Editor's Note

This issue of Good River may be our best yet. I’m pleased to present poetry, prose, and drama, as well as reviews from a wide range of writers in varying landscapes, which is always the mission of our prize-winning literary magazine. I’m especially delighted to include a sleeve of poems written by some very talented high school students at the J. Graham Brown School, the first magnet school in our Louisville system.

The Brown School has a warm place in my heart because it was founded in 1972 with a progressive vision to be the first voluntarily integrated school within Jefferson County Public Schools, serving students in grades 1-12. Originally, the school enrolled a student population that was 50 percent Black, 50 percent white, 50 percent female, and 50 percent male and was a point of stubborn pride for our community even in 1975 as on local news we watched the violence of anti-bussing rioters in our city streets. While we in Louisville, and beyond, continue to grieve and protest the murder of Breonna Taylor, The Brown School persists to remind us that we can create the kind of world we wish to live in and that it is possible through the mighty power of our imaginations.

As always, I extend appreciation to the graduate students of the Naslund-Mann School who each serve as readers for Good River and come together in student editorial groups to recommend work for publication. Also, thank you, as ever, to the talented editors on our masthead, some of the very best colleagues I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.

Kathleen Driskell

Editor in Chief

Good River Review