Whale Road Review Posts

Our Fall 2024 issue is here on the eve of the first day of fall, and it’s better than any pumpkin spice latte. When I was walking on the beach one day last autumn, I stumbled upon the scene on this issue’s cover: a lovely arrangement of pumpkins and flowers on the sand. I have no idea who left them there or why, but they made me happy. I hope you’ll also find delight in the pieces you stumble across in this issue. We’re honored to get to share them.

Issue 36 features poetry and short prose by Melissa Bernal Austin, Tristan Beiter, Ronda Piszk Broatch, Merrill Oliver Douglas, Kristi Ferguson, Michael Garrigan, Evan Gurney, Romana Iorga, Gunilla Theander Kester, Sylvester Kwakye, Katy Luxem, Robert Garner McBrearty, Abigail Michelini, Zach Keali’i Murphy, Robbi Nester, Kathryn Petruccelli, Whitney Rio-Ross, Angeline Schellenberg, Laura Sheahen, Hannah Silverstein, Kelly Grace Thomas, and Mischa Willett.

In the pedagogy section, we’ve got a collaboratively written paper about swapping student-teacher dynamics in juvenile detention centers. Thanks to Chelsea Lebron, Nicholas Ritter, and Katey Funderburgh for sharing their experiences and insights.

The reviews in this issue explore new books by Eben E. B. Bein, Cory Zeller, Sophie Klahr, Suzanne Mercury, and Patrick Woodcock. We’re grateful to Melissa Flores Anderson, Hannah Cruz, Hannah Larrabee, and Lisa Lipke for their thoughtful work. We’re also grateful to Ally Gero and Jane Satterfield for their fascinating interviews with Sue Silverman and Shannon Robinson.

Please make good use of the Tip the Author links below most of the contributor bios. Any amount will be appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

Leave a Comment

“Love, enter.
This place is a different
kind of prayer—”

So begins Amanda Roth’s poem in the Summer 2024 issue of Whale Road Review, and these lines seem like a good lens for this issue, which holds many kinds of love and many poems that feel like prayer—some address or ponder God, some offer cries of lament, some celebrate beauty and sensuality—and this feels like a good place to be.

Issue 35 features poetry and short prose by Jordi Alonso, Jared Beloff, Sheila Black, Nicole Brogdon, Lisa Charnock, Marc Alan Di Martino, Zoë Fay-Stindt, Maggie Frank-Hsu, Tammy Greenwood, Katherine Huang, Ayòdéjì Israel, Heather Jessen, Andrea Krause, Annie Marhefka, Jane Muschenetz, Yamini Pathak, Amanda Roth, Luci Shaw, Merna Dyer Skinner, and Rashna Wadia.

The pedagogy paper from Jacob Butlett offers not just one, but three multilayered poetry prompts. This issue also contains reviews of recent books by Jennifer Ruth Jackson, Richard Jeffrey Newman, Mary Pinard, and Bruce E. Whitacre by a wonderful group of reviewers: Susana H. Case, F.I. Goldhaber, Gloria Monaghan, and Christina M. Rau. To close things out, we have an excellent interview that Jennifer Fliss conducted with Jess Bowers about her new book, Horse Show.

If you enjoy what you read, please consider using the Tip the Author links below many of the contributor bios. It doesn’t take a large amount to make a writer feel seen and to let them know their work meant something to you (but they won’t say no to a larger amount if you’ve got it to send).

And you—yes, you—thanks for being part of Whale Road Review! We’re grateful to have you as a reader, and I hope you’ll want to share this issue with others as well.

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. We’re now open for all submissions through June 15! Please visit our submission guidelines for more details.

Leave a Comment

The Spring 2024 issue of Whale Road Review welcomes you to Hell—or at least that’s where a teacher told the first poem’s speaker he’d go if he was bad—and sneaking a Wonder Woman comic to Sunday School was bad. Several more of the pieces in this issue also take us into childhood experiences and life transitions, and many explore—sometimes playfully—life-threatening situations, ghosts, God, Jesus, and immortality. I will certainly be thinking about these pieces long after I’ve read them.

Issue 34 features poetry and short prose by Gale Acuff, Joe Barca, Lindy Biller, Melissa Braaten, Matt Dennison, Sonia Greenfield, Noelle Hendrickson, Jeffrey Hermann, Melissa Joplin Higley, Leslie Hodge, Jessica Klimesh, Arah Ko, Christina Linsin, Robbie Maakestad, Rachel Mallalieu, Katherine Maynard, Julia Ongking, Heather Qin, Shauna Shiff, Mary Simmons, Michael Sun, Nicholas Yingling, and Avery Yoder-Wells.

