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Our Spring 2019 issue has arrived! These pieces will bring you flowers, birds, sunshine, and art, but they will also take you to confront God and death. One poem will even take you to Hell. Hold on.

Issue 14 features new poetry and short prose by Kelli Russell Agodon, Thomas Allbaugh, E. Kristin Anderson, Angela Bilger, A.M. Brant, Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Amorak Huey, W. Todd Kaneko, Christine Tachick Kern, Marjorie Maddox, Ben McClendon, Cameron Morse, Charnell Peters, Angeline Schellenberg, Martha Silano, Jermaine Thompson, Paul Willis, Marne Wilson, and Anne Yale.

In the pedagogy section, Nancy Reddy offers a creative nonfiction exercise to draw out students’ quirky expertise, and Gary Charles Wilkens provides a worksheet for plotting short stories. In the reviews, Emily Baker, Michele Bombardier, Claire Keyes, and Charlotte Mandel take us inside new poetry books by Sally Rosen Kindred, Wyn Cooper, Lisa Bellamy, and Maryfrances Wagner.

We hope you love reading these incredible pieces, and we hope this issue finds you well.

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Our Winter 2018 issue is ready a day early, and it is too wonderful to wait until tomorrow, so we’re going to open this gift on December eve.

Issue 13 features new poetry and short prose by Catherine Arra, Julie Brooks Barbour, Brian Baumgart, Ruth Bavetta, Genevieve Kaplan, Jen Karetnick, Katie Karnehm-Esh, Laurie Klein, C. Kubasta, Kathleen Mitchell-Askar, Julie L. Moore, Cameron Morse, Martin Ott, Robert L. Penick, Luci Shaw, Jacob Stratman, Ojo Taiye, Milla van der Have, Sheila Wellehan, and Gary Charles Wilkens.

In the pedagogy section, Mike Moran and Donnie Welch share class exercises for creating action and writing dialogue. In the reviews, Anne Graue, Laurie Klein, Dayna Patterson, and Mary Peelen give us glimpses into new books by Sarah Nichols, Marjorie Maddox, Darren C. Demaree, and Geraldine Connolly.

As we set up this issue, we were especially moved by the tenderness of so many of the poems’ speakers. We hope that you’ll enjoy reading these pieces, and we hope that all of us will try, in the words of Brian Baumgart’s poem, “to find oxygen enough to say the love-yous / too many men bury in the deep dark.”

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Our Fall 2018 issue is here, and it is glorious! These pieces are haunted and haunting, freaky and fearless; in other words, these pieces are exactly what we need to lead us into autumn.

Issue 12 features new poetry and short prose by Melanie Márquez Adams, Gabrielle Brant Freeman, Jen Stewart Fueston, Ginger Hanchey, Natalie E. Illum, Sonja Johanson, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Eve F.W. Linn, Eileen Murphy, Erin Murphy, Brianna Pike, Lauren Scharhag, Ashlyn Sharp, Michele Sharpe, Luci Shaw, Robin Turner, Vivian Wagner, Jessica L. Walsh, Madison White, and Clare Wilson.

The pedagogy papers in this issue both focus on developing characters: Thomas Allbaugh invites us to think in terms of individuals versus types, and Margot DeSalvo offers a character personality test. Thanks also to Michele Bombardier, Melissa Fite Johnson, and Cathy Ann Kodra for contributing thoughtful, beautifully written reviews of new poetry collections by Joseph Millar, Amy Strauss Friedman, and Connie Jordan Green.

We hope you’ll love the writing in this issue as much as we do. Thanks for reading!

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Our Summer 2018 issue is here early!

As I was setting up these creative pieces, I realized that three of them have “after” in their titles, and that sense of living after something—death, cancer, shootings, addiction—permeates the whole issue.

Issue 11 features new poetry and short prose by Christopher Todd Anderson, Rachel Barton, Carol Blessing, Rhiannon Conley, Alex Creece, Priscilla Frake, John Fry, R. McCraw Helms, Melissa Fite Johnson, C. Ann Kodra, George Longenecker, Marjorie Maddox, Mary Panke, Jennifer Saunders, Sara Moore Wagner, Sarah Broussard Weaver, and Shannon K. Winston.

