From Our Staff | April 30, 2009

Dear friends and visitors to the TMR online home:

Last night I received an urgent message from my friend, the poet Jessica Piazza, a friend of the poet Craig Arnold. As those who travel through the literary blogosphere already know, Craig went missing on April 26th (or even Monday, April 27th, Japan time) while visiting a small Japanese island to research volcanoes. Support and information networks have sprouted all over the internet, with the two primary sites being the Facebook group Find Craig Arnold and, for those without a Facebook account, findcraigarnold.blogspot.com. There have been several reports today from various media outlets, and other information is searchable by Google. If there is anything you can do to help invigorate the search for this wonderful poet and beloved family member and friend, please don’ t hesitate to contact someone through the above sites. Below you will see Jess’ original message along with the document she refers to which gives further background on Craig and the current situation, which although slightly behind the times, still contains pertinent information and a plea to contact your state representatives.

From all of us here at TMR, we wish his friends and family the best possible outcome to a terrifying situation, and assure them that our hopes and prayers are with them.

Hi all…

I’ m writing because a dear friend of mine and an exceptionally talented poet, Craig Arnold, whom some of you know, has gone missing on a small volcanic island in Japan while on a creative exchange fellowship. Craig, an experienced explorer of volcanoes, never returned to his inn after leaving alone to research the island’ s active volcano for the afternoon. The authorities are on the third day of searching for Craig, and are scouring the small island (of only 160 inhabitants) with dogs and helicopters. If he is not found by the end of the day, the authorities will call off the search.

We need your help to insure that the search will continue. The island and areas surrounding the volcano are small enough that an extended search will surely lead to Craig’ s discovery. WE NEED PEOPLE TO CONTACT THEIR LOCAL CONGRESSPEOPLE AND SENATORS TO PRESSURE THE JAPANESE STATE DEPARTMENT TO CONTINUE THE SEARCH. WE ALSO NEED HELP SPARKING MEDIA ATTENTION FOR THIS STORY, WHICH WE ALSO HOPE MIGHT INCREASE PRESSURE ON JAPANESE AUTHORITIES TO FIND CRAIG. Please feel free to use this as reference material