Editor Interview: Wordgathering

disability lit & arts

Breath & Shadow
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Dodge Poetry
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Granta
Kernpunkt
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Porkbelly
Sarabande
Split Lip
Red Hed
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The Sun
Main Street Rag
Tupelo
Unbound
Three Sylvias

Sandra Alland, Stephanie Alma, Shahd Alshammari, P. F. Anderson, Khairani Barokka, Jennifer Bartlett, Pelenakeke Brown, Sheila Black, Tommy Carroll, Kate Champlin, Travis Chi Wing Lau, Laurie Clements Lambeth, Karen Christie, John Lee Clark, TJ Cuthand, Meg Day, Kara Dorris, Jim Ferris, Kenny Fries, Emilie L. Gossiaux, Ona Gritz, Jerron Herman, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Stephen Kuusisto, Emily Ladau, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Hana Madness, Sean J. Mahoney, Emily K. Michael, Shane Neilson, Michael Northen, Calvin Seretle Ratladi, David James Savarese, Ralph Savarese, Daniel Simpson, Elsa Sjunneson, Daniel Sluman, Nathan Spoon, Carolina Teixeira, Connie Voisine, Syrus Marcus Ware, Liz Whiteacre, Noa Winter, Kathi Wolfe, Chun-shan (Sandie) Yi, Rachael A. Zubal-Ruggieri

Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature (ISSN: 2690-7089) is a digital, Open Access, biannual journal of disability poetry, literature, and the arts, with two interconnected purposes. First, we are dedicated to providing an accessible venue for featuring the work of emerging and well-known writers and other creatives with disabilities (disabled writers and creatives). Second, we seek to make available and expand a searchable core of this work for interested readers (with and without disabilities) who are committed to disability poetry, literature, and the arts across a variety of media.

While Wordgathering gives preference to the work of contributors with disabilities, our editorial team welcomes anyone’s work submitted in accordance with our submission guidelines.
https://wordgathering.com/submission-guidelines/
We encourage people who are considering submitting work to Wordgathering to read examples of work previously published in the journal.

Our aim is to highlight disability literature and the creative arts, and to do so in accessible ways. Therefore, we seek out work pertaining to disability experiences and cultures. Importantly, we privilege publishing work by writers and other creative artists with disabilities and present this work in accessible formats.
While we are deeply committed to poetry, Wordgathering also accepts short essays and short works of creative nonfiction (CNF), flash memoir, fiction, excerpts, and drama, as well as art, photography, comics, short videos, music, and suggested books for potential review. Further information can be found in our submission guidelines. https://wordgathering.com/submission-guidelines/
We also publish manifestos, interviews, and responses, and are open to considering other genres. Responses provide writers and artists with the opportunity to address one another, reflecting on prior Wordgathering publications. Further details regarding submitting manifestos, interviews, and responses can be found in our submission guidelines. https://wordgathering.com/submission-guidelines/
In June 2020, Wordgathering began publishing work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, which allows readers to view/access, download, and share the work (with proper attribution), but nothing else, without permission of the creator; all other rights remain with the creator. Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions about Open Access, our Creative Commons license, and Fair Use for more information. https://wordgathering.com/about/faq/
If you have questions or concerns about this license, or anything else, please contact us at [email protected].

