NO DOUBT, as anyone who watches the news can attest, we live in a world and society in chaos. Given ups and downs, this has long been the case.

As example we present our new feature short story, “Contact” by Joe Del Castillo, who writes with humanity and heart. His latest story circles around the murder in 1980 of a public figure. As public– as famous– as one can get. Moreover, a figure known for his humanity, his often-flawed stumbles through this hectic world, as we all stumble through it.

The theme of Del Castillo’s story, so necessary in this age of robots and cruelties, is our common humanity. As the title implies, the need of all of us for human contact.

He gazed at the pictures and read the liner notes, knowing but not yet comprehending that a door had shut, a wall had risen, over his past.

WE’LL ALSO be posting in coming days many new thoughts and provocative writing at the other parts of this project, addressing various aspects of literature and the world. These spots include Fast Pop Lit, our NPL News blog, our Interactive page– which we need to make more interactive c/o quizzes and such– and we hope to soon revive our book review feature.

THE QUESTION for us, as perhaps for others, is: How to address the world without being corrupted by it? We’re still working on that one!