About this issue
HUFFINGTON
09.23.12
Before this issue was a reality, it was a question that we
asked ourselves so frequently it became a refrain. “Why
not?” Why couldn’t The Huffington Post go literary for a bit?
This spring, when Arianna Huffington and Tim O’Brien
launched Huffington, the time had come to stop asking
“Why not?” Designed for the relaxed weekend read, Huffington expressed their shared desire to slow things down,
and it seemed to be the perfect medium for us to celebrate
the literary community we love — and for which we see a
bright future, even in times of great change.
Though there have been
grumblings about new technologies’ detrimental effect
HUFFINGTON SEEMED
on more traditional forms
TO BE THE PERFECT
of literature, we believe that
MEDIUM FOR US TO
these media are not mutually exclusive. We can hold
CELEBRATE THE
on to, and elevate, the things
LITERARY COMMUwe love about books and still
NITY WE LOVE — AND
embrace the worlds opened
FOR WHICH WE SEE A
up by more recent developBRIGHT FUTURE
ments. And so, in the spirit
EVEN IN TIMES OF
of celebrating the past, presGREAT CHANGE.
ent and future of literature, we chose the theme of
preservation, and explore it
through the excellent poems,
stories and essays within these virtual covers. Each chapter of our issue explores a different facet of this human
defiance of the powerful entropy that pulls at our families, our lives, and even our cultures.
Chapter 1 focuses on the social ties that bind us — love,
domestic life, communities — and the ways in which they
may be loosened. In it, we spotlight an enthralling short
story by Aimee Bender, first seen in one of our favorite literary reviews, Electric Literature. “The Red Ribbon” offers