“Go, litel bok, go, litel myn tragedye”

So said (or rather ‘quoth’) Geoffrey Chaucer, commending his Troilus & Criseyde to the gods and his public. Not unlike the Litro team on deadline day, sending our own ‘litel bok’ out into the world; onto the tubes; into bars, shops and galleries all over London; and most importantly, into the hands of you – our readers.

September’s issues carries a superb, surreal cover by our new designer Anastasia Sichkarenko, and is brimming with stories of journeys. Chris McCabe takes us on a family expedition to the lost heart of Dagenham; gothic surrealist Bruce McClure imagines a fishing trip gone wrong; and Matthew Licht’s bemused traveller finds himself trapped in an erotic threesome in ‘Amourang’.

Jay Bernard presents Budo, the first in a series of comic strip reviews. There are excerpts from Maxi Kim’s One Break, A Thousand Blows! and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water. Plus all the latest literary events for you bookish party animals.

All in all, a bumper issue… If Chaucer was around today, I reckon he’d have loved it!

September’s issue marks a new beginning for Litro. Poet and live literature producer Tom Chivers takes over from Mike Fell as Editor. Julie Palmer-Hoffman takes up the new position of Events Editor and will be blogging here regularly on all the exciting literary parties she gets invited to (we’re not jealous, honest). We also welcome Anastasia Sichkarenko as designer/illustrator and Jay Bernard (Budo) as Contributing Artist. As always Litro continues to be published by Ocean Media and the brilliant Eric Akoto.

So, now you’re acquainted with the team, let’s get on with showing you round the new website. Yes, we know the look hasn’t changed that much, but we hope the revamp makes it easier to get around. Our literary events guru Julie will be keeping the Blog up-to-date with news, events previews, features and interviews with writers… so keep your eye on that. We’re also planning to have as many past issues of Litro available as PDF downloads in our Archive section; bear with us. If you’re not already signed up, pop your email into the box at the bottom of this page to receive regular updates and exclusive content.

Finally, Litro has braved the world of social networking and can be found on Facebook. Our existing MySpace page is still there too: rocking the old school.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to pick up your free copy of Litro.