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Welcome to our Winter 2019 issue! We’ve got some wonderful writing that will bring you ziplines and landmines, mothers and lovers, glaciers and God. This issue will walk you into winter, through resolutions, and to the other side of February.

Issue 17 features new poetry and short prose by Susan Blackwell Ramsey, Allison Blevins, Marisa P. Clark, Joan Colby, Lynn Domina, Jennifer Fliss, Marissa Glover, Connie Jordan Green, Bára Hladík, Arminé Iknadossian, Abbie Kiefer, Laurie Kolp, Xiaoly Li, Mary Makofske, Susan O’Dell Underwood, John Sibley Williams, Hannah Silverstein, Billie R. Tadros, and Jenny Wong.

This issue’s pedagogy papers offer ideas for infusing fabulism into poetry prompts and for teaching creative writing beyond rubrics. We’re grateful to Catherine Moore and Robert Nisbet for their work.

Thanks also to Michele Bombardier, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, F.I. Goldhaber, and Catherine Kyle for taking us inside recent poetry collections by Heather Derr-Smith, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Shaindel Beers, and Alexis David in this issue’s reviews.

We hope our fourth anniversary issue will find you warm and well. Thanks for reading!

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We are thrilled to share our Fall 2019 issue! Some of these pieces confront current crises and expose skeletons (literally). Some glow with miracles and hope. One will wave to you from a carousel. All are stunning, worth reading and re-reading this autumn and beyond.

Issue 16 features new poetry and short prose by Katherine Anderson Howell, Mary Buchinger, Ben Groner III, Laura Reece Hogan, Marci Rae Johnson, Babo Kamel, Christen Noel Kauffman, Cathy Ann Kodra, A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, Michelle McMillan-Holifield, Amy Nemecek, Dayna Patterson, Simon Perchik, Cyndie Randall, Jen Rouse, Luci Shaw, Alina Stefanescu, Heidi Williamson, and Eleanor Wilner.

The pedagogy papers in this issue draw from visual art: Jason D. DeHart shares ideas for incorporating images at different levels of writing instruction, and Caitlin Horrocks uses the suggestive omissions from paintings to teach deliberate omission in writing.

Thanks also to Paul David Adkins, Jennifer Saunders, and Martha Silano for contributing fascinating reviews of new poetry collections by Karyna McGlynn, Michele Bombardier, and Amorak Huey.

We hope this issue finds you well. Happy reading!

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Our Summer 2019 issue is here! In the spirit of summer, these pieces want to dive into childhood, gaze at the night sky, and watch movie marathons with you. This issue aches with beauty.

Issue 15 features new poetry and short prose by Paul David Adkins, Christopher Todd Anderson, Jack B. Bedell, Ace Boggess, Aaron Brown, Barbara Crooker, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Tresha Faye Haefner, Claire Keyes, Sally Rosen Kindred, Veronica Kornberg, Minadora Macheret, Jesse Miksic, Anne Myles, January Pearson, Jeremy Michael Reed, Jess Thayil, and Donna Vorreyer.

For teachers, Katie Darby Mullins shares a generative exercise from ‘90s rock, and Brett Jordan Schmoll brings history back to life with a multi-genre creative writing project.

The reviews in this issue are a special feature: all of the reviews focus on recent chapbooks of poetry and short prose, and all of the reviews were written by students at Lee University. You’ll want to take a few minutes to let Delight Ejiaka, Sarah Anne Gabriel, Shelby Marshall, Chloé Phelps, and Danielle Shumaker tell you about these exciting chapbooks by Yalie Kamara, Ryan Napier, Wendy Oleson, Nicole Rivas, and Rachel King so you can add them to your summer reading list.

This issue’s publication also signals that we’re open for creative submissions again, so if you write poetry or short prose, please see our guidelines and send some work our way.

Happy summer, dear readers!

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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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