From my friends at Hamish Hamilton in NYC

Here in New York it's been raining and stopping and raining and stopping and it feels like we're caught in the last breath of the storm that ransacked the southern states earlier today. It's been an eventful few hours. We were looking for someone to launch this issue, Five Dials 19, and we thought of Steve Buscemi but had no way of contacting him, but a few minutes ago we were walking down 9th street, and hey, there he was on the sidewalk, and we thought 'Holy cow, that's Steve Buscemi,' but how do you approach Steve Buscemi and ask him to press send at a Five Dials launch? How does one do that? The scenario was made worse by a man in a passing car who had opened his window and was yelling out, 'Hey famous guy, hey famous guy' at Steve, who looked like he wanted to take refuge in the nearby 7th Ave subway stop. It was reminiscent of the scene in Annie Hall, when Alvy Singer is surrounded by goons who keep pointing to him and saying 'Hey, it's Alvy Singah, Alvy Singah.' So yes  , no to Steve Buscemi.

Regardless, the clouds are clearing again and we've eaten a couple hot ham sandwiches. The cherry trees blossomed yesterday and New York is ready to shift its focus back to literary magazines now that both the Knicks and Rangers have been eliminated from the play-offs.

 The last time we spoke we were sending you a clutch of poems from upstate New York. This time the issue is a full-sizer, packed like the Lexington Ave number 4 train between 42nd St and 14th. This evening we're holding the launch at 826NYC, a nonprofit writing centre (they'd say 'center'), on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn. We've gathered some writers, some book people, some not-so-book people and — this is the best part — a whole group of Five Dials subscribers who decided they could make it to the Brooklyn launch even though not many of them made it to Jaipur. I have a feeling the 'Hey famous guy' guy from 7 Ave is going to show up later, or at least roll by on the street yelling something.

Enjoy the issue. As always, we wish you were here.

Issue 19 can be downloaded here:

 http://fivedials.com/fivedials

 The magazine is free. Thank you for subscribing.