Raven Chronicles Journal, Volume 23
Raven Chronicles Journal, Volume 23
The work that Jack Straw Cultural Center did and does with community groups like the Seattle World School; their work with arts and heritage organizations; their commitment to educational programs for youth and adults of all ages: this is why Raven was committed to publishing this special edition of the Raven Chronicles Journal. Vol. 23 is a departure of sorts: The “theme” is the twentieth year of the Jack Straw Writers Program, and we did not have an open submissions period for the first time in Raven’s history. Instead, Jack Straw curators and staff chose two writers from each year of the program — 1997-2016.
The Jack Straw Writers Program was created to introduce Pacific Northwest writers to the medium of recorded audio, to develop their presentation skills for both live and recorded readings, to encourage the creation of new literary work, to provide new venues for the writers and their work, and to build community among writers. The program features voice and presentation training, in-studio interviews, public readings, a published anthology, and podcasts. Each year an invited curator selects twelve writers from a large pool of applicants. This volume of our journal features new work from a selection of the over 250 writers who have come through this program over the past twenty years.
In this issue:
Cover Art: photo collage designed by Levi Fuller; photos, 1997-2016, by Sherwin Eng and Dean Wong.
Introductions by curators Rebecca Brown, Charles Mudede, Shalin Hai-Jew, Sonia Gomez, Nancy Rawles, Stokley Towles, Peter Pereira, Belle Randall, John Mifsud, JT Stewart, Matt Briggs, Judith Roche, Donna Miscolta, Jared Leising, Susan Rich, Shawn Wong, Stephanie Kallos, Felicia Gonzalez, Kevin Craft, and Karen Finneyfrock.
Fiction and essays by Donna Miscolta, David Schmader, Alie Wiegersma Smaalders, Matt Briggs, Janée J. Baugher, Maliha Masood, Jourdan Imani Keith, Laurie Blauner, Wendy Call, Martha Clarkson, Anne McDuffie, Harold Taw, Johanna Stoberock, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Josephine Ensign, Margot Kahn, and Ramon Isao.
Poems by Joan Fiset, Deborah Woodard, Becka Mara McKay, Don Mee Choi, Suzanne Bottelli, Mercedes Lawry, Kathleen Flenniken, Elizabeth Austen, Kathryn Hunt, James Reed, Carlos Martinez, John Burgess, Doug Nufer, Sharon Cumberland, Rachel Dilworth, Kevin Simmonds, Bill Carty, Sharon Hashimoto, Claudia Castro Luna, Emily Bedard, Martha Kreiner, and EJ Koh.
Reviews by Matt Briggs (Lifeline Rule, Doug Nufer), Rich Ives (The Solace of Monsters, Laurie Blauner), Anne McDuffie (Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, Kate Carroll de Gutes), JT Stewart (by Land. . . , John Burgess), Debrah Lechner (Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace, Eds. Carolyne Wright, et al), Michael Dylan Welch (American Sentences, Paul E. Nelson), and Judith Roche (Language Arts, Stephanie Kallos).