From the editors

You might have noticed we changed.

The staff at the Paper Dragon is thrilled to bring you our largest volume yet. Changing our submission platform from email to Submittable allowed us to join the modern era of online literary journal operations, expanding our reach to writing communities that we hadn't been able to reach with simple word-of-mouth and social media posts.

We struggled with the change initially. Using Submittable meant supporting more submissions (I love a good alliteration) and more reading time for our staff. It challenged us to consider new models of review and give extra attention to detail. There is an irony of a small literary publication wanting more, a contradiction that isn't lost on us. American society often measures success in the more, a norm that is simultaneously a key and a barrier to prosperity.

I usually hate more because it feels less intimate, less identifiable. But I've been humbled. In fact, the more poetry I've read, the better I've become at understanding a literary genre that was once challenging to me. I've been inspired by the diversity of plot and character and voice in our fiction submissions. I'm honored by the honesty (there it is again) in our non-fiction pieces. More doesn't have to mean less.

Of course, as we expand, it was even more critical that we commit to our mission of inclusivity, access, and equity to the literary space. As our team passes the Editor torch to our next cohort, we will continue to honor these values and we encourage our readers to submit ideas for ways we can build community among our authors and artists, be it through online or in-person meetups, celebratory posts on social media, or even working towards a paper submission.

-Adam Zahn, Coeditor-in-Chief

I echo Adam's sentiments. The most difficult part about wanting more was how many more people we had to turn away. We received so many great submissions, and because of this, we had to change the way we worked through creating an issue.

On top of all the wonderful submissions, we also were able to support a local elementary school contest by including the winning piece in this volume. We're proud to feature this piece in our volume, and we wish the best of luck to the young writer in their writing journey.

Volume 5 is a huge step forward in our growth as an online literary journal. We hope to keep Paper Dragon as accessible to as many people as possible, and seeing the how many more people we could reach through Submittable is amazing. Now, we can continue forward through our growth and amplify the voices of so many more people we couldn't reach before.

-Nicholette Guy, Coeditor-in-Chief

Thank you for being part of our growth, and we look forward to watching this publication transform with you.