Editor’s Letter

Three years and counting . . .

Above are the bookend covers for our three years and twelve quarterly issues since we began Natural Traveler Magazineover the winter of 2018-19. The inaugural cover photo by Annie Cappeller of her daughter Katie in Colorado managed to include the sun and the moon in the same photo, so that had to be some kind of omen that we were onto something special. The second, of course, is the cover for the current issue, by our inimitable artist, Sharafina binti Teh Sharifuddin. Fina has done five of our covers, including many original works of art, from line drawings to full color pieces, represented in every issue of the magazine to date.

The magazine got its start when I opened a Word doc and dropped in some wonderful examples of writing by colleagues whose work I had admired for years, including articles, stories, poetry, memoirs, photographs and artwork. In a matter of a few days, I had a 64-page magazine. I decided to turn it into an online publication, but also print several dozen copies as an accession to that dying experience of holding a piece of reading material in one’s hands. Within a few weeks of publishing that first issue, I had material pouring in for a second and the magazine began to take on a life of its own. From the outset, Bill Scheller agreed to join this quixotic project as senior editor and contributors lined up as a staff to fill our pages with their disparate artforms. And so it has gone for a dozen issues now, more than 800 pages of some the best reading material and visual arts you will find anywhere. (I’ve already got material for our lucky 13th in a folder for next quarter.)

Thank you to all of our contributors who have taken part in making Natural Traveler Magazine a labor of love we can all take pride in. It is an honor to publish your work.

--Tony Tedeschi