Esteemed Readers:
The Wordgathering team has had so many requests for book reviews, we decided earlier this year to create a “book reviews supplement.” Designated as Volume 17, Issue 2s (“s” for “supplement”), this late Spring 2024 collection of eight book reviews and review essays is otherwise known as “Issue 66b.” The supplement’s reviews were written by Kate Champlin, Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri, and yours truly. The Summer 2024 issue (Volume 18, Issue 1) will also include a plethora of book reviews, as will our Winter 2024-2025 issue (Volume 18, Issue 2). We have such a robust book reviews queue and requests list, we are now scheduling book reviews for Summer 2025 and beyond.
Please also read and visit our most recent, complete issue (Winter 2023-2024).
There is a seemingly endless stream of suffering, oppression, and distress in the world. While my perspective on the war in Israel/Palestine remains stalwart, I likewise believe that sharing some good news is necessary:
- In March of 2024, it was announced that Prof. Meg Day was named as the 2024 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Poet-in-Residence. The announcement noted, “As Poet-in-Residence, Day will work with Guggenheim staff to realize their project ‘All Ears,’ which includes readings by Deaf poets, responses in American Sign Language to works of art, and activations that capture the echoes, vibrations, and movement of the Guggenheim’s architecture. The Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence initiative is made possible by Van Cleef & Arpels. #GuggenheimPoetry.” Congratulations, Meg!
- Thanks in abundance to @dlshirey for including Wordgathering in / on “The Short List.” As mentioned in announcements shared via social media platforms earlier this year, “@wordgathering has been added to The Short List. This list is for writers of short prose…a quick reference to publications that prefer shorter pieces. The list is categorized by word count.”
- We were thrilled to learn that poet Hannah Emerson was featured in the Marginalian (curated by Maria Popova)!
My beloved Aunt Joan, a poet, teacher, editor, and activist-scholar, taught me to fight the good fight–for peace. She also taught me to “plant a garden and believe in tomorrow” (a quote attributed to Audrey Hepburn).
I hope, esteemed readers, that you may find something to plant in a garden–literal (literary?), figurative, perhaps both–to accompany you through the coming season. And I hope that reading about these terrifically engaging, diverse books and journals (etc.), and perhaps reading the foundational works about which the reviews are written, encourages you to care for your bodyminds resplendently.
Happy Queer Pride Month 2024.
—Diane R. Wiener, Editor-in-Chief
This Spring 2024 special “book reviews supplement” includes the following reviews and review essays:
- Rebecca Burke, Ed., In Between Spaces: An Anthology of Disabled Writers, Khairani Barokka and Jamie Hale, Eds., Modern Poetry in Translation, No. 1, 2022: The Fingers of Our Soul: The Bodies Focus, and Zoe Brigley and Hannah Hodgson, Eds., Poetry Wales 58.1, Summer 2022
- Emily Gillespie and Jennifer Lee Rossman, Eds., Mighty: An Anthology of Disabled Superheroes
- Steve McClain, The Music of My Life: Finding My Way After My Mother’s MS Diagnosis
- Marilyn McVicker, As For Life: A memoir in poetry exploring the isolation & loss of chronic illness
- Naomi Ortiz, Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice
- Heather Taylor-Johnson, Alternative Hollywood Ending
- Nuala Watt, The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish
- Travis Chi Wing Lau, Vagaries
As Wordgathering has grown, the number of requests that we receive for book reviews has likewise grown. Writers who would like to review books for or have books reviewed by Wordgathering should send queries to wordgathering@syr.edu. Please refer to our Submission Guidelines for more information.
If you would like to become a potentially “frequent flyer” book reviewer for Wordgathering, thereby joining our (of course, accessible) reviewers’ “pool,” please reach out to us at wordgathering@syr.edu with a short summary of your areas of interest and expertise, a short statement of how you understand yourself and your writing to be in alignment with the journal’s goals, and a short bio, and we will be in touch with you as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your interest and commitment.
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.