Editor's Note

This issue comes with changes in our web page and the addition of a group of scholars who have graciously accepted to be our advisory board members. PLSJ was a challenge in Persian studies in Iran and was faced with quite a few obstacles in these five volumes. The ministry of higher education still does not consider PLSJ as an academic journal and does not list in its approved list of journals! However, Shiraz University has been supportive from day one. and Dr Saadat, the vice-Chancellors for Research, was very helpful and instrumental in funding the journal and supporting it wholeheartedly in the ministry. The journal was not appreciated much by the Persian departments at the beginning but we have received encouragement and appreciation recently. Interestingly enough Iranian English literature scholars and students have shown much interest in writing about Persian literature. Lack of enough high quality submission, in general, is another malady of many newly founded journals which we still suffer from. We hope with a new advisory board and new aspirations to face the challenges and with the help of our readers and contributors improve the situation.  Our new mission is to comparatively explore and examine literary, artistic and cultural issues, and welcome contributions with a cross-cultural, trans-national and trans-regional perspective.  I would like to thank my colleagues Dr Omid Azadi who revamped the page and added the necessary information and Dr Amir Vafa who has made a popular Facebook page for the journal. I would also like to thank my other colleague, Dr Laleh Atashi as well as Dr Mostafa Abedini, who as the editors are helping me running the journal. I also appreciate Dr Massih Zekavat's help in running the review section. He has been invaluable in listing the journal in MLA Directory of Periodicals, Index Islamicus, Ulrich, JGate and WorldCat (OCLC) and a few others he is still pursuing. We are going to have a few special issues in near future, the first one being a special issue on Iranian children and young adult literature. Please submit you papers for the general issues or specific issues as they are announced.   The editor-in-chief Farideh Pourgiv