Here we are, finishing our SIXTH year, our TWENTY-FOURTH Issue loaded with fresh literary mischief in a nest of mayhem. Hard to believe we have managed to continue flapping this long, sometimes faltering sometimes floating, once in a while soaring. But as long as there are gems and trinkets to unearth and polish, we will continue to forage and feather our nest with shiny finds for our friends to enjoy.

Season after season we have been humbled and lucky to receive scores of submissions by new, emerging and established writers and artists from around the world. Ireland and Italy. New York and New Zealand. Canada and La Cañada. We have suggested before and suggest again, as you honor us by viewing our pages, take time to click on the bio’s of these amazing writers and artists (https://thievingmagpie.org/category/current-parliament/about-the-artists/) and see who they are. Some of these talented people are full time writers, but most are doctors, university professors, nurses, retired schoolteachers, journalists and independent businesspeople. Their ordinary lives serve to highlight that we are, each of us, extraordinary.

We all have the capacity to express our extraordinary selves through the arts, literary and otherwise. We do it because it makes us feel good.

And being able to share our expressions with the rest of the world, to experience the works of others from around the world, to be inspired and enlightened by them, is an act of community that makes others feel good.

This has been and remains the goal of the Thieving Magpie: to create a community and space for writers and artists to share and experience their work. Keep reading. Keeping writing. Keep sending it out. We can’t wait to start our seventh year. Fly with us and tell your friends, lovers and frenemies to join the Parliament of Magpies.