Editor’s Note
I have been eating blacktop, twisting across Montana this spring. Miles and hours don’t matter on Montana two-lane to me. Time and distance evaporate and I am equal parts child and grown woman. Vistas arrive, and are familiar, yes, I have been here before. But then a turn and the landscape is unknown. I must have blinked or napped as my parents handled the wheel of our Dodge Caravan, because while the roads are continuous, my memory is not.
Montana is the place of my birth, and is where I return to for every re-birth or reinvention of myself. So it is fitting I am here again as Chloe and I redesign Raconteur. We have been working, and walking. I have chased turkeys unsuccessfully. And stumbled into a meadow littered with tufts of fur. Black, coarse hair, scratched from the belly of a recently awoken bear.
There has been an evening on the first river I knew with my longest held friend, the son of my mother’s best friend. The shadow of the mountain we played on as children fell over us, the sun disappearing, the cool wind arriving. Conversation was easy, falling in a comfortable order of topics and stories. It always comes back to the stories for me.
And so back to Raconteur and the stories we tell. We have changed the header, now ordered by issue, but our categories remain. We will still WANDER, READ, LOOK, TASTE and LINGER. And hopefully soon a new category, CURIOSITY. If you are a contributor, or want to be one, our SUBMISSIONS page is updated and offers a direct pathway to submitting your work.
Our line up this issue features, Raconteur favorite, Erin Kalpin and her musings on spring. And we are excited to introduce you to several new writers. Cory Lamping shares midnight musings while Noah Davis seeks sustenance in small creeks.
Please know, while I am always excited to present our artists, this issue contains a very special and nostalgic work for me and I am beyond excited to share it with you. You see, my first magazine experience was Outdoor Life. It was the only subscription my father had. From 3:30 the afternoon of its arrival until a little after 5:30 that evening, it was mine. But once my Popa Bear came home, it would be lost to his nightstand until he finished. This might take a week or two, or might last until the next issue arrived. My guess is this was a barometer on how tired he was and how fast sleep claimed his eyes each night.
In my limited time that first day, I had to prioritize. To the back page I flipped first. Patrick F. McManus. There was a cartoon and the start of a tale. The rest required a flip back to page 67-69 to complete. And I loved it. Rancid Crabtree. Retch Sweeny and Crazy Eddie Muldoon. Pat’s mom. His terrible sister, The Troll. And always an adventure. An adventure I couldn’t wait the two to four weeks it would take for my dad to finish and bring the magazine to the coffee table. The “Best Lures For Trophy SmallMouth” and “Hunting the Big 5 In Africa” could wait. But I could not wait for McManus.
So when I first read Craig Mitchell’s story about an ill fated turkey hunt, I knew we would publish it. That it took time editing and reworking and now arrives for you while I am in Montana complete with custom artwork by Todd Daniels feels like a homecoming to this magazine editor.
And there is my most recent reinvention, I am a magazine editor. Grateful and proud of the work we do and the art we provide. Grateful to our readers and supporters. Grateful for the grace you have provided as we deconstructed and reconstructed. I firmly believe it will be worth the wait.
