Our Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that feels perfect for any summer issue but also fitting, maybe necessary, for the current moment. “Rather than finish my meeting transcription, I decided to move to Norway,” begins the opening piece by CL Bledsoe, and the writing in this issue moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred.
Issue 43 features poetry and short prose by CL Bledsoe, Lisa Morin Carcia, Patricia Caspers, Luigi Coppola, Elizabeth Galoozis, Anna Gasaway, Kimberly Gibson-Tran, Ben Groner III, Laura Reece Hogan, Trish Hopkinson, Sarah Laskin, Elizabeth Joy Levinson, Zack Fox Loehle, Jennifer Markell, Jude Marr, Matthew Murrey, Emily Rinkema, Maggie Wang, and Lisa Zerkle.
In this issue’s pedagogy papers, Sean Cho A. shares an assignment that gets students to connect with poems through expressive summary, and Melissa Fite Johnson shares about building community and creating a new poetic form called the lockbox.
Special thanks to Mindy Kronenberg and Marjorie Maddox for taking the time to review new books by Daneen Bergland and Alison Hurwitz, and thanks also to Natalie Glosek and Rachel Turney for their fascinating interviews with Mimi Nichter and Candice M. Kelsey.
If you’re able, please use the Tip the Author links below author bios throughout the issue to let the writers know you appreciate their work. Thanks for reading!
Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief
P.S. We have a virtual WRR Summer Celebration Reading coming up on Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. PST. Register here. We’re also open for submissions in all categories through June 15. Check out our guidelines and send us something good!
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