And We're Off! A Letter from Your New Editors

Dear Camas readers:

Welcome to a new and exciting year for the magazine. It promises to be a pivotal year in the West. Coal clashes and wildfires have communities buzzing about climate change. Presidential candidates with widely differing views on resources and energy fill the airwaves. A complex debate over protection of the magnificent grizzly bear will have long-lasting impacts on how we relate to our neighboring species. Through it all, the rooted and resonant visions of Westerners will emerge and bring new meaning to our understanding of the region. We are thrilled for the opportunity to showcase those interpretations in Camas.

As co-editors, we are committed to continuing the magazine’s traditions of illuminating your writing, breathtaking art and photography, and a lively dialogue between the familiar and the new, between emerging and established voices. We are also committed to expanding Camas' readership and the scope of its content, as well as its online presence. That’s where we need your help. Since moving to Missoula, we have each been impressed and inspired by the diversity and clarity of the voices that percolate through our community. Having also lived in our fair share of other nooks and crannies around the West, we know that this phenomenon is not singular to Western Montana. Big landscapes and big ideas: the West is full of both. When you witness one, whether it originates within yourself or from the people and places around you, we want to hear about it. Your attentiveness and your inspired work will keep Camas growing as a space for exploring the West in all its colors.

We’re excited to kick off the year with a blog series called Field Notes. Friends of the magazine will share impressions from their summer experiences as we begin the countdown to announcing our next issue’s theme and opening submissions. Whether farming in the Rattlesnake Valley or documenting the National Parks’ centennial from the slopes of Glacier, members of the Camas community were busy this summer, and their fresh perspectives promise to begin the year with gusto. We also hope to ramp up the magazine’s social media presence, sharing voices and ideas we encounter that will keep the discourse surrounding Camas broad and ongoing. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and join the conversation!

We’d like to conclude with a brief thought from farmer, writer and thinker Wendell Berry, whom a member of the Camas community was recently fortunate to meet. Mr. Berry had this to say when asked about environmental writing: “If I tell my wife I’m going out into the environment, she won’t know where I am. But if I tell her I’m going up the crick a spell, she’ll know exactly where I am.” To us, that means specificity above all. We envision a magazine that moves beyond abstract notions about “the environment” and digs down into the raw detail of place, of experience. In the poem or essay or photograph that reaches out and touches the truth that’s right in front of us, we may find our way forward.

That’s the news from Lake Missoula for now. Be sure to check back next week for the first installment of Field Notes and stay tuned to the conversation on social media. Deep thanks for your support of Camas and warmest late summer wishes. Off we go!

Sincerely,

Peter Gurche and Matt Hart

Low clouds and a late-summer sunset over Missoula. Photo by Peter Gurche.