This is the first issue of The Literary Nest since we decided to publish poetry exclusively. An idea of the contest emerged after an exchange with Annie in November 2019. After several brainstorms, I decided to hold the Villanelle Contest for the first poetry issue. After making all the preparations, the contest was announced in Mid December.

This was before the first COVID-19 case was reported by China on December 31st, 2019. The virus would soon become a worldwide pandemic and what seemed like a wonderful celebration is now tinged with sadness.  Our deepest thanks to all the health-care professionals, emergency workers, law-enforcement people,  and other essential workers such as grocery store and the delivery personnel and many more.

Amid all the tragedy and chaos, there is a great surge in creative projects such as shelter-in-place concerts held by major recording artists, the opening of art museums online, library programs online,  numerous poetry readings online, astonishing photography exhibitions from all around the globe, and so on and so forth. it is clear that the world needs arts more than ever now. So, here is our small contribution to the art world. My heartfelt gratitude to our contestants and our extraordinary judge Annie Finch for making this special issue possible.