Wordgathering

A Journal of Disability Poetry

Volume 6     Issue 3     September 2012

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• About Us
• In This Issue
  • Poetry
  • Essays
  • Fiction
  • Book Reviews
  • Interviews
  • The Arts
  • Reading Loop
  • Drama
  • Author Index
• Contact Us
• Submission Guidelines
• Past Issues
  • Archive

Welcome

Welcome to the biggest issue of Wordgathering to date. Not only does it have more poets than any previous issue (nineteen) and a greater variety of features, it represents writers from several different countries: Sophie Mayer, Peter Daniels and Mark Murphy (all from the from the UK), Andy Jackson (Australia), Nancy Halifax (Canada), Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu (Romania) and Arturo Desimone (Aruba). This issue also presents many poets not previously published in Wordgathering including Mary Krane Derr, Jill Khoury, Elizabeth Meade, Tina Passman, Rhonda C. Poynter, Liz Schumer, Elizabeth Stelling, Brian Teare, and Sofie Vastano. Poets Stephen Kuusisto, Leroy Moore, Nancy Scott and Liz Whiteacre make return appearances. Kuusisto's, Teare's and Whiteacre's poems are offered in audio format as well as print.

In addition to the wide selection of poetry, the editors have made an effort to put a spotlight on disability-related fiction. To that end, we include short stories by Anne Finger and Ellen McGrath Smith. We are also reviewing two books of fiction, a collection of short stories by Floyd Skloot and a novel by J. L. Powers. In addition to the fiction reviews, this issue has four other book reviews. The three poetry reviews are from work by Mark Burnhope, Kara Dorris and Bobbi Lurie. The final review looks at Alex Lubet's book on music and disability.

In the June 2012 issue we introduced a new feature called the Reading Loop. It proved to be quite popular. This time around the loop is run by poet Kara Dorris who will be discussing the work of Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, Carol Berg and Elizabeth Brasher. The other new feature will be a complete one act play by Paul Kahn. A poet and playwright, Kahn died in 2010, so we are fortunate to be able to present "Into the Gray Zone" in our Drama section.

Essays in this issue come from Lisa Gill, Chelsea Fulk, Nancy Viva Davis Halifax and Cheré M. Smith. Our two interviewees are poet Hal Sirowitz and Breath and Shadow editor Chris Kuell. The arts section is represented by Amanda Cachia's introduction to the "What Can a Body Do?" art exhibition and Alex Lubet's essay on composing guitar music with disability in mind.

Wordgathering continues to seek work that develops the field of disability literature. We invite the submission of poetry, short fiction, and essays that discuss poetry from a disability perspective or that contribute to the theoretical development of the field of disability literature. Submission guidelines are provided at the guidelines link on this page. We value our readers' opinions and hope you will send your comments to us at comments@wordgathering.com.

We can be seen on Facebook where we hope you will join us with your comments about the journal or about poetry and writing in general. Wordgathering can also be found on Twitter. Readers can receive updates related to the field of disability literature from us by following us on @wordgathering.com. If you have new work that you would like others to know about, please feel free to share it with us on Twitter or post it on our Facebook page.

The Editors

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