Stepping down as BSR's editor

I’m leaving with sadness, but also with a fair amount of pride — a most un-Quakerly emotion. Dan delights in calling me “the world’s most assertive Quaker” — he does so again this week in his column. Okay, I’ll admit I might occasionally advocate over-enthusiastically for the clearly most rational option (i.e., the one I prefer) when it’s time to reach a consensus. But there’s one way in which I really am very true to Quaker values: I’m not one to brag about my accomplishments.

But dammit, I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished here:

• Created BSR’s social media presence
• Started a weekly newsletter for BSR writers with listings of events looking for reviewers — a must, given that we don’t assign reviews
• Proposed and served as staff liaison for the major site redesign and upgrade that we launched in October 2013
• Created the What’s New, What’s Next section to add previews and features to the BSR mix (with a shout-out here to assistant editor Alaina Mabaso, who’s been my coconspirator and sounding board in so much of what I’ve done, and who manages that section so ably)
• As editor in chief, had new functions installed, like the slide show that allows us to run photo essays (such as this week’s piece on a “yarnbombing” installation at Morris Arboretum)
• Brought in many new writers, expanding the range of points of views that we present
• Brought in an illustrator, Mike Jackson, who’s doing a few drawings a month for us (such as this week’s illustration for a Perry Block humor piece)
• Advocated for and participated in a major long-term planning project that resulted in our bringing in a publisher to get us onto a firmer financial footing

I’ve obviously made a lot of changes during my time here, and undoubtedly my successor will make even more. Who will that successor be? We’re still discussing that — if you’d like to apply, contact Dan at [email protected]. And what will those changes be? I can’t wait to find out!

But for now — thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.

By the way — the Oxford comma, which Dan dismisses so cavalierly in his column, is an example of a “clearly most rational option” for which I advocate. Editors delight in coming up with examples of sentences that have gone awry in its absence: my favorite is “I’d like to thank my parents, God and Ayn Rand.”

The serial comma will often make the sentence more clear, and will never make it less.

Just sayin’.