Wordgathering

A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature

Volume 7     Issue 3     September 2013

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  • Essays
  • Book Reviews
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  • Reading Loop
  • Art
  • Author Index
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• Submission Guidelines
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Welcome

When Wordgathering published its first issue in March of 2007, it joined Kaleidoscope and Breath and Shadow as one of three periodicals in the United States dedicated to disability-related literature and art. Though six years has passed and technology has brought about many changes, including a proliferation of blogs, special issues on disability in scholarly publications, and Kaleidoscope's announcement that if will go totally on line next year, the number of literary periodicals whose main mission is the publication of work by writers with disabilities remain the same.

Earlier this year, the editors of Wordgathering, Breath and Shadow, and Kaleidoscope joined together in submitting a proposal to the Associated Writers Programs (AWP) 2014 conference, which as many readers know is one of the major venues for writers in the United States, for a panel that would describe our work, let attendees know about publication opportunities for writers with disabilities, and also invite them to discover some of the terrific work by those of you whose writing is already appearing in our journals. We thought this an unusual and worthwhile panel, but to our surprise, the proposal was not accepted. In lieu of seeing you in Seattle next year, then, we'll ask you to continue spreading the word for us. We hope the great line up in this issue of Wordgathering will make you want to do so.

The opportunity to present new work by poets that we have previously published is always a privilege and in the September issue we have return visits from Jim Ferris, Anna Evans, Kathi Wolfe, Tricia Knoll, Marie Kane, and Linda Benninghoff. Any reader who wants to see other work by these writers – or any others – previously published in Wordgathering, can just click on the "Author's Index", that can give them a list of poem titles and the issues where they can be found in the Wordgathering archives. Not yet in those archives are the poets new to Wordgathering in this issue, including Ana Garza G'z, Angeline Schellenberg, MaryAnn L. Miller, Sally Bellerose, John Masterson, Abigail Palmer, Lynda McKinney Lambert, and Marian Kaplun Shapiro.

Readers who have been following Wordgathering for the past few years know about our Reading Loop in which a poet is invited as a guest editor to gather together and discuss, work by other poets on a topic of his or her choice. In a new twist on the Reading Loop in this issue, poet and Eigner scholar, Jennifer Bartlett discusses the influences of other poets on the evolving work of poetry pioneer Larry Eigner in "A Cripping of Projective Verse."

In addition to poetry, essays and fiction are well represented this time around. The essayists include Laura Emerson, Yvette Green and Diane Hoover Bechter, who returns with the second half of her essay on adjusting to disability. Fans of fiction have some great selections, not only in the short stories of Christopher Jon Heuer, Kara Dorris, and Lee Amir but in the chapters of novels by Adam Pottle and Carol Smallwood that they'll find in the "Excepts" section.

Book reviews have become a major entrée on the Wordgathering menu and this issue serves up a variety. There are a debut novel by Adam Pottle, two anthologies (one edited by the team of Jeffrey Brune and Daniel J. Willson and the other a volume of the WisCon Chronicles editor JoSelle Vnderhooft), and new books by poets Anna Evans, Jillian Weise and Cali Linfor.

Rounding things out in this issue are the second half of Lucas Foss' one man play "Recalculating," in-depth interviews with poets Mark Burnhope and Maryann Miller, and, in our arts section, a sample of MaryAnn Miller's work in screen monotype prints.

Wordgathering continues to maintain a presence on social media. We invite readers to share their comments with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @wordgathering.com where they can receive updates related to the field of disability literature. We'll follow our contributors as well.

As always, Wordgathering seeks 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. If you have authored a book that you think should be reviewed in Wordgathering, and is consistent with our mission, please let us know about that as well. Submission guidelines are provided at the guidelines link on this page. We value our readers' opinions and hope you will send your comments, concerns or ideas to us at comments@wordgathering.com.

The Editors

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