WordgatheringA Journal of Disability Poetry |
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WelcomeWelcome to the summer issue of Wordgathering. For the editors, each new issue gives us a chance to provide something exciting or new. In addition to the usual great selection of poetry, our June 2009 Wordgathering is featuring a dialogue among four of our favorite women poets: Ona Gritz, Linda Cronin, Kathi Wolfe, and Patricia Wellingham-Jones. The idea for a dialogue began in the March 2009 issue with a discussion among four writers who taught disability literature courses in their colleges or universities. That dialogue proved popular and sparked the obvious need for a discussion that concentrated on the writing of disability poetry itself. Not only does this discussion bring up many topics about writing and presenting disability poetry, but it gives the reader a chance to sample many newer poems by these writers in the course of their exchange. The dialogue can be seen in the interview section. A second exciting aspect of this issue of Wordgathering is the opportunity to introduce readers to the field of Deaf poetry. This is centered on a review of John Lee Clark's important book Deaf American Poetry. In addition, to the review there are sample poems by Clark and noted Deaf poet/playwright Raymond Luczak. Adding a different perspective on Deaf poetry are C. E. Chaffin's essay and love poems to his wife. Poetry in this issue includes initial appearances in Wordgathering by Michael Lee Johnson, P. A. Levy, Donal Mahoney and Miriam Mason, as well as the debut poem of teenage poet Helen Lloyd. We are happy to return with more poetry by Liz Dolan, Linda Fuchs, Fran Gardner, Ona Gritz and Anne Kaier. Prose work for this issue includes Liesl Jobson's flash fiction, a short story by Ellen Williams, and "River Creature," an exciting essay on the writing of poetry by Anne Kaier. The "Index of Author's Work" feature continues to draw readers, so we have updated the index to include this issue's authors. Extending that concept, we are also adding a book reviews summary that will allow readers to look back at all of the book reviews written in Wordgathering to date. Finally, in our continued effort to recognize work of visual artists with disabilities, we round out this issue with disabilities Robert Woltanski's discussion of his painting. The editors would like to thank all of those who submitted their poetry to the 2009 Inglis House Poetry Contest. As promised, the winning poems can be seen in this issue of Wordgathering, by clicking the link to "Contest Winners". If you enjoy the work of any of these contest winners, please let us know, so that we can continue to request that poets work for our journal. Please send your comments to comments@wordgathering.com. Return to Top |
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This site is maintained by Michael Northen. |
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