The pedagogy papers in this issue might look familiar: we’re highlighting four of our most viewed pages from previous issues! Wendy Call provides strategies for teaching poetry revision. Karen Craigo offers a menu of options for fresh workshop styles. John Gerard Fagan shares a collaborative genre fiction writing exercise. N. West Moss sends a rousing message to students (audio included!) debunking the myth of the easy A. We get so much feedback from folks who use and love the papers in our Teachers’ Lounge, and we’re beyond grateful to all of our pedagogy contributors for sharing their work!

Next up, the reviews give us glimpses into new books across genres: poetry by Tiffany Troy and Wilda Morris, flash fiction by Chelsea Stickle, and essays by Eileen Vorbach Collins. Thanks to Jonathan Fletcher, Catherine Hayes, B.K. Jackson, and Carole Mertz for their attentive work!

The final pieces in the issue are two delightful interviews: Scott Ferry was interviewed by Cynthia Atkins, and Bethany Jarmul was interviewed by Elliott Lay. We so appreciate the time and thoughtful work that our interviewers put into these fun and inspiring conversations.

Please note that many of our contributors have a Tip the Author link below their bio, and sending even a few dollars would be an easy and meaningful way to let a writer know that their work meant something to you.

Thanks for reading and sharing Whale Road Review!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. We’d love to see your pedagogy paper submissions now and any time, and we’d love to see all other submissions when we re-open in June.

Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Winter 2023 issue of Whale Road Review! This marks our 8-year anniversary, and we’re so happy to celebrate with these incredible pieces. This issue takes a deep dive into seasonal imagery and archetypes. It contains enough birds to qualify as an aviary and enough relatives to qualify as a family tree. The number of gorgeous moments that made me gasp might also allow this issue to qualify as a breathing exercise. In this time of too much darkness and not enough peace, I hope you’ll find this writing to be a light.   

Issue 33 features creative work by Mark D. Bennion, Brendan Bense, Molly Bolton, Phillip Watts Brown, Duncan Campbell, Grant Clauser, Lisa Dordal, Brian Duncan, Suzanne Edison, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Melissa Fite Johnson, Judy Kaber, Sally Rosen Kindred, Eric Lochridge, Elizabeth Loudon, Melanie Maggard, Dawn Miller, Angelina-Maria Montejo, Anne Rankin, n.l. rivera, James Roach, Leonora Simonovis, Emily Tee, and Heather Truett.

We’ve got two fun and useful pedagogy papers: Julija Šukys provides a lesson in place writing with maps, and Laura Sweeney shares a lesson in collecting material through immersion at the opera.

The three reviews in this issue take us inside new books by Mary Makofske and Sandra Marchetti and into the 2023 mini chapbooks bundle from Yavanika Press; thanks to Diane Bliss, Jess Chua, and Mindy Kronenberg for their thoughtful work!

This issue closes with two fantastic interviews: the first with Alex Carrigan was conducted by Robert Allen, and the second is a conversation that Lesley Wheeler conducted with Jeannine Hall Gailey and Cynthia Hogue.

Many of these writers would be delighted if you sent them a little gift using the Tip the Author link below their bio to let them know you enjoy their work. Happy holidays to you and yours. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

One Comment

When long-time WRR staff member Ell Huang and I were gushing to each other this week about how amazing the pieces are in this Fall 2023 issue, I confessed to her that fall issues might be my favorite to curate. (Please don’t tell the other seasons…) Autumn imagery and archetypes call to me, and they abound in this issue; we’ve even got a couple of Halloween poems in here! The vivid writing in these pieces will invite you to stare down death, racism, impossible body standards, and other causes of rage and grief, but it will also take you into scenes of beauty and tenderness, make you laugh, and maybe even make you feel seen.

Issue 32 features creative work by Michele Bombardier, Jennifer Bullis, Samuel Burt, Jacob Butlett, Micah Chatterton, Jo Clark, Barbara Crooker, Joanne Durham, Sandra Fees, Robert Fillman, Lynn Finger, Susan Grimm, Jen Gayda Gupta, Thomas Hobohm, Tina Kelley, Susan Landgraf, Kelly Foster Lundquist, Jennifer Stewart Miller, Julie L. Moore, Cameron Morse, Curtis Pierce, Ron Riekki, Heidi Seaborn, and Martha Silano.

We’ve got three pedagogy papers here that use historical research, movie trailers, and job descriptions to teach students about immersion, atmosphere, and detail. Thanks to Garrett Ashley, Destiny Howell, and Richard Ryal for sharing these assignments and lesson plans!

