Letter from the Editors

Dear Reader,

We here at The Locus, are excited to announce a new project! As we approach our one year anniversary, we’ve decided to take things to the next level. Initially, we began the journal as a bit of a side project, to gauge interest and see if we would even have enough content to maintain a small publication. As it turns out, there is interest and we do have enough content. While the majority of our publication has consisted of poetry, aside from the occasional interview or essay, we hope to expand our content to include visual art in addition to the weekly poems. We also hope to continue our interview series by speaking with some visual artists and look forward to publishing more essays. However, this is where we need your help. In an effort to publish more consistently, we propose to you, our excellent community, a theme to inspire artwork, poetry, essays, biographies, etc. On June 21st, 2026, we will produce our first complete issue, here on the website, and would invite you to submit works revolving around the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

The Pre-Raphaelites where a group of artists, poets, and craftsman during the Victorian period who took special inspiration from Medieval art and artwork. Chivalry, Damsels, Virgil and Dante were dear to the hearts of these men and women, most notably Christina and Dante Rossetti, John Everett Millais, James Collinson. This group was committed to aesthetic style and attention to detail in art prior to the great Raphael (hence the name, “Pre-Raphaelite”). Their work went on to influence such artists as John Singer Sargent, William Morris, and some might contend, the Art Nouveau movement (more on that later). We invite you, the reader, to consider the literature, artwork, architecture, and ethos of this excellent period and to respond with a piece of your own, wether visual, literary, biographical, or analytic.

Requirements for Submissions will be slightly different from our usual request. Fiction and Essays may be up to 3,000 words and poetry should not exceed five pages. We ask that you would please submit by May 30, so that we may respond and have time for edit requests, prior to our publication on the Summer Solstice. Send all submissions to locusjournal@gmail.com.  In the subject line of your email, please write “ATTN:” and the genre which you are submitting (i.e., ATTN: Poetry, ATTN: Essay, etc.). Please include a brief bio, not exceeding 150 words. Should all go well, we will continue this tradition, picking a theme for each solstice and publishing longer “Issues” in addition to our weekly poems or brief interviews. We will continue to publish our weekly poems and essays, you should you wish to write on something other than the Pre-Raphaelites.

For further reading on the Pre-Raphaelites and to get a feel for their work, please use these links: https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/the-pre-raphaelites

https://allpoetry.com/William-Morris

In other news, be on the look out for upcoming additions to our “Interview” series (we have an excellent Ukrainian Iconographer lined up for our next instalment), essays concerning our motto, “Ουδείς έρωτα φεύξεται, μέχρι αν κάλλος η καί οφθαλμοί βλέπωσιν” No one will escape love, as long as there is beauty, and eyes to see, “What We’re Reading,” and more!

Thank you for your continued contributions and support and be sure to take time to look at something beautiful.

Yours,

The Editors