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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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Our Fall 2016 issue is here! It’s not really autumn yet, but we keep seeing posts about pumpkin spice lattes, so we’re close enough.

Some of the pieces in this issue call out to September specifically. Some of them are haunted by lost lovers, mothers, or children. You will find a mad clock, midnight worms, and first bicycles. Some are grotesque, some are raw, and some are funny. All of them have the potential to stick with you long after they’re read.

Issue 4 features new poetry and short prose by Judith Arcana, Shaindel Beers, Annette C. Boehm, Russell Brickey, Lucia Cherciu, Krista Cox, Anna DiMartino, Melissa Fite Johnson, Claire Keyes, Michael Koenig, Christina Lee, Danelle Lejeune, Catherine Moore, Forrest Denham Shattuck, Jessica L. Walsh, and Laura Madeline Wiseman.

John Findura offers a writing prompt that turns humans into houses, and Candice Kaup Scioscia offers a code-switching exercise that turns hip-hop lyrics into Shakespearean lines. Zeke Jarvis, Nate Logan, & Jennifer MacBain-Stephens take us inside new poetry collections by Sandra Marchetti, Amy Berkowitz, and Lisa Ciccarello.

Thanks for taking the time to enjoy this final issue of our journal’s first year!

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We were planning to release Issue 3 on June 1, but it’s ready, and it’s wonderful, and we just can’t keep it to ourselves any longer. In the words of Olaf from Frozen, “Let’s go bring back summer!”

This issue features back yards, pools, family, baseball, zombies, and much more from Michael Albright, Caron Andregg, Brian Baumgart, Anthony Frame, Katie Galvin, Sarah Ghoshal, Rashad L. Givhan, Sonja Johanson, Jen Karetnick, Carol Levin, Cathy McArthur, Janeen Pergrin Rastall, Kathryn H. Ross, Luci Shaw, Laura Lee Washburn, and Sarah Ann Winn.

This issue also features a zombie exercise for enhancing tone from Kristen Figgins and a week-long experimental writing exercise from Julie Platt. Finally, Brandon Jordan Brown, Samantha Duncan, and Kathrine Yets close out the issue with inside looks into new poetry books by J. Scott Brownlee, Heather Christle, and Wendy Vardaman.

Happy summer reading!

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We’re thrilled to announce Issue 2 of Whale Road Review! As one contributor said after reading a sneak preview, “It really feels like spring in there.”

This issue features new poetry and short prose by Cynthia Anderson, Ace Boggess, Thomas E. Caraway, Theresa Chumacero, Barbara Crooker, Clair Dunlap, Chad Gusler, Matt Hohner, Michael Levan, Devon Miller-Duggan, Debasis Mukhopadhyay, Jessica Piazza, Kaytie Rose Thomas, Tara Nicole Todd, Donna Vorreyer, and Terry Wolverton.

For teachers, Karen Craigo offers some alternatives to the traditional workshop, N. West Moss shares an open letter to her creative writing students about their “easy A” mentality, and Forrest Roth suggests a flash technique based in replica.

Ruth Foley reviews Garden Effigies by Sara Henning, and Ken Hada reviews Lifted to the Wind: Poems 1974-2015 by Susan Gardner.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we do!

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Check out new poetry and short prose by Cindy Beebe, Charles Crowley, Nicelle Davis, Diane Glancy, Howie Good, Kay Harkins, James Jackson, Charles Jensen, Allison Joseph, Calvin Olsen, Sami Richardson, Ag Synclair, McKenzie Tozan, Anne Woodworth, and Micah Yee.

Michael Clark, Les Kay, and Cassie Premo Steele offer ideas for teaching creative writing, Elizabeth Bodien reviews Mary Oliver’s Blue Horses, and Claire Keyes reviews Martha Carlson-Bradley’s Sea Called Fruitfulness.

In short, this inaugural issue is awesome.

Also, we’re now open for submissions! See our guidelines, and send us your poetry, short prose, pedagogy papers, and reviews between now and January 15.

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Welcome to Whale Road Review! The first issue will be published in December 2015.

Please check out the About page and Submission Guidelines, and send some poetry, short prose, reviews, and pedagogy papers our way!

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