Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting the new editor of Pacific Horticulture magazine, Lorene Edwards Forkner, here in San Francisco. She took the helm as editor of the quarterly magazine beginning with the most recent edition in June.
Back in May I had entered an essay contest through the Environmental Horticulture department at City College, and blogged about it when my winning essay earned publication in Pacific Horticulture. Quite a thrill and an honor! It was a fun process, editing my free-write of about 3200 words down to the 1000 word limit for the contest. A few weeks ago I was presented with the challenge of editing it down yet again to a concise 650 words for the print edition, and succeeded in making it magazine-ready. My essay on the Gardens of Alcatraz will be in the next issue, set for October. The theme for the month is resilience and survival, so my essay fits perfectly with the tone of the issue!
Lorene enjoying the flowers in the Officers’ Row gardens.
Lorene came down from Seattle on a work vacation, getting some personal time on the side of magazine duties. I took her on a personal tour of Alcatraz during her visit, and it was a blast. We caught the morning staff boat out with the rangers and the garden volunteers, and wandered the gardens for two full hours. I told her the stories of the gardens and the restoration history, and used a set of the laminated photos from the docent tours to illustrate the progress. It was a spectacular day out there, if not a little chilly from the wind. 🙂
I had a fantastic time learning more about the magazine process, and look forward to seeing my essay in print with one of my photos! I’m quite excited. I plan to coordinate with Lorene on future topics and to continue writing further contributions for Pacific Horticulture. I’ll be sure to share what’s going on!
boZannical Gardens 
Hi Zann! Thank you so much for taking the time to escort me around The Rock – and for the loan of your Alcatraz volunteer hoody (brrrrr…) It was exciting to see the gardens come alive through your historical and personal perspective. There was something very poignant about the presence of prison and all the negative that implies and the endurance and resiliency of the gardens. Pacific Horticulture is honored to publish your essay in our fall issue, out in early October.
Cheers~!
L
You were a real delight, Lorene! Glad to have a hoodie to spare. 🙂
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