A cover in living color, it has come to that.

Our abstemious policy of using only images originally in black & white (on paper) was installed because b&w was all the color we could afford has now been knocked to the wayside by the advance of technology. At least on the cover, the cost of digitally scanned & printed color is no longer prohibitive. So we embrace it, duly noting how hard it is to sustain one’s vision, however enlightened—or benighted.

The artist, Christopher Brown, was on the cover 0f Winter ’88, with an etching that he (and Limestone Press) had donated to our cause. Now he (and Paulson Press in Berkeley) have given us the print you see, and another one as well. They are for sale for our benefit. Inquire within. We thank Chris, once again, and Paulson Press, for their great generosity, and for the pleasure of their company over these many years.

• Last issue, we mentioned our collateral role as an “incubator” of literary personnel; in fact, we also help incubate whole publishing ventures by serving as “fiscal umbrella” for startups that need an IRS-recognized nonprofit to front for them, so they can receive tax-deductible donations. We have served Chatoyant, Crazy Woman Creek Press, Kitchen Sink, MOXIE, Watchword Press, Youth Speaks! And, please welcome yet another new litannual, Eleven Eleven, out of the California College of Art.

• This Halloween I will go as a pumpkin. I used to wear a Detroit Lions sweatshirt, fobbing myself off as George Plimpton, who, sadly, died last year, just days before celebrating The Paris Review’s 50th anniversary—he had once scrimmaged with the Lions and lived to write about it.

I found my pumpkin costume in the Used Store in Cavalier, ND, while visiting my in-laws over Easter. There are not many daytime cultural diversions in the valley of the northward-flowing Red River, and I had already visited the abandoned storefront that has now become a wintertime archery range. The smiley-toothed pumpkin suit leaped out at me as I snaked through the warren of winter coats and shoes and everyday dresses. Handmade, it seemed a steal at $2. Probably, I should have left it for a more deserving child, but I tried it on, and the ladies at the front table assured me it was not too puffy, not too tight under the arms. Its orange beanie with an orange stem and green leaves fits perfectly.