fiftytwo

A Welcome . . .

Welcome to fiftytwo — highlighting flash, poetry, and art from 52|250′s fourth and final quarter. If you are not familiar with 52|250, this is a good place to start. In these pages we highlight the best of the final quarter of our Year of Flash – a period between May 2010 and May 2011 in which we wrote stories and poetry every week for 52 weeks.  In the Best Of  pages, you’ll find the editors’ picks for the best flashes of weeks 40 – 52. In addition, we bring you other highlights, too… .

First we asked our most frequent flashers – those writers who submitted pieces most often during the thirteen weeks of our last quarter – to take an old tale and add a new twist. You’ll find that frequent flashers Len Kuntz, Stephen Hastings-King, Susan Tepper, Matt Potter, Doug Bond, Catherine Russell, Susan Gibb, Linda Simoni-Wastila,  Kim Hutchinson, Robert Vaughan, and Martin Brick did not disappoint. But then again, we knew that already, for we spent a year reading their stuff. Tell me that old story again… brings you something old in new packaging by these talented writers.  ~ Next we honor some of the artists from our last quarter whose work made our pages pop. Each week during our Year of Flash featured one work of art at the top of the page – painting and collage, photography and drawing. Go to Artwalk to see why we chose works by Angelique Moselle Price, Peter Schwartz, Jennifer L. Tomaloff, aLnym (Aljoscha Lahner), and Abby Braman to include here. ~ Finally your editors met the challenge one last time, too. On Editors’ Farewell, you’ll find old stories with new twists by Michelle Elvy, John Wentworth Chapin, and Walter Bjorkman – because we don’t believe in letting the other frequent flashers have all the fun. And as always, we choose our favorites of each other’s works to feature here, and so you see the Best Of the Editors on this page, too.

We would like to thank all of 52|250’s contributors one last time for making the final quarter of this flashy year a fantastic experience for all. Our Year of Flash ended in May 2011 but the stories and art linger, as do the friendships and connections made across so many continents and time zones. What a fantastic year it turned out to be, growing from its modest roots to this inspiring community of writers and artists. We also thank all our readers who visit 52|250 and our quarterlies. Feel free to comment on the stories and art you find here on the Thanks to All! page. If you’re interested in reading more about the 52|250 challenge, you’ll find a year’s worth of outstanding flash, poetry, and art at 52|250 A Year of Flash. Welcome to fiftytwo! Yours, Michelle Elvy         John Wentworth Chapin        Walter Bjorkman

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