Luke Frostick: 

(Editor and word mangler)

Creatively 2017 has been as year of firsts for me. The rest of the world seems quite content to drag itself back down roads well travelled.

I had the amazing opportunity to conduct my first interview. It was a very interesting conversation and I’m looking forward to doing more.

It was also my first time being interviewed. Thomas and I sat down with Paz in his Yabangee journalist role and had a chat about The BROB. It was a slightly surreal experience even through the roaring hangover that I was sporting that day but it was fun and again thanks to Paz for talking to us (you can read it here). It was also my first experience of writing reviews for publication. I have been avoiding doing nonfiction as it brings back awful memories of university history essays, also composed through hangovers.

I’m looking forward to writing about the books I love and hope to share that love around. If you have a passion for literature and want to share then get in touch with me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

As usual, the largest of thanks to my contributors some of who are serious writers and some who are first time amateurs. I have the highest respect for anybody who’s willing to send their precious work out into the world, even in as humble a publication as this. Keep it up guys.

Special thanks to Harry Frostick, my lovely cousin, who created our cover for us this time round, it’s great. You can find more of his work on Instagram here. 

Going forward, I’m happy that we’ve got the second edition out and that there is more variation in the type of content we are providing. But I want more, more! So I have some ideas for new things but if you have let me know for the next edition.

Thanks for reading.

Luke

Thomas Parker: 

(Poetry edit0r) 

Even though this is already our second issue, it’s all still a bit unreal for me. I am still very much excited and humbled to have this opportunity. Moreover, I cannot look at the amount of progress we have made in just one issue and not be excited. I feel that we have improved not just in the quantity of pieces, seeing as how we expanded the number of sections, adding both a “What to Read” section and interviews, but hopefully also in quality, though I will leave that to your discernment. I am also happy that this time around we had more women writers, though that is not something we can control either way. I look forward to being able to witness our further growth.

I cannot fully discern if this is me getting older and more mature or if it is my reaction to the general political environment of these crazy times we live in, but I am becoming increasingly content to tone down my ambitions and simply create little acts of beauty. And though my love for Istanbul may not necessarily be a love reciprocated, a feeling I can guarantee you I am not alone in, as I have heard many a foreigner describe their relationship with Istanbul as being semi-abusive, I consider this magazine to be a little act of beauty to give back to this city.

 Furthermore, I consider this magazine to be space, even be it digital, for amateur writers to be able to publish their work and build up their resume. Both Luke and I are intimately familiar with how difficult the publishing world can be out there for starting writers. If you don’t believe this, feel free to hunt us down and have a personal conversation. However, I hope you do not mind the sight of a grown man breaking down in tears…

Some thanks are in order. Firstly, a huge thanks to Harry Frostick (that last name looks familiar doesn’t it?)  for designing our cover. I have been raving about the cover for two weeks straight now. Nepotism, apparently, occasionally works [we're a multi talented family Ed.]. If you are an Arab and were wondering which fifth grader was commissioned to donate his handwriting for our second issue’s cover, you are reading his editorial.

Thank you to all of our readers and supporters. An even bigger thank you to all of our contributors. Last but not least, thank you. If you read this entire editorial, in addition to the pieces, you are a beautiful person and I love you. See you in two months.

-Thomas