I am continuously amazed and incredibly grateful for the support we receive here at Friends Publishing Corporation for the ministry of Friends Journal. Every year hundreds of Friends submit their writing to us for consideration, enabling us to offer award-winning content to our readers. Friends have a growing understanding that the ministry of the written word cannot survive on subscription and advertising income alone, and many have increased their financial gifts to us, helping to keep our work strong and on solid footing. Our voluntary internship program has grown so much that we now cannot accommodate all who apply, yet we are working with up to 16 interns annually, and their comments about the experience are remarkably affirmative (check them out on our website at http://friendsjournal.org).
Among those who freely give us large gifts of their time and talent are our regular ongoing volunteers. Joining us from Indiana as assistant book review editor in late 2000, J.Brent Bill has brought solid understanding of the written word—as the author of many books and an instructor of religious creative writing at Earlham School of Religion—to our book review department. His appreciation of Midwestern Friends and the pastoral Quaker tradition have enriched our pages for many years. Other responsibilities have prompted him to lay down his work with us; I miss his perspective and seasoned point of view, and am very grateful for the significant amount of voluntary work he performed for us for six years. We are nearing the end of a search to find new volunteers to take over the work that Brent and Book Review Editor Ellen Michaud performed so admirably for us for many years. Joan Overman, our book review assistant, continues to give us much help with this important department as well, ordering and shipping books for review in consultation with the other book review editors. I am very grateful for her faithful and hard-working service in this capacity.
Patty Quinn, who holds a degree in English Literature from University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude, has been a faithful editorial volunteer in our Philadelphia office since 2005. She serves on the Planning Committee of Kelly Writers’ House at Penn, helping to plan public presentations of new and notable writers’ work. An attender at Central Philadelphia (Pa.) Meeting, her cheerful willingness to fact-check and evaluate manuscripts has been of great assistance to us editors, and we look forward to her amiable presence with us every week.
It would be impossible to overstate our gratitude to long-term, faithful volunteers who have served us for many years (most since 1999, some much longer) in a variety of capacities: Judy Brown, in the Seattle, Wash., area, as poetry editor; Christine Rusch, in Wyandotte, Mich., as Milestones editor; Robert Marks, in Bowling Green, Ohio, Nancy Milio, in Chapel Hill, N.C., and George Rubin, in Medford, N.J., as News editors; Lisa Rand, in Bechtelsville, Pa., and Marjorie Schier, in Levittown, Pa., as proofreaders; Kay Bacon, of Gwynedd, Pa., and Ruth Peterson, of Newtown, Pa., as circulation volunteers. Volunteers who’ve joined the fun more recently are Guli Fager, in New York, N.Y., Melissa Minnich, in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Mary Julia Street, in Ambler, Pa., all as assistant Milestones editors, providing wonderful support for that much-loved department. All these good folks have improved the quality of Friends Journal tremendously, while helping us to contain costs. Without their many, many hours of work on our behalf, the magazine would be slimmer, less diverse, and far less interesting. If you’ve been enjoying the Journal more in recent years, I hope you’ll compliment them for the good work they do for us. It’s a lot!