Hey hey!

So this is the result of about a year and a half of back-and-forth between Paper Republic and People's Literature. Right now we're under contract for three pilot issues, of which the first has just come out. My involvement with the first issue basically extended to doing a couple of rushed translations, snarking about the project in general, and offering a bit of feedback about a couple of the other translations: the real heavy lifting was done by Eric Abrahamsen (beforehand, in negotiations with People's Literature), Canaan Morse (who met with the PL people and edited the poetry for this issue), and especially Alice Xin Liu, our fearless managing editor, who really knocked herself out on this issue.

We're really excited about Pathlight. This first issue was kind of a trial balloon for us and People's Literature, and now that we've more or less figured out a workflow and all of that good stuff, I think we're going to be well-positioned to kick ass and take names. The next issue will be timed to coincide with the London Book Fair, and will feature excerpts and short stories from the Chinese authors who'll be in attendance -- so basically the cream of contemporary Chinese literature.

Distribution for the first issue is a matter of which I am blissfully ignorant, but I suspect the Amazon.cn link Alice posted on Paper Republic is likely to be the way to go for now. The Beijing Bookworm has got copies of the magazine for sale, for those who are in town. I remember hearing something about copies going to other stores around China, but that may have just been an unusually lucid dream -- I'll try to get Alice over here to post any updates.