Safe to Chew

The success of this collection will be measured by whether or not youfind yourself smiling with a tilt of your head and musing to yourself, Inever would have thought of that. Certainly, this is a new and ambitiousundertaking for Wicwas Press. Our focus and notoriety in recent yearshas been on information surrounding the industrious, beloved, mysterioushoney bee and the art of its keeping. We've met with thousands ofbeekeepers, authors, scientists and enthusiasts, all of whom have beendrawn together by a spark of curiosity and inspiration-and inspirationtakes many forms. Within these pages, we have attempted to capture andcultivate that inspiration in a series of essays, poems and stories aroundthe theme of beekeeping.Our contributors are not necessarily writers or beekeepers, thoughmany are or will soon find themselves both. We invited their participationin the first ever Wicwas Press anthology with the belief that everybeekeeper has a story to tell and we were not disappointed. With over200 unique submissions to the effort by people from all walks of life, weare humbled by your response. We extend our thanks to everyone whoparticipated, perhaps especially to those bold individuals whose worksdid not make the final cut. Every submission brought with it unique elementsand, ultimately, I hope that we have gathered the most outstandingrepresentatives of these diverse expressions.These collected works present themes spanning the breadth of all beekeepers'experiences and imagination, including stories that explorebeekeeping through the generations, the joyful innocence natural curiosity,and curious flights of fancy, as well as some of the darkness they experience.