Dear Reader,
A friend told me about the New Year’s tradition of selecting a word that sets an expectation for the coming year. While the words chosen are often about individual growth, I thought it was useful framing for Burnaway as well. This year’s word is voice.
Perhaps voice is an obvious selection for a publication, but I think at this moment when journalism and art writing are threatened, we cannot take for granted the importance of speech. Voice can be invoked alone or together, and it can be employed in reverence or resistance. I suspect we will make and hear all of these manifestations of voice this upcoming year.
Shaping Burnaway’s voice is an important task that cannot be done alone. When I accepted this position, I knew that addressing art in the American South and the Caribbean would yield so much possibility. I knew editorial would never run out of interesting, worthy art and artists to cover. To do justice to the depth and breadth of artists practicing in this region, my task would be to attempt to know what I don’t know. This driving purpose has been challenging and joyful. Ultimately, the resulting work of this magazine, this chorus, is a testament to Burnaway’s award-winning team of editors and writers.
We have plans for Burnaway’s collective voice. Writing is a means to witness and track, but also to impact social and political movements. Burnaway will continue to publish sensitive writing and engaging texts from emerging and established contributors with the intention to speak truth to power and celebrate beauty when and wherever it is found. We will also stalwartly support the creative production of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and rural artists, culture workers, and organizations. We need to hear from these voices now. The 2025 Reader, which we are excited to share this spring, specifically invokes sound: in title, subject, and form. Additionally, this summer’s Art Writing Incubator will reflect voice through a renewed investment in the personal. Criticism, at its best, holds specificity and subjectivity in high regard. Writing from a lived perspective enhances shared understanding and offers new knowledge.
In addition to being a platform that celebrates unique voices, Burnaway is also a network. In difficult times and in places with limited resources, it would be easy to think that scarcity would take hold and generosity would wither, but I have found the opposite to be true. Instead, we ban together. This year Burnaway will launch partnerships to better serve art communities and also reach new audiences. This includes a collaboration with a fellow Southern media organization as well as a nonprofit in the Caribbean. Instigated by our editorial agenda and in order to facilitate community, we will host online and in-person programming in order to educate, connect, and inspire.
I’m not sure what this year will bring, but it will require grit—something the Caribbean and the American South understand. We promise to find new ways to support artists and writers. We promise to make meaning of this year together. We promise to continue learning, seeking, whispering, yelling, and writing, writing, writing.
Welcome to our year of voice,
Courtney