We’ve got two new pedagogy papers for our Teachers’ Lounge: a bad poem contest from Elizabeth Bodien and a lesson on teaching creative writing at a retirement home from Rob Roensch.

This issue also features reviews of new poetry collections by Kaveh Akbar, Margaret Rozga, Cynthia Neely, and Jim Landwehr. Thanks to Seth Copeland, Kathleen Fagley, Siham Karami, and Kathrine Yets for giving us these intimate glimpses into work that moved them.

We hope the writing in this issue will move you, trouble you, rejuvenate you, and prompt you to do something meaningful after.

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Welcome to our Spring 2018 issue! These pieces will take you from Mardi Gras to Easter, from giraffe procreation to elephant extinction, from childhood memories to dust after death. We’re honored to share this beautiful work.

Issue 10 features new poetry and short prose by E. Kristin Anderson, Heather Angier, Alessandra Bava, Emily Capettini, Catherine Carter, Meg Eden, Erica Goss, Trish Hopkinson, Ann Howells, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Karen Bjork Kubin, Devon Miller-Duggan, Olga Nikolaeva, Dayna Patterson, Jennifer Pons, Jennifer Poteet, Kimberly Priest, Thaddeus Rutkowski, J. Ted Voigt, and Sarah M. Wells.

If you’re looking for new ideas to use in creative writing classes (or in your own writing practice), check out the latest pedagogy papers: Sandra Giles offers an ethnography exercise, and Ann Hart offers a Plath-inspired exercise on revision.

This issue also includes reviews of new collections by Marjorie Maddox, Christine Stoddard, Nicelle Davis, and Tammy Robacker. Thanks to David J. Bauman, Zeke Jarvis, Becca Menon, and Phoebe Reeves for taking the time to write about these new books.

We hope you will find some spare moments to read this wonderful issue. Thanks for being here.

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Our Winter 2017 issue is here, and we are honored to celebrate two years of publication with this gorgeous writing. Many of these pieces draw from winter imagery (snow, trees, darkness) and winter symbolism (aging, death), but they will lead you to beauty and will not leave you cold.

Issue 9 features new poetry and short prose by M. J. Arlett, Maggie Blake Bailey, Tammy Bendetti, Angela Doll Carlson, Barbara Crooker, Darren C. Demaree, Patricia L. Hamilton, Seth Jani, Janna Knittel, Cameron Morse, Sergio A. Ortiz, Martin Ott, Alison Palmer, Luci Shaw, Anya Silver, Kaytie Rose Thomas, Sheila Wellehan, Kami Westhoff, Anne Harding Woodworth, and Chila Woychik.

In pedagogy papers, Sarah Joy Adams shares a useful tool for character development, and Kristen Sipper-Denlinger offers a model for bringing college and elementary students together over poetry.

New poetry collections by Diane Lockward, Nance Van Winckel, and Heidi Czerwiec are reviewed by Rachel Dacus, Tanner Lee, and Benjamin Stallings.

We are also excited to include our first interview: N. West Moss spoke with Jordi Alonso about The Lover’s Phrasebook, an illustrated poetry collection printed on detachable postcards.

We hope you will steal some time to read this issue. If you write, please see our submission guidelines and send us some of your work during our December reading period.

Warm wishes for your winter from all of us at Whale Road Review!

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Our Fall 2017 issue is here, and we find ourselves stunned by it. In the midst of natural and human-made disasters, we’re glad to share writing that immerses us in beauty and profound human connection. In the words of Joannie Stangeland’s poem from this issue, “We regret the dark and learn / again to live in the dark.”

Issue 8 features new poetry and short prose by Carol Berg, Sarah Bigham, Darren C. Demaree, Erika Dreifus, Howie Good, Avery M. Guess, Mary Harpin, Ariel Kaplowitz, Wilda Morris, Bettina Tate Pedersen, Jeremy Michael Reed, Sarah Dickenson Snyder, Joannie Stangeland, Annie Stenzel, Bonnie Rae Walker, Paul Willis, and Changming Yuan.

