Our Summer Celebration Reading this morning was amazing! You can watch it on our YouTube page now. youtu.be/YdI5ARRVkjc?...
WRR Summer Reading Celebration!
YouTube video by Whale Road Review
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Whale Road Review
@whaleroadreview.bsky.social
A Journal of Poetry & Short Prose Edited by @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social https://www.whaleroadreview.com/
My poem "Confession to a Woodhouse’s Toad" is live in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social Issue 43! You can tip contributors right on their pages, and if you’re submitting work, their window is open until June 15. Details here:
My poem “Confession to a Woodhouse’s Toad” published in Whale Road Review + NO FEE call, Deadline: 6/15/2026
I’m thrilled to share that poem “Confession to a Woodhouse’s Toad” appears in Whale Road Review Issue 43, a summer issue full of sharp, resonant work from writers I deeply admire.…
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‘My whole childhood was lived between sky-tiled underworlds.’ Beautiful writing from @kdawn999.bsky.social in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social 🧜♀️ www.whaleroadreview.com/gibson-tran/
Plume
I seem to remember a swimming pool. My whole childhood was lived between sky-tiled underworlds. We’d carpool to Bangkok, pay the hotel’s fee, cart our toys—soakable throwers, flippers, foam boards.…
whaleroadreview.com
‘The thought of it made my stomach feel as though it would climb out and make its own way east.’ Love the musings of this piece from CL Bledsoe in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social 🇳🇴 www.whaleroadreview.com/bledsoe/
Norway
Rather than finish my meeting transcription, I decided to move to Norway. I wasn’t quite sure how to get there, so I walked toward the river, thinking it would flow into the sea and then beyond. Af…
whaleroadreview.com
NEW SUMMER ISSUE OF WHALE ROAD JUST DROPPED 🐳 love this description
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
Oh I felt this poem. This hits close to home, the thing that’s hard to admit: the “as if nothing’s wrong,” the “after that nothing changed,” the way we carry on. @whaleroadreview.bsky.social www.whaleroadreview.com/loehle/
500 Rounds
I am playing badminton in the park when the police cars drive by, five and then five, sirens loud and bright lights blaring; they roar past, disappear, and one ambulance comes behind, crawling by c…
whaleroadreview.com
“Want to know how they euthanize mass amounts of chickens?” I ask him. “Is this one of those things you wish you could un-know?” he asks. Love the dialogue in this @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social. Oh, where she sends herself. And the steadying presence of John ❤️
Emily Rinkema@emilyrinkema.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo excited to be in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social! Check out “A Story about God” www.whaleroadreview.com/rinkema/
Thank you to @whaleroadreview.bsky.social for including my poem "Spark: You Might Be a Birder If" in Issue 43! 🪶 www.whaleroadreview.com/carcia-2/
“Is this one of those things you wish you could un-know?” he asks.” Because @emilyrinkema.bsky.social in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social www.whaleroadreview.com/rinkema/?fbc...
A Story about God
I tell John I’m tired of writing what I know, of writing about grief and loss. I want to write a story about something I know nothing about, I tell him. He brings me coffee in bed every morning, an…
whaleroadreview.com
Im grateful to Katie and her team for including me! Yippee can read my poem here: www.whaleroadreview.com/caspers-2/
Anniversary Season
See how the summer grasses you mowed last spring when the world seemed rainful and lush have yellowed. Here in August, rain is a memory. The land is a golden quilt embroidered with brush piles, bla…
whaleroadreview.com
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
And I’ll be reading at this!
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoP.S. We have a virtual WRR Summer Celebration Reading coming up on Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. PST. Register below. We’re also open for submissions in all categories through June 15. Check out our guidelines and send us something good! pointloma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
My poem “If my family had never emigrated from Greece” appears in this issue! I love @whaleroadreview.bsky.social and am so happy to be published with them.
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoIssue 43 ft. work by @mfitejohnson.bsky.social @trishhopkinsonpoet.bsky.social @jennifer-hecate.bsky.social @lisazerkle.bsky.social @mytwords.bsky.social...
A devastatingly beautiful edition. I was shook more than several times. <3
Thrilled to have a poem in this latest issue! Thank you to @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social for this heroic editorial effort.
