Farewell to Chris & Hello to Rachel

New Swarthmorean editor Rachel Pastan. Photo by Andy Shelter.

This week’s edition marks a changing of the guard here at The Swarthmorean. We want to express sincere gratitude to our departing editor, Chris Reynolds, who for nearly half a decade has done a masterful job functioning as the paper’s heart and soul. In our rookie year as co-publishers, we’ve quickly grown fond of the grace, cheeky wit, and consistent positivity Chris has imparted to these pages.

We are also thankful that Chris took great care assisting us with the process of finding our next editor. A robust search process yielded a wealth of well qualified applicants, each of whom was carefully considered. We are delighted to have found Rachel Pastan, a writer, editor and writing teacher with more than 30 years of professional experience, the past two decades of which were spent in Swarthmore. Rachel is the author of three novels and numerous short stories, essays, articles and reviews that have appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times to The Kenyon Review. Most importantly, Rachel brings a keen sense of the unique role The Swarthmorean plays in forging connections, both within and to our community.

We are thrilled to have Rachel on the team and look forward to the next chapter.

— Rob, Todd & Greg