Defiant Scribe has been blessed with some wonderful people: contributors, staff writers, promoters, artists—all of whom volunteered their time and work to make this magazine what it is today. While we already thanked several of these people in our announcement blog post this past spring, we wanted to thank them again—both because we can’t say it enough, and also because we wanted to give a little more context as to what these awesome people did for Defiant Scribe. Books have acknowledgement pages in order to pay homage to everyone who helped put a piece of writing into the world; it only makes sense that Defiant Scribe would have something similar.

Thank you, first and foremost, to the collaborators who joined the project while it was still in development and helped shape Defiant Scribe into what it eventually became: Elena Byrd, Will Sullivan, Eimear Picardo, Fionna Kuhn, Vikki Cheung, Sarah Lulling, Chad Hall and Megan Alexander. This group was responsible for hashing out Defiant Scribe’s publication schedule, web design, and our blog, among other things. Particular thanks to Fionna, who designed Defiant Scribe’s logo, and to Elena Byrd, who wrote two pieces for our first issue and led the submission review department for most of Defiant Scribe’s run. We also send our sincere thanks to Jane, a Defiant Scribe creative consultant and investor, because this magazine wouldn’t have been possible without her.

Thank you to all our staff writers, both past and present: Aaron Elias, Andrew Feldman, Erin Carini, Fey Wright, Greg Roensch, Nick Nelson, P.F. Simms, Sapphire Huie, Sean Sanford, Soryn Silpram, Stewart Lindh, Whitney Genevro, and Zofia. Particular thanks to Sean Sanford, who has been with us since our first edition; to Whitney Genevro, who wrote many of the pieces you’ll find on our blog; to Sapphire Huie, the creative director and manager of our social media accounts, who consistently had amazing ideas of how to liven up our pages and get the word out about Defiant Scribe; and to Aaron Elias, who, on top of writing some of our best stories, also helped us with our SEO. Thanks as well to Ali Candlin, who wrote one of the first pieces for our blog and helped launch our social media pages.

Thank you to all our contributors (a list too long for us to name), but especially to our repeat contributors—those of you who wrote more than one piece for us (including, for some, as many as six or ten) without being a member of our staff. We’re so happy to have been able to publish your writing.

Thank you to our readers, of course, and all those who supported us in ways big and small—whether you followed our social media accounts, shared our stories, told the people in your life to check us out, subscribed to our mailing list, or just read our work. We see you, and we appreciate you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.