Wordgathering

A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature
 

Volume 11     Issue 3     September 2017

Welcome

The September 2017 issue of Wordgathering is here with a balanced offering of poetry, essays, book reviews and fiction as well as interviews and book excerpts. Poets appearing in this issue are a diverse group including Cheyenne Black, Katherine M. Clarke, Sarah Katz, Des Kenny, Lynda Lambert, Cali Linfor, Maakomele R. Manaka, Sergio Ortiz, Alyssa Radtke, Gerald Sarnet, and Nuala Watt.

Essays, explained more fully in our Essay Index, come from Timothy Allen, Tasha Chemel, John Lee Clark, Lorna McGinnis and Sean Toner. New short stories in our fiction section feature the work of Kara Dorris, Chad MacDonald and Kelsey Young. There are also excerpts from two recently completed books of speculative fiction, one each from Michelle Fernandez and Kristen Ringman, and another from Liesl Jobson's narrative of life in South Africa. Finally, Victoria Lee Khatoon concludes her two part essay of essay on poetic form.

This issue of Wordgathering has an exceptionally strong selection of book reviews that reflect not only the work of important new work now available to readers but the writing of skilled reviewers as well. Two important anthologies reviewed are Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf Disabled Poets Write Back edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka and Daniel Sluman and an anthology of speculative fiction from D/deaf writers Tripping the Tale Fantastic. New poetry collections come from Molly McCulley Brown, Marlena Chertock, and Cynthia Hogue. Readers who prefer prose can check out new life writing from Shahd Alshammari, Kelly Davio, and Kenny Fries. The two interviews in this issue also tie into new books. The first is with the editors of Stairs and Whispers. The second is with poet Sheila McMullin and her work with teenage girls to from Washington, DC to create a novel responding to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Our Reading Loop feature is back on track with guest loop editor Kelly Davio who looks at the way disability is used in film to portray the villainess. She enlists the thoughts of writers Keah Brown, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Ariel Henley, and Alaine Leary to make her case.

Finally, Wordgathering is pleased to announce a new feature – "The Gatherer's Blog" edited by Ona Gritz. Each issue will give a different writer the chance to create a short essay or blog about their own writing. Gritz offers the first of these in her own introductory essay in this issue.

As many readers know, Wordgathering is a member of the Disabilities Literature Consortium, a group of journals that – like this one – actively publish and promote the work of disabled and d/Deaf writers. In addition to the journals themselves, we bring published books for sale by the same writers to various events throughout the year. In September we will be having a fund drive to once again allow us to bring these books to

Writers interested in keeping current on disability literature can join us on Facebook and on Twitter at @wordgathering.com. The activities of the Disability Literature Consortium can be followed on their blog or contacted at dislit666@gmail.com.

Wordgathering continues to seek work that develops the field of disability literature. We invite the submission of poetry, short fiction, drama, art and essays that discuss poetry from a disability perspective or that contribute to the theoretical development of disability literature. The journal appreciates hearing from authors whose books quaify as disability literature and would like them reviewed. Our guidelines provide further information about the kind of work we seek. We value our readers' opinions and hope you will send your comments, concerns or ideas to us at comments@wordgathering.com.

The Editors

Return to Top

This site is maintained by Michael Northen and Eliot Spindel.