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
Immediate registration. 😍
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoP.S. We have a virtual WRR Summer Celebration Reading coming up on Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. PST. Register below. We’re also open for submissions in all categories through June 15. Check out our guidelines and send us something good! pointloma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Love to see you there!
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoP.S. We have a virtual WRR Summer Celebration Reading coming up on Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. PST. Register below. We’re also open for submissions in all categories through June 15. Check out our guidelines and send us something good! pointloma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
I <3 @whaleroadreview.bsky.social and the prose in this post got my attention. "...a toad or a tampon..."
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
I’m so excited to get to be a part of this reading with the fabulous @whaleroadreview.bsky.social!
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoP.S. We have a virtual WRR Summer Celebration Reading coming up on Saturday, July 13, at 9 a.m. PST. Register below. We’re also open for submissions in all categories through June 15. Check out our guidelines and send us something good! pointloma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
You guys, I created a poetic form! @whaleroadreview.bsky.social just published my essay about the "lockbox" form and all the people who helped me build it. You can read "Estranged Lockbox" here! (Also, always an honor to be in WRR, one of my favorite journals featuring so many incredible writers ❤️)
“Why, Building a Palace”: Building Community, Building Forms
Rita Dove’s “Daystar” is one of my favorite poems, especially for the moment of building something beautiful where there was nothing before. This is how I think about both teaching and writing. In …
whaleroadreview.com
So excited to be in @whaleroadreview.bsky.social! Check out “A Story about God” www.whaleroadreview.com/rinkema/
A Story about God
I tell John I’m tired of writing what I know, of writing about grief and loss. I want to write a story about something I know nothing about, I tell him. He brings me coffee in bed every morning, an…
whaleroadreview.com
Proud to have the tampon poem in this issue! 🐋🛣️
Whale Road Review@whaleroadreview.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
Our Summer 2026 issue is filled with work that moves between the whimsical and the all-too-real with a strong undercurrent of awareness and attention that can make even a toad or a tampon seem sacred. www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-43-sum...
Our summer issue will be here very soon! While you wait, you should register for our Summer Celebration Reading... When: Jun 13, 2026 09:00 AM Pacific Time Register in advance: pointloma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
"He’s always here: for the mornings of unfathomable eggshell light, mornings when the hungover moon crashes heavy upon its best friend’s couch, mornings the sky shakes out its rain like a priest repeating the baptism till it takes." Old one from me: www.whaleroadreview.com/danielsen/
The Drummer
for Spencer (and maybe Charlie) This drummer I watch shy through the electric veil, he plays like a man waiting for a bus. Trust me, the compliment’s coming. Yes, he knows where and when to be, jus…
whaleroadreview.com
Congrats to Jia-Rui Cook and Makayla Wamboldt, our nominees for Best New Poets! www.whaleroadreview.com/nominations
“he knew he’d need to fall for the girl, in front of everyone, he’d need to go all in. […] because he and the little mermaid were not supposed to actually kiss just get so very close. On stage, all anyone sees / is a prince” Wow. @whaleroadreview.bsky.social www.whaleroadreview.com/brock-2/
In a Hard Year, I Watch My Son Pretend to Drown
My husband leans in to say, he’s doing it, babe,he’s really doing it. He means the singing, the song—the wayour 13-year-old stands solo on the stage,in the bright light, the way he doesn’t flinchev…
whaleroadreview.com
For @smokelong.bsky.social #FlashInTheFeed, here’s Cathy Ulrich’s “And I Still Remember How Your Hands Were So Much Larger Than Mine” — a story of sledding & dishes & memories & snow on snow on snow. (It’s still wintry here in Ontario!) www.whaleroadreview.com/ulrich/ @whaleroadreview.bsky.social
And I Still Remember How Your Hands Were So Much Larger Than Mine
Outside, it is snowing. The wind makes a sound like a lowing ghost. My brother and his girlfriend dress to go sledding. The girlfriend comes from a place where it never snows. Her skin is sun-dark …
whaleroadreview.com
SmokeLong Quarterly@smokelong.bsky.social · 5mo agoIt's time for another #FlashInTheFeed. Let's fill our dumpster-fire social media feeds with art for the next three days. Share a great flash narrative by a writer you don't know with this hashtag and we'll give away a copy of Shasta Grant's debut novel, When We Were Feral, to seven people at random.
