This volume of Southerly, combining the first two issues for 2007, is a celebration of Elizabeth Webby’s contribution to Australian literature. Noel Rowe and Bernadette Brennan, the editors principally responsible for this issue, describe it as ‘a tribute to a brilliant career’. There are contributions from academic colleagues, generations of poets and writers of short fiction, and a number of ex-students, many of whom ‘have gone on to distinguished academic careers’.

The editorial details many of Elizabeth Webby’s achievements, including her editorship of Southerly between and 1988 and 1999. It was in this role, in particular, that she was able to assist young writers and to offer advice and friendship to many others, engaged like her in the promotion and publication of new Australian fiction and poetry. I was one of the fortunate people to enjoy her friendship and support in my time as publisher at Fremantle Arts Centre Press, in Western Australia.