A reader wrote in to address an important omission from my piece that reviewed 2016's highs and lows. I did not, she wrote, mention Short Run even once.

And you know, that reader is correct. Short Run was fabulous this year, and I should've mentioned it. This is part of the problem with year-end pieces, and why I'm not fully comfortable with writing them: there's never enough room to make everything fit, things get forgotten, and then good people get their feelings hurt.

Let me explain why Short Run was left out of my year-end retrospective: Short Run happened the weekend before the election, and I was a wreck when it happened. I was nervous, I was unable to focus, and I couldn't fully engage with the Festival. (I said as much in my columnn about Short Run that week.) And then the festival completely disappeared from my memory after Election Day because, well, the world blew up. Already, that week leading up to and two weeks after the election seem to be dissolving into a weird foggy amnesia in my brain.

But this is not an excuse. Short Run exemplifies the work of dozens of volunteers who contribute thousands of hours to the festival. Dozens of exhibitors, many of whom came from around the globe, came to Seattle to sell their work. Thousands of Seattleites came out to celebrate comics and small press and community. This work shouldn't be ignored because of my failure to function as a human being. It was a mistake, and I regret it. I apologize to Short Run's founders and volunteers and exhibitors.

Especially this year, a year in which the APRIL Festival announced that they're shutting down and in which Intruder magazine ceased publication, Short Run deserves our appreciation and our thanks. They've grown remarkably in such a short time, and they've become a hub of Seattle's literary community and one of the brightest spots in our literary calendar. We'll continue to cover them in years to come, and I hope they'll forgive my omission, and accept my word that we'll do better by them in the future.