For too long English prose and verse has succumbed to the foggy creations of an artistic class unworthy of the name. "Artists" lack the grit to meticulously craft an artwork as clearly communicable as it is emotionally derived. What is titled literary today would not serve as a gift shop paper towel to clean a coffee spill from a Poe, a Hawthorne, a Rostand or any number of romanticists and romanticists in spirit.

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It is no coincidence that the most vile, hateful movements arise from such bilious nonsense as is exposed in the literary journals of our own day. Read their pages after watching a violent protest on the streets of our good country and you will see one deviltry in the same..

 

 The troubadour is he or she who shall pick up the pen as a sword, in order to defend the dialect of the tribe, to challenge the status quo, to hack at purple prose and stream of consciousness and spoken word poetry, to expand the language of America and the moral lives of Americans.

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You are a troubadour if you have a song in your heart. If your poetry is both structured like a mathematical equation and delivers the wisdom of the ages, you are a troubadour. If your stories are unafraid of complexity and seek to integrate the four indivisible attributes—theme, plot, characterization, style—you are a troubadour. If with wit and humor you seek to expose the inanities of the high institutions in our culture, you are a troubadour. If you are unafraid to call forth your inner hero and craft essays for and against the most controversial topics of our age, you are a troubadour. If you wish not only to spread stories that build our individual souls, but also to create stories that build a good society, you are a troubadour.

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This applies to readers and writers.

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The troubadour magazine selects stories, poems, and essays based not on so trifling a standard as genre. We welcome what may be called romance or science fiction or fantasy or tragedy. Be it high if it be at all.

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Read the The Spirit of a Romantic: Cyrano de Bergerac's No Thank You Speech before you go any further. If your heart sings, proceed. If not, God help you.