3-2-1-Contact!

Congratulations! You’ve made the best decision of your life and have chosen to visit Harlot on a very special day. On this day we can’t guarantee all your dreams will come true, but some of your mildest dreams about rhetoric and seeing the world a little bit differently will. With this, our seventh issue, we launch you into the rhedesign, the rhestructuring, and the rheimagining of Harlot.

If you can’t tell or haven’t seen us before, we’ve moved from the darkness of an ever expanding galaxy (our old design) into the sun and the formation of a new universe. We’ve decided, with the help of our exceptional web designer, Daniel Carter, to improve our interface and make it more accessible for users in a number of environments. Our old design was cool for a particular digitalverse, but times have changed and so have our notions of design and communication.

(The new design does entail some retro-refining; please be patient with us as we comb our way through the archives and mend any loose ends.)

Our universe has recently shrunk a little bit with the retiring of Vera Dukaj from Harlot’s editorial board. She’s moving on to new worlds, which she will no doubt rock just as she did ours. Vera will be sorely missed for her immeasurable contributions to this project, including:

• Insight into what makes Harlot tick, both philosophically and practically.
• Cutting-edge understanding of online rhetoric and ethics that (still) keeps us in line.
• Kind, clear, and non-technical explanations for us non-digiexperts.
• An eagle eye for all kinds of grammatical and mechanical glitches.
• The warmth, charm, and generosity without which Harlot would never have happened... or been such a rewarding experience for all of us.

We wish Vera all good and glorious things. She will always be a beloved friend of Team Harlot.

We hope the fresh design inspires a new energy in all of you—to submit your own work, comment on others’, become a reviewer, or simply share the site with friends and colleagues. May the rhetoric be with you.