Volume 16, Issue 4 – Winter 2022

Welcome to the Winter 2022 (given the timing, really 2022-2023…) issue of Wordgathering—Volume 16, Issue 4 (aka Issue 64).

As Editor-in-Chief, I am grateful for ongoing and outstanding collaborative support from my esteemed colleagues at Syracuse University, Patrick Williams and Steve Kuusisto. Thanks, too, to Dr. Kate Deibel for behind-the-scenes creative labors to ensure and advance Wordgathering‘s accessibility and impact.

Immense gratitude goes, as always, to our exemplary editorial team: Assistant Editor, Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri; Flash Memoir Editor, Dan Simpson; Gatherer’s Blog Editor, Ona Gritz; Prose Editor, Sean J. Mahoney; Poetry Editor, Emily K. Michael; Special Guest Editor, Kenny Fries; and Assistant Book Reviews Editor, Kate Champlin.

Thank you, contributors, readers, and visitors, for your patience with the sending-into-the-digital-world of this delayed issue. Due to unavoidable circumstances in Crip Time, including themes of illness, death, employment change, and other transformations, we had little choice but to delay this issue’s publication, but/and we are “here” now, once again very proud and pleased to share with you yet another excellent collection of work from around the world, across myriad styles and genres, and from a wide variety of intriguing, Disability-centering perspectives.

This issue features–for me, admittedly bittersweetly–the third and final cohort’s five exemplary contributions from our ongoing, three-year initiative, the “Disability Futures in the Arts” series. This innovative series was made possible with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts/Conseil des arts du Canada. The series was coordinated and curated–with secular grace, Crip grooviness, and no small dash of chutzpah–by our Special Guest Editor, the incomparable Kenny Fries. Kenny: Thank you, man. We love you.

We have some other big news to share. Effective 2023, Wordgathering will change from a quarterly to a biannual / semiannual journal. This year, we will publish an issue in the summer of 2023 and an issue in the winter of 2023. Thus, we will no longer have spring or fall issues, for the time being. We may “switch back” to a quarterly schedule at some future juncture…time will tell…

Our two new reading periods will be March 1 to May 1 for the summer issue and September 1 to November 1 for the winter issue. Each reading period, would-be contributors will be welcome to submit a maximum of two pieces for consideration in any of our “reviewable” genres, with the exception of poetry and multi-media content. Poetry and multi-media content can be submitted with a maximum of five pieces per reading period–in each of these genres or creative areas. And yes, you can submit across genres, in up to three areas–that is, prose, poetry, and/or multi-media content–during any reading period. Please refer to our updated Submission Guidelines for detailed information and please let us know if you have any questions by reaching out to us at wordgathering@syr.edu.

Kate Champlin, Fairuza Hanun, Michael Northen, and I provided book reviews for Issue 64.

This issue includes neither a Gatherer’s Blog nor a Reading Loop. We will resume publishing these two special, invited features in the Summer 2023 issue—aka Volume 17, Issue 1 (Issue 65).

The poems “Contentment” by Phillip Muldoon, “Pizzicato” by Nancy Scott, and “Hummingbird” and “Of Poetry” by Roy Wahlberg were audio recorded by me. Other poems were audio recorded by the poets, themselves.

I always love being able to share good news that is happening in our Crip communities as well as to publicize events and resources of potential interest to our fabulous readers and other visitors. Along these lines, I encourage you to check out and share a great new accessible YouTube video “introducing readers to five books by d/Deaf and disabled and chronically ill U.K. poets,” with thanks to our friends, Daniel Brenchi-Sluman and Emily Brenchi (whose words I just quoted). And, joyful congratulations to our Gatherer’s Blog Editor, wonderful Ona Gritz, on her having been featured in December 2022 during Moonstone Arts Presents: Philly Loves Poetry. We continue to receive correspondence from across the globe and have been in conversation with Australian comrades who recently published Science Write Now – Edition #8: “Disability and the Body.” You can also visit Science Write Now on Instagram, on Twitter, and via their Facebook group.

This issue of Wordgathering is dedicated to my mother. May her memory be for a blessing. Rest in peace, Mom.

Thank you, everyone, for your steadfast support of our wonderful and talented contributors, and our stellar, hardworking, and humble editorial team. We hope that you enjoy this new issue and we wish you peace and meaning as the seasons sway.

—Diane R. Wiener, Editor-in-Chief

Underlined content throughout Wordgathering is hyperlinked (each underlined element is a clickable link), leading to further aspects of the content shared. Any questions about accessibility can be addressed by emailing us at: wordgathering@syr.edu.

Please note that the opinions and perspectives shared by our contributors (in their published work or elsewhere) do not necessarily align with or reflect the opinions and perspectives held by the members of the journal’s editorial and administrative team.