2nd & Church

Our Second Issue Has Arrived!

Dear Friends & Supporters: Our second issue, our first-ever poetry issue featuring Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret (Maggi) Britton Vaughn, is here and ready for downloading and ordering! Click on Maggi’s issue (on the left-hand corner of the page) to purchase a paper copy and/or download a free PDF of the issue.

Got iPad?
If you do, then you can download the MagCloud! app. It’s free and allows you to download all sorts of FREE publications, including 2nd & Church.  It's fast, free, and easy. And it's loaded with local, literary content from local writers and poets. Happy reading and thanks for your on-going support!

On a personal note, I want to thank all of the writers, poets, and supporters who continue to make 2nd & Church possible. Many people across the country work hard out of a spirit of public service to create the journal, and I appreciate them all.

Out of respect for that appreciation, we make a certain number of copies available to the public for free, using a variety of literary venues. Please see the list on the left-hand side of our Web site’s homepage to learn where you may find a free copy of 2nd & Church. You may want to call them first: issues go fast. (Please note that we went live with our issue on Thursday night, and it may take up to ten days for copies to be printed and shipped to the venues.)

What will you find in our second issue? Kory Wells sat down with Maggi in the Bell Buckle Café to talk poetry, prose, and anything else that they wanted! Poet Kate Buckley took a trip to Bell Buckle to poke around Maggi’s printing operation, the Bell Buckle Press. And Poet Matt Urmy shared his review of Kory’s and Maggi’s latest literary endeavor, Don’t Forget This Song: Celebrating the Carter Family and Other Roots Musicians. Together with Kelsey Wells and Carole Brown Knuth, these four writers and poets “celebrate the past and present of roots music in styles and for reasons as diverse as the music itself.”

And Maggi's editor of nearly two decades (Carole Brown Knuth) share an original piece on this Tennessee poet, entitled "Comas, Commas, and Creativity: An Editor’s Notes on Maggi Vaughn."

With appreciation,

Roy

Welcome to 2nd & Church!

Welcome to 2nd & Church, our little corner of literary Nashville!  All of the writers and editors here hope that you will have just as much fun reading our new journal as we are having while creating it.

My name is Roy, and I've been living in Nashville ever since the Greyound bus that I was taking from Louisville, Kentucky to San Diego, California drove off and left me here. That was in 1990. Since that time, I've worked as a print journalist in Sumner County (where my family first settled in the 1840s), a technical writer in Maury County, A Cybrarian (don't ask!) in Nashville, and a marketing coordinator for Middle Tennessee State University. I was even a guidance counselor for a brief time at Monroe Harding Children's Home, over in Green Hills. 

All along the way, I've done a lot of things on the side to keep the creative writing-side of my skills fresh. For a year or so, I wrote feature stories for The Tennessean; I believe the section was Wilson Today.  And for many semesters, I've been an online adjunct professor for Western Kentucky University's Department of English, where I teach general education courses, including English 100, 200, and 300.

And then there's MTSU's low-residency certificate in creative writing, The Writer's Loft. I hate cliches, but sometimes, they're true: it was a labor of love, one that I labored on at nights, on weekends, over holidays. And if that wasn't enough, I couldn't stop myself from creating the program's journal, The Trunk.  I am using the word "I" here with great caution. While I am no longer involved with the program, I remember that it was created (and still exists) because so many different people gave of their time, skills, and energy--most of the time at no or very little charge.

In 2006, I left my full-time position in academia to work as a full-time writer up in Clarksville. I promised myself that if I ever got back to Nashville, I would create something like The Trunk again.

In March of 2011, I accepted my current writing and editing position in Nashville. To get back and forth from my home in Mount Juliet to the offices over at Metrocenter Boulevard, I used a combination of the Music City Star Commuter Rail and buses 25 & 9. On the way home, I would skip bus 25 and walk from the central bus station to train down by the river.

After I settled into my new position, my mind was able to think of other things. Walking through the Arcade reminded me of my Cybrarian days (I told you not to ask!), and I smiled a lot. Getting from the bus to the river became a game as I took a different path each afternoon.

All along the way, I was happy to see so many different publications serving so many artistic communities. Arriving at the train with stacks of publications was a common experience for me. While bumping along the train from downtown, through Donelson, along Hermitage, and into Mount Juliet, I noticed one group of artists who were not represented with their own, dedicated print publication: creative writers!  

It was around the end of May of this year when I was near the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Church Street, and I was remembering my desire to create a literary journal that would focus on Nashville and Middle Tennessee.  It was also on this day in May when I was hit by a car in the crosswalk.  (Click here for that story!) 

Anyway, this event forced me to pause and look around. I was interested to realize just how many different aspects of Nashville were represented from this particular spot of town: honkey tonks, small businesses, tourist shops, a government office or two, and law offices. Maybe it was the impact of the bumper, but I started to ponder that this specific spot could work as a great metaphor, a virtual location in this actual city.

And so, we have 2nd & Church.  Many of the writers you will find in her pages are friends and writers from my days with The Writer's Loft, and many more are new professional colleagues I've met since that time.

We all invite you to grab a copy and enjoy it at your 2nd & Church, wherever that may be.

Cordially,

Roy Burkhead