The 2023 issue of Minnesota English Journal marks my seventh year as Editor—about as long a tenure as any past editor of the journal. I love this work; helping brilliant and passionate contributors reach our large and growing audience is a pleasure that sustains me through all the challenges that come with this role. Still, the journal is at its best when it can benefit from fresh energy and perspectives in its leaders. And as my service to MCTE expands to include a year as President in 2023-2024, I know better than to assume that it’s good for the journal (or me) to continue as solo editor.
With that in mind, I’m thrilled to announce that Lee C. Fisher, Director of the Minnesota Writing Project at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, will be joining me as Co-Editor for the 2024 issue of MEJ. Lee’s work and expertise make him an obvious fit for this work, and Lee and I have already begun our ongoing conversation about how to maintain and build on the journal’s strengths. Stay tuned!
On another note, this issue of MEJ is the first in many years to deviate from the journal’s consistent use of MLA style for the documentation of sources in all pieces that refer to other texts. As you will see in Bryan Boyce’s moving call to action, a digital publication can take full advantage of being digital when it gives readers direct access to its cited sources via hyperlink.
Certainly there is still a role for, and particular affordances of, explicit listing of bibliographic information at the end of a work of research. But my goal is for the journal to take advantage of the efficiency and elegance of hyperlinked sources—already the standard for journalism published online, among other fields—when it is appropriate to the type of piece being published.
As a writing teacher and journal editor, I’m fascinated by the inevitable tension between adhering to conventions and watching those conventions shift with the wider world. As they say, shift happens.
MEJ 