POETRY SUBMISSIONS
Poets with disabilities/disabled poets are welcome to submit up to five poems with a maximum of 75 lines each on any topic or theme during each reading period. Our reading periods or submissions review “windows” are March 1 to May 1 for the summer issue and September 1 to November 1 for the winter issue.
For topics and themes unrelated to disability, Wordgathering editors will ask authors to confirm that they have a disability and/or identify as D/deaf, D/disabled, Crip, Mad, Chronically Ill, Spoonie, Sick, or Neurodivergent (including Autistic) in one or more ways. Nondisabled poets must submit work that relates in some way to disability. Nondisabled poets are welcome to submit up to five poems of a maximum of 75 lines each during each reading period.
PROSE SUBMISSIONS
A maximum of two prose pieces (including short essays, creative nonfiction, flash memoir, fiction, excerpts, and drama) may be submitted during each reading period. Our reading periods or submissions review “windows” are March 1 to May 1 for the summer issue and September 1 to November 1 for the winter issue. Writers interested in submitting short essays, creative nonfiction (CNF), flash memoir, fiction, excerpts, or drama should first send a query to [email protected] describing the proposed piece and how it relates to disability literature. Please submit work only after receiving editorial confirmation regarding submission(s).
Writers with disabilities/disabled writers are welcome to submit work on any topic or theme. For topics and themes unrelated to disability, Wordgathering editors will ask authors to confirm that they have a disability and/or identify as D/deaf, D/disabled, Crip, Mad, Chronically Ill, Spoonie, Sick, or Neurodivergent (including Autistic) in one or more ways. Nondisabled writers must submit work that relates in some way to disability.
MULTI-MEDIA SUBMISSIONS
A maximum of five pieces of multi-media content (including art, photography, short videos, comics, and music/audio content) may be submitted during each reading period. Our reading periods or submissions review “windows” are March 1 to May 1 for the summer issue and September 1 to November 1 for the winter issue. Artists and creators with disabilities/disabled artists and creators are welcome to submit work on any topic or theme. For topics and themes unrelated to disability, Wordgathering editors will ask artists and creators to confirm that they have a disability and/or identify as D/deaf, D/disabled, Crip, Mad, Chronically Ill, Spoonie, Sick, or Neurodivergent (including Autistic) in one or more ways. Nondisabled artists and creators must submit work that relates in some way to disability.
Each submission of art, photography, short video, comics, or music/audio must be accompanied by a proposed descriptive text.
Short video content must be closed captioned in English (users should be able to turn captions on or off). We do not accept automatic captioning. Please include an accompanying full transcript file.
If you are uncertain whether visual content needs to be described textually, please indicate your question in your submission email. To describe visual content in a video, whenever possible, please use an embedded descriptive audio track in English (that users can turn on or off) with accompanying written text, or include a supplemental audio track in English with accompanying written text.
Editors reserve the right to revise or edit descriptive text, transcripts, and captioning, in consultation with the creators submitting their work.
Our journal site includes image and audio description resources, courtesy of the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute. https://bbi.syr.edu/projects/oipo/resources/image-description/
Our file formats can be found here: https://wordgathering.com/submission-guidelines/#file-formats
Information about other genres can be found in our submission guidelines. https://wordgathering.com/submission-guidelines/

We request a short, third-person bio.
Writers, artists, and other creatives with disabilities—disabled writers, artists, and creatives—are welcome to submit work on any topic or theme.
For topics and themes unrelated to disability, Wordgathering editors will ask writers, artists, and other creatives to confirm that they have a disability and/or identify as D/deaf, D/disabled, Crip, Mad, Chronically Ill, Spoonie, Sick, or Neurodivergent (including Autistic) in one or more ways.
Nondisabled writers, artists, and other creatives must submit work that relates in some way to disability.

This varies by genre.

There is a conversation, if needed, between the genre editor and the Editor-in-Chief.

Submissions are read and reviewed by our esteemed genre editors. We record each submission in a confidential digital interface shared by the editorial team. Each individual who submits work to us receives personalized, individualized communication.

With regard to our prose submission processes (for short essays, creative nonfiction or CNF, flash memoir, fiction, excerpts, and drama), we often provide suggestions, including line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. The author approves final edits in conversation with us. Due to the volume of poetry submissions that we receive, we do not typically provide feedback on poetry submissions. Manifestos, book reviews, interviews, multi-media submissions, and other submitted work also often receive feedback and suggestions. The author/artist approves final edits in these cases, as well, in conversation with us.

We have in the past. Limited staffing and time (our editorial team is almost entirely comprised of volunteers) has made Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations challenging, of late. We hope to return to doing so in the future.

Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature (ISSN: 2690-7089) is a digital, Open Access journal of disability poetry, literature, and the arts. Submission and biannual publication are free. Authors and other contributors retain copyright to their work. Effective Volume 14, Issue 2 (June 2020), work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. This arrangement is made possible by generous support from the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute (housed in the College of Law at Syracuse University) and the Syracuse University Libraries.

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