It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of a new poetry editor at North Dakota Quarterly, Paul Worley. The name might be familiar to readers of the NDQ website because we have already collaborated with Paul in publishing his translation of Tsotsil Maya poetry, Snichimal Vayuchil (Flowery Dream) for a collective in Chiapas, Mexico.

In his day job, Paul Worley is Associate Professor of Global Literature at Western Carolina University. He is the author of Telling and Being Told: Storytelling and Cultural Control in Contemporary Yucatec Maya Literatures (2013; tsikbalichmaya.org), and has published articles in Studies in American Indian Literatures, and Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. He is a Fulbright Scholar, and 2018 winner of the Sturgis Leavitt Award from the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies. He holds an MA in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, the author of the chapbook Chinese Landscapes (Mainstreet Rag; 2005), and serves as editor-at-large for México for the journal of literature in English translation, Asymptote.

Paul’s ideas about poetry for NDQ are plainly stated in his call for submissions:

Send 3-5 pages of your best work. No preference with regard to form, style, as long as the content isn’t lame and the language works. Published and unpublished poets are welcome, as are translations from across the globe. We are digitally capable for the performance oriented, so send video if the body is your best medium. Editors enjoy everything from Sappho to Mayakovsky, from Dante to Anzaldúa.

There is not better way to welcome Paul to the NDQ family than by submitting your non-lame poetry to the journal!