“Tomorrow will bring a different mess,” writes Maria Koors in “The Optimist’s Almanac.” As I’ve prepared this Spring 2025 issue, I’ve been thinking about the messes that continue to pile up, both personal (sudden loss, health emergencies, etc.) and shared (political chaos, human rights violations, mass firings, etc.). I’ve also been preparing for my AWP conference panel on networking, and this is one of the positive things that keeps me going through the messes: I’m thankful for my writing community. I have been fortunate to find some of my closest friends and dearest mentors in the writing world, and I’ve connected with so many generous, collaborative people (including the contributors to this issue!) through the process of writing and publishing.
Issue 38 features poetry and short prose by Emily Rose Cole, J. P. Dancing Bear, Suzy Eynon, Kindall Fredricks, D. Walsh Gilbert, Bex Hainsworth, Michael Harper, Nancy Huggett, Melissa Fite Johnson, Courtney LeBlanc, Anya Kirshbaum, Maria Koors, Devon Neal, Rachel Pittman, Shana Ross, Kelli Dianne Rule, Sonya Schneider, Annette Sisson, Sarah Dickenson Snyder, Angela Sucich, Christy Tending, and Leah Umansky.
In pedagogy, Scott F. Parker and Nancy Myers Rust share personal experiences and philosophies of the writing life, and E.K. Taylor shares some strategies for actively teaching students how to give peer critique.
This issue also contains fantastic reviews of recent books by Jane Muschenetz, Chelsea Jackson, Wendy Barker, Theresa Monteiro, Ann E. Wallace, and Cristina M. R. Norcross. Thanks to Kristine Rae Anderson, Gabriela Bittencourt dos Santos, Jonathan Fletcher, Abbie Kiefer, N. West Moss, and Kathrine Yets for sharing them with us! Thanks also to Meg Eden Kuyatt for her delightful interview with Heather Murphy Capps.
As always, please find the Tip the Author links below most of the bios and send a little (or a lot of) love to the writers whose work you enjoy. Thanks for reading and being part of our writing community.
Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief
P.S. We’ll be celebrating 10 years of Whale Road Review by hosting a booth at AWP in LA next week, so if you’re attending, please stop by #948 to say hello! We’re also co-sponsoring an off-site event with SWWIM, MER, Cultivating Voices LIVE, and Perugia Press on Thursday, March 27, 7-9 p.m., at MG Studio. Hope to see you there!
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