Bellingham Review Publishes Issue 80
The ninth print issue of Bellingham Review under the editorship of S. Paola Antonetta has been released, featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid works by award-winning writers from the U.S. and from West Africa. The issue also includes recipients of the Bellingham Review 2019 literary awards—Gail Newman, winner of the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, Toni Judnitch, winner of the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction, and Corey Flintoff, winner of the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction—selected by contest judges Nickole Brown, Ira Sukrungruang, and Robin Hemley, respectively. We’re grateful for Susan Bennerstrom’s striking painting Dance Floor for our cover.
We’re thrilled to publish a wide spread of work in this issue—a Chamoru creation myth rendered modern by A. Sirena, a searing poem illuminating ableist oppression by Raymond Luczak, contemporary takes on griot literature, and an extraordinary hybrid piece by Ryan Habermeyer that serves us a mystical slice of the globe along the 39th parallel.
A special section of Issue 80, “Scribes, Griots, Poets: New Writing from West Africa,” features historical and contemporary writing from the greater Sahel, a biogeographic zone of transition. Curated by editor S. Paola Antonetta, with consulting editors Christopher Wise and Kristiana Kahakauwila, the folio features eight writers whose work speaks to pre- and post-colonial realities, such as the loss of homeland to resource extraction by overseas companies seeking oil. The folio includes some of Africa’s best-known writers, such as Boubacar Boris Diop, renowned Tuareg author and artist Hawad, and Senegal’s best known Ajami poet, Muusaa Ka. Translation of featured work from this region occurred across multiple languages, including Wolof, French, and Tuareg.
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The Bellingham Review is the literary journal produced by Western Washington University’s MFA program. For more information about the multigenre MFA program, click here.