The reviews in this issue take us inside new books by Emily Marie Passos Duffy, Luke Johnson, and Edward Vidaurre, and the reviews are engaging pieces of writing themselves! We’re grateful to Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Ben Groner III, and Sara Pisak for doing this work.

We’ve also got a pair of delightful interviews: one with Ryan Rivas that was conducted by TJ Gottung, and one with Sunni Brown Wilkinson that was conducted by students at Lee University who have since graduated. (Congratulations, Braden Dyk, Janey Hall, Hannah Hicks, and Hannah Swedberg!) Please enjoy the strange coincidence that both of these interviews include a discussion about coyotes.

I hope you’ll love this issue as much as I do, and I hope you’ll send a little something (or a big something if you’ve got it!) to your favorite contributor(s) with a Tip the Author link below their bio to let them know you enjoy their work. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

2 Comments

Happy June! Our summer issue is ready for you to enjoy! I’m so taken with the way these pieces seem to want to speak with each other across the issue. I hope you’ll take delight in these conjunctions and conversations too.

Issue 31 features creative work by Christopher Todd Anderson, Ace Boggess, Allisa Cherry, Genevieve Creedon, Patricia Davis-Muffett, Shannon Deep, Terri-Jane Dow, Laurie Filipelli, Marcene Gandolfo, Ben Groner III, Nicole Hart, Mary Crockett Hill, Jen Karetnick, Jill Kitchen, Sam Moe, Matthew Murrey, Emily Patterson, Jennifer Pons, Susan Trofimow, Jessica L. Walsh, Jessica Whipple, and Ava Ye.

The pedagogy papers in this issue are a special treat: a thorough lesson in contract grading (with links to bonus materials!) from Beverly Army Williams, a group villanelle exercise from Melissa Fite Johnson, and instructions for setting up an afterschool elementary poetry club from Vicky MacDonald Harris.

In the reviews section, Sarah Carey and Donna Vorreyer take us inside recent poetry collections by J.C. Reilly and Fox Henry Frazier, and Brendan Walsh tells us about the new Dolly Parton poetry anthology from editors Julie E. Bloemeke and Dustin Brookshire. We’ve also got some incredible interviews with Jared Singer, Audrey Burges, and Shahé Mankerian thanks to the brilliant work of Shai Afsai, Jennifer Fliss, and Yasmin Mariam Kloth.

I don’t usually mention the cover, but here at the end of our eighth year, I’ll note that my spouse and I have taken all of the photos for the covers so far. I love this one that I took a few months ago from my college campus. I rushed out of my department’s ocean-view meeting room (the meeting hadn’t started yet) to stand on the balcony and get a clear shot of the rainbow on the water. Kermit wasn’t wrong; it felt like magic.

We hope you’ll enjoy the magic of this issue as much as we do. Please find a contributor (or more than one!) with a Tip the Author link below their bio and make their day. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

2 Comments

We usually release our Spring issues in March, but life happened, and here we are in April. Somehow though, this feels like exactly the right time for these pieces to go out into the world together, with all their grief for lost loved ones and pointed social critique mixed with spring beauty and cosmic wonder. I needed to read these pieces again closely this week.

Issue 30 features creative work by Abbie Barker, Caroline Parkman Barr, David J. Bauman, Micah James Bauman, Bea Bolongaita, Nicole Callihan, Lisa Morin Carcia, Chiara Di Lello, Joanne Diaz, Elisabeth Adwin Edwards, Jessica Gigot, Erica Goss, Kevin Grauke, Sara Henning, Marci Rae Johnson, Jane Muschenetz, Bobby Parrott, Erin Pesut, Hayley Phillips, Jessica Nirvana Ram, Jason Reblando, Luci Shaw, Annette Sisson, Joannie Stangeland, Sarah Stockton, Taylor Supplee, and Danielle Weeks.

The pedagogy papers in this issue are timely and practical: Neil Connelly teaches students how to write the worst Mother’s Day poem ever and how to improve it with imagery, and Mary Gilliland shares her final assignment of the semester: Writing for Your Life.

This issue also features reviews of recent poetry collections by Melody S. Gee, Brittney Corrigan, Theresa Burns, and Ayesha Raees. Thanks to Mary Ansell, Michele Bombardier, Jacob Butlett, and Jennifer Saunders for taking us into these exciting new books! And special thanks to Casie Dodd for closing us out with a fun interview with former Oklahoma poet laureate Benjamin Myer!

Please make use of the Tip the Author links and feel free to share this issue far and wide. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

Leave a Comment

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Among other things, this December is the 7-year anniversary of Whale Road Review, and the pieces our contributors have shared with us for this winter issue feel like gifts.

