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Even a teetotaler might admit: Nothing quite compares to the thrill of stepping into an unfamiliar tavern, elbowing up to the bar, and sparking up a chat with another fellow stranger—except per-haps cracking the bind of a literary journal and meeting on its pages the quiet company of distinct and diverse voices. Of course, not all poets share the same drunken desires as Dylan Thomas, who drowned himself on whiskey in a Greenwich Village tavern. Other poets, like Emily Dickinson, prefer to party alone, to indulge their imaginations in a more private pub. To honor such solitary scribes, especially those who garner too little attention during their lifetimes, we’ve graced our cover with the iconic image of the demure Ms Dickinson. We’ve also included Tom Daley’s elegy “To Emily Dickinson,” plus an off-beat, anony-mous anecdote of three friends searching one night to find the final resting spot of American poetry’s modest matriarch.This issue of Alehouse is packed with poetic adventure.Among the half-dozen essayists writing on the state of inter-national poetry, Stephan Delbos reports on both the recent and nascent Prague renaissances, Paul Sohar exposes the roots of modern Hungarian poetry, and Anne Abad classifies five hundred years of Philippine poetry. Focusing more on home, Susan Shaw Sailer touts the poetic talent in West Virginia while Jeff Streeby pens a brief yet informative history of cowboy poetry. And Regie O’Hare Gibson, responding to the sacking of shock-jock Don Imus, turns the ancient Iliad into hip-hop gangster rap.Among our five dozen poets are the five winners of Alehouse’s 2007 Happy Hour Poetry Awards. Derek Mong, in his grand-prize poem, reveals at last the little-known geographic etymology of “O h i o—.” Runners-up include Tana Jean Welch’s psychological sestina “Bathtub Full of Gin”; Amy Miller’s imagined recollection of life “In the Century When Nothing Happened”; Christina Hutchins’ “Lark,” an avian answer to an intimate request for a poem; and finally, the hauntingly hopeful “Perennials,” Kerre Davison’s first published poem.In all, this issue of Alehouse contains the first publications of several new writers, along with contributions from well-known, established poets, including Billy Collins, whose own little “squib” sets the tone for this year’s open mic.Hey! Every night is poet’s night between our covers.Have a pint or two on the house.