A Letter from the Editor
Featured in Vol 3. Issue 4 | Winter 2014 | Visit our Shop for the full print or e-editions»
At the close of September 2014, the staff of The Wayfarer met for their first annual retreat—embarking on a journey of playful spirit, contemplative dialogue, and reimagining—in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. What you will discover within these pages is a reflection of the collective vision that emerged.
I began The Wayfarer in the winter of 2011 as a means of giving voice to the authors in Homebound Publications, as well as the countless contemplative poets I have encountered who were marginalized within the contemporary writing scene. Within a few short years, the journal has grown faster than I ever could have anticipated; each issue is now reaching more than 6,000 readers.
To meet the wave of growth I knew we needed to add more staff. When the time came to widen the circle, I turned to the kindred minds I knew and admired: Jamie K. Reaser, Theodore Richards, Jason Kirkey, and J.K. McDowell. For the last four years, I’ve had the great fortune to be a part of their creative circle—a contemporary version of the Beatniks or Bloomsbury Group or the New England Transcendentalists. Like the intellectual circles of the past, we challenge one another, encourage one another, inspire one another, and laugh with one another. Since meeting them, it has been clear to me that creative minds feed one another and flourish best when in close proximity to one another and this meeting only reinforced that belief.
Gathered around the table on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we mapped out our vision for The Wayfarer, taking my original concept of a “contemplative journal” and maturing it to what you have before you. The philosophy that emerged over those three days was one of urgency and conviction:
The Wayfarer’s mission is to chart the way for change
by building and empowering a community of contemplative voices.
Starting with this edition of The Wayfarer, the journal will offer the following features:
Community: Meet the contributors to each issue of The Wayfarer, part of an ever-growing community of wayfarers who we are honored to know, celebrate, and support.
Compass Bearings: Let us hear your voice. We invite you to respond to one or more of these three questions, (in 150 words of fewer.) How has The Wayfarer guided your wandering? What are you reimagining? How are you charting the way? Please send your comments to compassbearings@homeboundpublications.com
Re-imagining: Through this feature interview, The Wayfarer staff will introduce you to someone outside of the literary circles who is re-imagining the possible.
A Wayfarer: Come here to be inspired. In each issue we will invite a wayfarer who has been charting the way to share his/her vision and voice.
Featured Artisans: Each issue will celebrate and promote the work of an illustrator and photographer who are using their craft to open eyes and inspire wisdomed action.
Website: The Wayfarer now has an official website. On the website we feature 50% of the content of each issue. To enjoy the full issue you can buy a print edition or e-edition in the shop on our website. E-editions are only .99. Subscribe to the print edition and receive a free e-subscription as well. Visit www.thewayfarer.homeboundpublications.com
We will continue to offer an editorial by myself and three staff columns with each issue: Environmental (by Jamie K. Reaser), Creative (by J.K. McDowell), and Contemplative (by Theodore Richards).
I hope that you will continue on the journey with us and get involved, be it through submitting your own writing and/or feedback, bringing a wayfarer in your community to our attention, or simply sharing the journal with your own contemplative circles.
Warm Regards
—Leslie M. Browning, Editor-in-Chief
Connecticut, Winter 2014
L.M. Browning grew up in a small fishing village in Connecticut. A longtime student of religion, nature, and philosophy these themes permeate her work. She is the author of a three-title contemplative poetry series. These books went on to garner several accolades including a total of 3 pushcart-prize nominations and the Nautilus Gold Medal for Poetry. In 2012, she released Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity: Journal of a New England Poet. It went on to be named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Balancing her passion for writing with her love of education and publishing, Browning is a graduate of the University of London and a Fellow with the League of Conservationist Writers. She is partner at Hiraeth Press and Founder of The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature. In 2011, Browning opened Homebound Publications—a rising independent publishing house based in New England. She is currently working to complete her English degree at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her latest poetry collection, Vagabonds and Sundries: Poetic Remnants of Lives Past, is now available.