Issue 29 features poetry and short prose by Thomas Allbaugh, Mark D. Bennion, Jessica Berry, Adam Chiles, Lena Crown, Dagne Forrest, Robbie Gamble, Guillermo Rebollo Gil, Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick, Lauren Kardos, Katie Kemple, Mollie O’Leary, Jennie E. Owen, Dayna Patterson, Sara Pirkle, Vismai Rao, Remi Recchia, Robin Rosen Chang, Jen Stein, Angela Sucich, Nicole Tallman, Elinor Ann Walker, and Cassandra Whitaker.

The pedagogy papers in this issue are also full of wonder: one uses strange pairings to invite creativity, one takes inspiration for writing feedback from discussions of childhood drawings, and one looks to fairy tales and a collaborative exercise to teach structure. Thanks to Miriam Calleja, Neil Connelly, and John Gerard Fagan for inviting us into their classrooms.

This issue also includes a delightful interview with the Poetry Podcats and reviews of Liar by Jessica Cuello, The Damage Done by Susana H. Case, The White Book by Han Kang, and One Person Holds So Much Silence by David Greenspan. We’re grateful to Mai Black, Geraldine Connolly, Angie Dribben, Jacob Laba, and Molly Sturdevant for introducing us to this podcast and these books.

If you’re able, please tip the authors whose work you enjoy and share this issue with others. Happy holidays!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

Leave a Comment

We’re proud to present the Fall 2022 issue of Whale Road Review. The creative pieces in this issue feel like they’re taking us on a nature walk from summer into autumn, but these pieces don’t shy away from conversing about recent events like the Uvalde shooting or the Dobbs decision, and the walk is no less beautiful for that.

Issue 28 features poetry and short prose by Ayelet Amittay, Merrill Oliver Douglas, Natalie Giarratano, Merie Kirby, Stefanie Kirby, Yasmin Mariam Kloth, Divyasri Krishnan, Raima Larter, Elizabeth Taryn Mason, Libby Maxey, Julia McConnell, Jennifer Met, Janna Miller, Kathleen Mitchell-Askar, Cameron Morse, Sophie Panzer, Sage, Ron Salisbury, Meghan Sterling, Anastasia Vassos, Donna Vorreyer, Jessica L. Walsh, Dick Westheimer, Brooke White, and Jane Zwart.

The authors of the pedagogy papers in this issue are wildly generous: Laura Malafarina includes several links to her materials for micro-experiments with craft, and Aaron Sandberg offers a group of five exercises that he uses in his writing classes.

In our review section, Alex Carrigan, Irene Cooper, Sonia Greenfield, and Nate Logan give us an inside look at new books by Arden Hunter, Shareen K. Murayama, Amy Gerstler, and Solmaz Sharif. We also have a fantastic interview with Claudia Serea that was conducted by Akram Alkatreb.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and we wish you a safe and lovely fall. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. As ever, remember to tip your authors! Many have “Tip the Author” links under their bios. We promise that any amount will matter even if it feels like a very small gesture to you.

Leave a Comment

The Summer 2022 issue of Whale Road Review is full of family: the best abuelita, the actor father, the young daughter drawing a dinosaur during church, the sick brother, the breastfeeding mother and newborn, the parents who had lives before they were parents, and more. This issue includes a pet rock, Barbie, Monopoly, karate lessons, animals, road trips, a Disney vacation, addiction, guilt, and other family accessories too.

Issue 27 features poetry and short prose by Farah Barqawi, Rebecca Brock, Dustin Brookshire, Patricia Caspers, Leigh Chadwick, Flower Conroy, Jennifer H. Dracos-Tice, Sara Elkamel, Robert Fillman, H.E. Fisher, Molly Greer, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Bill Hollands, Andrea Lynn Koohi, Suzanne Langlois, Mitchell Nobis, Rebecca O’Bern, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Eric Scot Tryon, Kristin Van Tassel, Ann Weil, and Lucy Zhang.

Angelo J. Letizia’s pedagogy paper shares an assignment that invites students to use poetry to explore concepts from other disciplines. Michele Bombardier, Leila Lois, and Michelle McMillan-Holifield review new poetry collections by Eunice Andrada, Ama Codjoe, and Brooke Matson, and Natalie Serianni offers a fascinating interview with Jennifer Fliss about her recent short story collection, The Predatory Animal Ball.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we do. Please share the pieces you love, tip the authors who have “Tip the Author” links under their bios, and send us your own creative work during our June reading period if you’re a writer too. Thanks for reading!

Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief

Leave a Comment