With each new issue, a serial publication renews itself, be it the daily paper, weekly news magazine, or literary quarterly. This fourth issue of The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture brings to readers and viewers another fine sample of the creative and scholarly work being done by people from the valley and about life in our region.

In addition to the poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual art, and historical material, this issue includes two new features that we expect will be regular sections of our online journal. We have introduced a section for research on the writings and life of Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers. This feature is tied in to the biennial conference on Kerouac and the Beats produced by the UMass Lowell English Department. Another new section, Ideas and Action, is a platform for local research on sustainable regional economic and social development being done by faculty from UMass Lowell. The Bridge Review was launched as a cultural journal with a bioregional focus, so we want to continue to explore the culture of the area and think about how concepts such as place and environment connect; about the links among nature, architecture, and culture; and about the ways cultural activity helps to strengthen community life.

Herman Melville wrote, “Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” The Internet gives us a new way to imagine those invisible threads. With each issue of The Bridge Review, the contributors take part in the ongoing work of creating, presenting, and preserving the culture of our region. Melville used the word “actions.” Writing, painting, researching -- all of it is action. When everything is ready on the movie set, the director shouts, “Action.”

Paul Marion
Charles Nikitopoulos
Editors

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Copyright © 2003 by The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture and University of Massachusetts Lowell. All Rights Reserved for compilation. Rights revert to individual contributors following publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher and individual contributor.