A Final Note from the Editor

For the past 15 years, The Critical Flame aimed to inspire meaningful discourse about art, ideas, and society. We gave our writers an abundance of space, because the true virtue of digital publishing is freedom from page, column, and word count limits. Instead, we encouraged contributors to read closely, quote heavily, explore influences, and follow tangents. Dig deeper. Say more.

Issue 78 is emblematic, in many ways, of the entire project. It spans a gratifyingly broad range of topics, styles, and voices, including a conversation about science fiction, a literary reflection on expatriate life, a critical essay on Bengali poetry, a personal essay on technology in education, and more.

In the ultra-competitive attention economy, these diverse works possess a rare quality: they are worth your time.

Although this is our final issue, all 78 installments of The Critical Flame will be available to read online in perpetuity. Meander through our eclectic archive as you would browse a private library or an independent bookstore. You will find recurring themes, odd echoes, and idiosyncrasies.

I will be forever indebted to our 220-plus contributors. The privilege of engaging with your insightful, inspiring work has sustained me through so much—marriage, fatherhood, divorce, grief, career changes, a global pandemic. I cannot adequately express what these collaborations have meant to me as a writer and a person.

The success of this journal was also thanks to our generous contributing editors, who referred writers, gave advice, and provided support, as well as the editors of more established publications who offered guidance and encouragement.

My family and friends also played an outsized role, cheering me on, keeping me fed and (reasonably) sane, forgiving my distractions at deadline. I’m compelled to thank my day jobs too, which funded this enterprise through salaries as well as stolen moments on the clock and printer pages.

Finally, I have to thank you, our many thousands of readers around the globe. Your curiosity and enthusiasm kept this going, kept me reading submissions, kept me up late making edits and muttering over my keyboard. You are why journals like this exist, and I am so grateful to have found you.

The Critical Flame was a labor of love from the beginning. I am happy to say that it remains a labor of love in the end.

Sincerely, with gratitude,

Daniel E. Pritchard
Founding Editor