We’ve launched a literary journal!

Why in the world—why in this world—launch a literary journal? 

Writes Stephanie Burt in the New Yorker: “A new journal needs a reason to exist: a gap that earlier journals failed to fill, a new form of pleasure, a new kind of writing, an alliance with a new or under-chronicled social movement, a constellation of authors for whom the future demand for work exceeds present supply, a program that will actually change some small part of some literary readers’ tastes.”

On February 29, Waterwheel Review, opened for submissions. We three editors—Claire Guyton, Cheryl Wilder, and I—are a short story writer, a poet, and a creative nonfiction writer. Our reason to exist is to answer the question, “What if a literary journal ignores genre? What if we publish what you write, and let you decide what to call it?” We did not anticipate what…