Getting Through This Together (Alone)
This magazine is nothing without the hard work and dedication of a dynamic team of editors, who as I type this, amid the confusion and anxiety of the coronavirus pandemic, continue to write and edit articles and compile and update resources for writers from their own homes across New York City and beyond. To help us all feel a little more connected during this uncertain time, I asked each of them to share the view from their new workstations.
Senior editor Dana Isokawa: “I’m putting together a blog on writing grants while sitting at my kitchen table, from which I can see my block: All the shops are closed except for the corner bodega, which has put out tulips in buckets for sale next to crates of potatoes and oranges.” Managing editor Ariel Davis: “From my new desk—a dining table between the kitchen and living room—I sit about fifteen feet from a set of tall windows; while preparing files for the new issue, I often take a peek outside or work from the window seat.” Senior web editor Jessica Kashiwabara: “As I look for soothing video clips for the Poets & Writers Theater and reach out to contributors for Writers Recommend, I feel my sweet dog, Kitty, at my feet and hear the city bus roaring by the window among the blooming magnolia trees.” Associate editor Emma Komlos-Hrobsky: “As I edit News & Trends, mourning doves convene outside the window near my desk, cooing and jockeying for a spot at my feeder.” Associate web editor Bonnie Chau: “As I grapple with revising the fiction prompt that will be a part of next week’s The Time Is Now newsletter, my gaze wanders from the dining table and out the plant-filled window to the skyscrapers of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, spiking up small and hazy in the distance.” Assistant editor Spencer Quong: “It’s still pitch-black outside in the Yukon—I took the instruction to work remotely quite literally—and a snowdrift barricades the window ahead of me as I assemble Daily News with both heartbreaking and hopeful stories unfolding in these strange times.” Editorial fellow India Gonzalez: “I look up from fact-checking a magazine article to glance at a photo of my grandparents on the dark oak bookcase in front of me as I eavesdrop on the sparrows outside my window and imagine they are talking to me in a language I can almost understand.”
And as I write this, sitting on an uncomfortable sofa in a room filled with bookcases overflowing with the work of so many of my favorite writers, the too-quiet street to my back, I am grateful for my team of editors as well as the writing community, of which you, dear reader, are a vital member. Be well, and keep writing.