In pedagogy, John Gerard Fagan shares a genre fiction exercise that teaches students to collaborate and revise, and Marjorie Maddox and Gary R. Hafer offer a detailed exercise on place-based writing.

Sarah Ghoshal, Theric Jepson, Nate Logan, and Kathrine Yets review new poetry and fiction by N. West Moss, Sjohnna McCray, James Goldberg, Marisa Crawford, and Cristina Norcross.

We hope these pieces move you as they have moved us. Thanks for reading.

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Welcome to our Summer 2017 issue! We’ve got baseball and soccer, astronomy and mythology, ekphrasis and erasure, mothers, manatees, and more.

Issue 7 features haunting new poetry and short prose by Lana Bella, Rebecca Guess Cantor, Lori Cramer, Jen Davis, Marnie Bullock Dresser, Beatriz F. Fernandez, Travis Hancock, Marci Rae Johnson, Allen C. Jones, Jen Karetnick, Laurie Kolp, George Longenecker, Sandra Marchetti, Michelle McMillan-Holifield, Tania Pryputniewicz, Christina M. Rau, and Cliff Saunders.

For your teaching and writing, this issue’s pedagogy papers include a group renga project from Roy Beckemeyer and a storyboarding activity for revision from Barbara Krasner.

Finally, Mary M. Bryan reviews Andrew Seguin’s chapbook NN, Sonja Johanson reviews Lizi Gilad’s chapbook Hyperion: forest notes, and Ellen Sander reviews the album Skywriting with Glitter by Ellyn Maybe and Robbie Fitzsimmons.

We hope you’ll enjoy these short pieces beside the pool, on a plane, after putting kids to bed, or any other time you can steal a few moments to let writing move you.

We’re open for submissions of poetry and short prose for the month of June, and we’re always open for submissions of reviews and pedagogy papers. Please see our guidelines and send some work our way.

Happy summer!

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We’re excited to publish our Spring 2017 issue today! It’s a stormy issue. Spring isn’t just flowers and sunshine.

This issue has some incredible new poetry and short prose by Geoff Anderson, Caron Andregg, Glen Armstrong, Ace Boggess, Angela Doll Carlson, Judy Cooper, Jonathan Louis Duckworth, Jo Angela Edwins, Robert Ford, Amy Strauss Friedman, Connie Jordan Green, Sara Pirkle Hughes, Tina Mitchell, James Evans Remick II, Tammy Robacker, Jane Sasser, and Donna Vorreyer.

If you’re looking for teaching ideas (or prompts for your own writing), check out Ashby McGowan’s piece on writing and performing multi-voice poetry, Margaret Rozga’s prompt and behind-the-scenes look at revision, and Keri Withington’s clever use of dance videos to surprise students into writing.

Issue 6 also includes a review by Dane Hamann of the late Max Ritvo’s debut collection, Four Reincarnations, and a review by Jessie van Eerden of William Woolfitt’s second poetry collection, Charles of the Desert.

We hope this writing haunts you and helps you somehow. Thanks for reading!

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Our Winter 2016 issue is here! Happy first anniversary to Whale Road Review!

This issue includes love poems that make use of burrito shops and Facebook, a Nintendo Power erasure, cooking shows, walking dolls, music, and a surprising variety of birds. It will sing you into the new year.

Issue 5 features new poetry and short prose by Jordi Alonso, E. Kristin Anderson, Tara Shea Burke, Gabrielle Campagnano, R. S. Carlson, Joan Colby, Barbara Crooker, Rachel Dacus, Ken Hada, Freya Jackson, Karen Bjork Kubin, Mary Makofske, Ashley Mares, Julie L. Moore, Erin Elkins Radcliffe, Judi Rypma, LeighAnna Schesser, Scherezade Siobhan, Karissa Knox Sorrell, and Paul Wiegel.

Daniel Heslep reviews the new posthumously-published poetry collection by Larry Levis, and Stacey Balkun reviews a new poetry collection by Kristin LaTour.

In honor of our journal’s first anniversary, three of our staff offer our own contributions to the Teachers’ Lounge. Our pedagogy papers feature a writing laboratory in the classroom, fieldwork beyond the classroom, and permission to write anything anywhere.

We hope you find something to love here. Thanks for reading!

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