September 2020 (Volume 14, Issue 3) is the 55th issue of Wordgathering. Diane R. Wiener (Editor-in-Chief) is grateful for ongoing and outstanding collaborative support from her esteemed colleagues at Syracuse University—Kate Deibel, Patrick Williams, and Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri.
Immense gratitude goes to: Gatherer’s Blog Editor, Ona Gritz; Prose Editor, Sean J. Mahoney; and Poetry Editor, Emily K. Michael.
Ona Gritz, Michael Northen, and Diane R. Wiener reviewed books for this issue. This issue’s Gatherer’s Blog was written by Travis Chi Wing Lau; the Reading Loop was written by E. A. Philadore.
“Luck Knowledge” (by Mary McGinnis), “Dirt” (by Carson Pytell), and “Peripatology or The Art of the Walk” (by Nicholas Racheotes) were audio recorded by Diane R. Wiener. Other poems were audio recorded by the poets, themselves.
Wordgathering‘s Founding Emeritus Editors are Stuart Sanderson, Dana Hirsch, Yvette Green, and Denise March.
This fall issue of Wordgathering goes “live” digitally during the ongoing pandemics of racism and ableism; while we address myriad, other oppressive realities; and as we consider how all of these forces impact and are impacted by the global health crisis that is and remains COVID-19 (“six months in”). What do the disability arts and culture have to contribute to these matters, and how are these matters reflected in and influencing of our lives and creative work?
One way to answer this question is with some very good, hopeful news. We are delighted to announce that a vibrant collaboration has commenced with scholar-activist, professor, poet, author, and our friend, Prof. Kenny Fries. Prof. Fries will serve as Wordgathering’s Special Guest Editor from 2020-2023, as he brings to the global Wordgathering audience a vibrant, new project on the disability arts and culture, sponsored by a prestigious grant awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. As a component of this three-year, multi-project grant, Prof. Fries will curate and edit “Disability Futures in the Arts,” a series of 15 essays by disabled artists to be published in Wordgathering, in three sections (five essays, each) and sequences (during December 2020, 2021-22, and 2022-23). Read more about this groundbreaking initiative with Prof. Fries, in the Syracuse University News story.
Here’s another response to this timely question: mentorship and teaching. This fall, the YMCA of Central New York’s Downtown Writers Center, in collaboration with the Burton Blatt Institute’s Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach and Nine Mile Literary Magazine, will be hosting “Numberless Dreams,” an exciting, new, online creative writing program for teens with disabilities–led by professional writers who are themselves disabled (including Wordgathering editorial team members, Ona Gritz and Daniel Simpson!). Learn more about this unique (and free!) program. Registration deadline: October 5, 2020. Wordgathering will be publishing a selection of participants’ work in future issues. Please stay tuned!
And, more great news to share… Effective immediately, Wordgathering will be reviewing flash memoir as a new genre in the journal’s publication wheelhouse. I am over-the-moon delighted and honored to welcome first class mensch, Daniel Simpson, to our editorial team as the Flash Memoir Editor. Our first flash memoir pieces will be reviewed for the December 2020 issue. For more information, please visit our Submission Guidelines.
May the changing of the seasons bring you many meaningful experiences with words and images, however you experience and access them.
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