This November, I write to you from the comfort of my stove-side, looking out into the garden where the last roses are wearing snow bonnets and the blackbirds are enthusiastically mining the final windfall apples of the year. Both snow and apples (and, I guess, blackbirds) are modelling their ephemerality, and ‘this too will pass’ is a mood I have been trying to capture at a time of global chaos and catastrophe. Of course, due to confirmation bias, our choice of news media, what we see on our ‘socials’ (be it the burgeoning passage of Bluesky or pigeon post), and the conversations we have (or avoid) reflect our own interests and concerns. I know that whatever I write, both here and in my reviews, is going to be subjective. Equally subjective is the focus of our submissions for any given issue.

In terms of the zeitgeist of DC 50, a mood of nostalgia seems to have overtaken our writers. More recent wars are refracted into memoirs of WW1 and WW2; poets and storytellers share childhood experiences; teenage crushes; farewells to elderly parents; lost lovers, alongside some ‘je ne regrets rien’ moments; encounters with aliens and selkies, and medics giving unwelcome diagnoses. The poetry books reviewed also visit some important pages of the history book, and it was a special pleasure to commission Nick Allen to review Sarah Wimbush’s strike, such an innovative example of Stairwell’s publishing.

Our guest for the second in our new feature of ‘The Editor in Conversation with …’ is Emily Zobel Marshall: I hope you find it as illuminating as I did. I’d also like to extend a warm welcome and many thanks to Laura Strickland, a poet from the wilds of north Yorkshire, who has joined the editorial team. I’ve really enjoyed engaging with her in various poetry events and I am sure her insights and take on our submissions will be invaluable.

To the delight of the publishers, this issue’s guest artist is Jake Attree, who they have known personally for many years, and for whom there was no humming and harring when suggested by Greg for this landmark issue.

I hope you take as much delight as I did in the opening and closing poems, both of which caused my heart to soar; don’t we all need a plumber like Geoff, and a poet like Julia to give Smart’s poem such a witty new lease of life. And how I lived so long without knowing about ‘thicc dads’ and ‘box mods’, I don’t know: every day a school day.

Fifty issues is A LOT of Dream Catcher, and I am indebted to Alan and Rose for their piece reflecting on this. I know that I stand on the shoulders of other editors and it is an honour to offer what I can to this manifestation of creative self-expression. All power to their elbows; as publishers they do so much of the heavy lifting.