My Dear Friends,

    To borrow from the great Bilbo Baggins himself, four years is too short a
time to write for such an excellent and admirable magazine. Yes, for four years,
it has been my privilege to work with the wonderful staff of Inkwell Literary
Magazine. And as this issue goes online, my only regret is that I can’t work with
them any longer, except from a distance.

    I came to Bob Jones University looking for a creative outlet where I could
share my stories and get honest feedback, and I’d made up my mind to start one
if there weren’t any. That’s when a new friend told me about Inkwell. The
magazine had been started two years earlier by Joanna Scoggins and her crew
in 2020, just as the pandemic lockdowns began. By some miracle, the magazine
not only survived—it thrived. I wanted in, and I published my first nonfiction
story through them, “Can’t Catch a Break.” A year later, I was a staff writer.
I can’t begin to describe how thankful I am to the people I’ve gotten to know
over the years. Like my chief editors: Renee Kalagyan, Katie Lilly, Lindsey
Mohnackey, and Olivia Best. Through their hard work, Inkwell became an
official BJU organization, laying groundwork for our merger with the Readers’
Society to form the Inkwell Literary Association.

    There are many others I want to thank, and I only wish I had room for the
names of everyone I’ve worked with for the last four years. Without a capable
staff of writers, editors, social media specialists, and web designers, none of
what Inkwell does would be possible. As editor-in-chief, I can honestly say you
do the bulk of the work to keep us going, and I can’t thank you enough. Also, we
were very fortunate to have Emma Stephens as our English faculty advisor.
Where would be without her support? And while I don’t recall meeting our
founder, Joanna, I owe her a debt of thanks for making this dream a reality.
Joanna, thank you for having the gumption to see this project through to
completion.

    And finally, I want to thank you readers—our families, our fellow students,
and everyone who reads our stories. Your support means everything to us.
Before I leave, I want to give a couple of challenges—both to the readers and
the Inkwell staff. To the readers, I ask you to tell the student writers in your
orbit about who we are and what we do. Do you know a writer who plans to
attend BJU? Send them to Inkwell—we will take them. And to the staff, I ask you
to keep putting yourselves out there, before the student body. We’re creative,
we tend to be introverted, and it can be difficult to speak out and share what we
love. Sharing what we love with others requires some risk, but it is a risk worth
taking. Keep sharing and keep growing the team. You won’t regret it!
Thank you for reading Volume VII of Inkwell Literary Magazine.

Soli Deo Gloria
Zachary “Z” Edmondson
Editor-in-Chief