The September issue of Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature is live! This is a very special issue for all of us who have worked on Wordgathering over the years: the last issue edited by our kind and capable Michael Northen.
In 2013, my first published poems appeared in Wordgathering. Since then, Mike has invited me to contribute, review, and edit for the journal.
Our forthcoming issues will be backed by Syracuse University, so this September issue is a really special one. Mike invited former Wordgathering authors to contribute, and I am proud to be listed alongside Stephen Kuusisto, Jill Khoury, John Lee Clark, Ona Gritz, Jillian Weise, Dan Simpson, and so many other talented writers in the disability community. This issue has our largest gathering of poetry and eleven book reviews.
You’ll find my work in the Poetry, Interviews, Book Reviews, and Art sections — as well as Mike’s heartfelt acknowledgement on the cover page. In the Poetry section, I contributed three poems: “Cello,” “Inside Jokes,” and “Lingua Franca.” Both “Cello” and “Inside Jokes” have been previously published elsewhere and are forthcoming in Neoteny: Poems, but “Lingua Franca” is a brand new poem! All audios were recorded by me.
In the Interviews section, Mike wanted to run my On the Blink interview with Chris Gabbard. You can read the Wordgathering version here. Mike has always kept up with my writing, and has often asked me to republish blogs in Wordgathering. For a young writer, this kind of encouragement is such a delight!
The Book Reviews section, which covers eleven books, contains my review of Kathi Wolfe’s Love and Kumquats: New and Selected Poems. You’ll find some of Kathi’s poems in the Poetry section, too!
And the Art section contains my interview with Tim Lawrence, a Jacksonville artist and sculptor. Tim went to Hollywood to work on film sets and came back with all kinds of wonderful techniques for creating accessible art!
This is a powerful issue, and I am so honored to contribute as an editor, author, and poet.
On the Blink 