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.
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