When long-time WRR staff member Ell Huang and I were gushing to each other this week about how amazing the pieces are in this Fall 2023 issue, I confessed to her that fall issues might be my favorite to curate. (Please don’t tell the other seasons…) Autumn imagery and archetypes call to me, and they abound in this issue; we’ve even got a couple of Halloween poems in here! The vivid writing in these pieces will invite you to stare down death, racism, impossible body standards, and other causes of rage and grief, but it will also take you into scenes of beauty and tenderness, make you laugh, and maybe even make you feel seen.
Issue 32 features creative work by Michele Bombardier, Jennifer Bullis, Samuel Burt, Jacob Butlett, Micah Chatterton, Jo Clark, Barbara Crooker, Joanne Durham, Sandra Fees, Robert Fillman, Lynn Finger, Susan Grimm, Jen Gayda Gupta, Thomas Hobohm, Tina Kelley, Susan Landgraf, Kelly Foster Lundquist, Jennifer Stewart Miller, Julie L. Moore, Cameron Morse, Curtis Pierce, Ron Riekki, Heidi Seaborn, and Martha Silano.
We’ve got three pedagogy papers here that use historical research, movie trailers, and job descriptions to teach students about immersion, atmosphere, and detail. Thanks to Garrett Ashley, Destiny Howell, and Richard Ryal for sharing these assignments and lesson plans!
The reviews in this issue take us inside new books by Emily Marie Passos Duffy, Luke Johnson, and Edward Vidaurre, and the reviews are engaging pieces of writing themselves! We’re grateful to Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Ben Groner III, and Sara Pisak for doing this work.
We’ve also got a pair of delightful interviews: one with Ryan Rivas that was conducted by TJ Gottung, and one with Sunni Brown Wilkinson that was conducted by students at Lee University who have since graduated. (Congratulations, Braden Dyk, Janey Hall, Hannah Hicks, and Hannah Swedberg!) Please enjoy the strange coincidence that both of these interviews include a discussion about coyotes.
I hope you’ll love this issue as much as I do, and I hope you’ll send a little something (or a big something if you’ve got it!) to your favorite contributor(s) with a Tip the Author link below their bio to let them know you enjoy their work. Thanks for reading!
Katie Manning
Editor-in-Chief
Katie,
It’s so wonderful to see the development of this lovely journal. I’ll be enjoying these poems and poets.
I have some new poems for you and will be sending them shortly.
Fondly, Luci
Thank you for cheering us on and sending us poems, Luci! Love to you!