The Baltimore Review. JMWW. Smartish Pace. Attic. Passager. All are smallish publications with big ambitions. They're part of the region's lively journal scene, offering an invaluable outlet for fiction, poetry, memoirs and other writing.

Welter, another journal with a rich history -- more than 40 years -- will have a publication party and reading tomorrow night for the 2008 edition. Produced by University of Baltimore students, it primarily features the writing of students and faculty. (For details, see the Read Street calendar at top right of page.)

These journals give local writers a place to share their thoughts and words. To experience (new or anew) the fulfillment of being "published."

But it must seem like a thankless task to edit and produce a literary journal in this HDTV era. The profit margin (if there is one) must be a tiny as an eight-point Arial comma. So give props to Susan Muaddi Darraj, Jen Michalski, Stephen Reichert, Rosemary Klein, Kendra Kopelke and the many others who keep journals alive.