Welcome to our Summer 2021 issue of Whale Road Review! This issue teems with life—one poem even brings statues to life—but it’s also haunted by loss, the way many of us are now and always. These pieces are also full of longing: some for travel and others for home, some for the past and others for a better future. These pieces remind me to be gentle with myself. “In the here and now, when there are still so many unknowns,” Kaleb Tutt writes in his review, “we need art to let us know we aren’t alone.”
Issue 23 features poetry and short prose by Deborah Bacharach, Valerie Bacharach, Brian Wallace Baker, Ray Ball, Jack B. Bedell, Jacquelyn Bengfort, Lauren Camp, Sarah Carey, Claire Denson, Suzanne Edison, Ben Egerton, CD Eskilson, Kimberly Glanzman, Talia Gordon, Julia Hands, Jessica Kim, Polchate (Jam) Kraprayoon, Aaron LoPatin, Alice Lowe, Amy Miller, and Danielle Rose.
The pedagogy papers in this issue invite students to shake up their craft to get at truth, to calm their inner critic, and to find time to write even in the busiest schedule. These papers will likely be useful reminders for all of us in addition to offering helpful activities for those who teach. Thanks to Jacey de la Torre, Diane Forman, and Beverly Army Williams for sharing their work.
This issue’s reviews delve into new novels by Tara Lynn Marta and Michael Pritchett and a new poetry collection by Preston Smith. Thanks also to Sara Pisak, Robert Stewart, and Kaleb Tutt for these summer reading suggestions!
The closer for this issue is a spectacular interview with Jason Schwartzman (but not that Jason Schwartzman), author of No One You Know: Strangers and the Stories We Tell, conducted by the delightfully detailed interviewer Laura Evers.
If you have the means, please tip the authors who have “Tip the Author” links under their bios. Even small amounts will add up, and you’ll let them know that you value their work. Thank you for reading!
Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief
P.S. We just reopened for our June reading period, so if you’re also a writer, we’d love to read your poetry and short prose.
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