I learned by hiring a graphic designer to come in and tutor me for a few hours one day, just working through how I’d make an issue. You can’t really learn how to use software with a book, you have to be hands on and experiment — that’s why kids are so good with computers, I think; they just screw around until they figure things out, whereas adults tend not to give themselves that much leeway.

Most of the industry has actually moved away from Quark and uses In-Design, which they say is much more intuitive, but just as powerful. I really don’t know, though, I’ve never used it, and I’ll probably use Quark forever, now that I’ve got the hang of it.

Anyway, for very basic things, Microsoft Publisher works very well. I always used to use it to make chapbooks and fliers and things like that. It’s part of the MS Office suite. You can just insert or paste-in images, and then drag them around the document. No metrics. There are a lot of pre-made templates for chapbooks, brochures, etc. It’s great for personal use, if you’re just printing out things yourself or at Kinkos. The only problem is that a professional printer won’t take those files, and I don’t think you can convert them into PDFs.

Don’t worry, no review is going to make us change our focus. I just do want each issue to be eclectic — we have room for about 100 pages of poetry, so I want to always mix in some formal verse and some humor. But I agree with you about the weighty topics — if we’re not writing about things that important, you have to ask why we’re writing in the first place. Particularly when it comes to politics and social issues; those poems are often the hardest to write without preaching or pandering, but they’re what make poetry matter. My favorite poem we’ve ever published is probably “Baghdad Mon Amour” by Iraqi-exile Salah al Hamdani. But then my second-favorite is a very personal poem by Li-Young Lee…they’re all important in the end.