Brand New Cherry Flavor

Happy New Year to all you Georgia Writers! How quickly the years come and go. I’ve got some big plans for the column this year. Given the news in recent weeks and my proclivities, I’ve been reading and writing a lot about the history of censorship, controversial literature in schools, and the role of the publishing industry in setting and resisting standards of taste and decency in American culture. Just this month, WSB-TV Atlanta reported that the Marietta School Board upheld a decision (6 to 1) to ban 23 books with the added warning that things could have been much worse, elsewhere, one of the board member’s reminds us, they’re banning thousands of books without any opportunity for community review. So, in the months ahead, I intend to return to the book banning conflicts in Marietta, especially the debate over Flamer, consider the history of LGBTQ+ censorship in the ’90s and today, and look closely at other challenges to literature in a series of columns that might help make sense of this ongoing battle of the culture war as 2024 heats up to the election. Before we get there, though, in typical New Year’s fashion, I’ve been thinking this month about renewal, recommitment, and resolution, especially in terms of publishing. In one of my other roles, I serve as Editorial Director of The Headlight Review, a literary magazine that graduated from a Kennesaw State University class project to a graduate student run publication. Since I joined the team halfway through last year, we’ve been talking about what we want THR to be, what might be its place in the landscape of literary magazines, and the role of those publications in our increasingly fragmented and chaotic media ecosystem.