Location, Location, Location
Another chapter in the history of Shenandoah has come to an end. During the week of December 15 we will be moving our offices again, this time from our historic brick tower across from the Stonewall Jackson House to the basement of Early-Fielding (sounds vaguely agricultural) Building at the corner of (really) Lee Avenue and Washington Street. It’s also right across Lee from Mattingly House, where we were lodged before moving to our current location.
When classes resume on January 12, we’ll be open for business again with a new set of interns, but our Submittable site will not be ready to receive submissions until later in that month. Stay tuned.
Our current (17 Courtyard Square) address was the launching pad for our on-line version of Shenandoah, and it’s been an eventful three and a half years, sad in the loss of our contributing editors Jake York and Claudia Emerson, but in other ways provocative and challenging. The building is a wonderful example of 19th century construction with huge windows and, partly because it once served as the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, an atmosphere of resourceful professionalism, bolstered by the two walk-in safes. Our previous querencia Mattingly House, which we shared with publishing and communications professionals, had been a fraternity house, and despite the chimney’s penchant for trapping or admitting birds, it had a good feel, a picturesque hearth and one grand room with pine wainscotting. Longtime followers may even recall that in 1995 Shenandoah moved from its first port-of-call with the English Department in Payne (!) Hall to the upstairs suite of the well-known Troubadour Theater. That was on the occasion of my arrival, and my office window allowed a fine view of the First Baptist Church and, at times, an inspiring view of the rising moon. Sometimes it backlit our resident bats. From “17” the winter sunset was the resident spectacle. That old Troubadour building now houses a hair salon and an upstairs apartment. Time marches on.
What to make of all this peregrination? Hard to say. Home is where you dock your laptop? Travel is broadening? Wise to present a moving target? It’s a mystery to me, but James Joyce could have told us more about the joys and sorrows of changing addresses. At the end of Ulysses, reflecting his own brand of musical chairs, he wrote Trieste-Zurich-Paris. Location, location, location. It worked out fine for him. Wish us luck.
