We hate to rethink our reading period, but we’re rethinking our reading period. UC has made the big ole confusing move from quarters to semesters, which means the mag’s ever-so-crucial grad staff and volunteer pool arrive earlier in the fall and depart earlier in the spring than in days of yore (which is how we now refer to the fuzzy, antiquated time before semester conversion). Because we need to match up our reading period with, er, the presence of readers, we’re adjusting the beginning and end of our submission shower (oh so refreshing) to August 15 and April 15. This doesn’t mean we ever actually stop reading (nay), merely that our numbers dwindle in the summer, and in order to catch up by the time we open the proverbial gates again (cue music), we need a decent full-strength stretch of work in the manuscript mine before CR’s creaky little elevator rises up to release its literary laborers into the summer sun. No doubt there will be some confusion at first, since we’ve stuck to the same dates since the magazine’s inception. Please help us spread the word—and we’ll shoot out reminders periodically to nudge the noggins of the overwhelmed and absentminded.