one of making its conversations more like those at the Conference: enabling the journal both to influence and respond to the evolution of our field. Consequently, as I think about the road Narrative has traveled over the last twenty-five years, I want to express my deep gratitude to all those co-workers who have made the paving so fascinating and rewarding. In the spirit of this valuable co-construction, I stop telling my individual tale and invite readers to listen to the lively five-way conversation about the journal at twenty-five available as a podcast at The Ohio State University Press website: https://ohiostatepress.org/Narrative.html. The participants in the conversation have all made important contributions to our field, even as they represent a diversity of perspectives on it. I am grateful to Per Krogh Hansen, Sue J. Kim, Susan Lanser, and Gerald Prince for engaging in this conversation.

Throughout my editorial journey, I have also come to value the excellent staff at the Ohio State University Press, especially its journals managers, and the first-rate Editorial Assistants from the OSU English Department. Both groups have consistently done excellent work on the nitty-gritty details of producing three issues a year. All of us, I believe, can be proud of Narrative's influence on the course of narrative studies over the last twenty-five years. Serving as editor has been a pleasure and a privilege. Thank you, ISSN.

Onward!