A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Over the last decade, Watershed Review has published hundreds of poets, essayists, fiction writers, and visual artists. To select for this special issue we spent a semester reading and discussing all 19 issues in our digital archive. The student editors in this particular class got a unique view of our magazine, surveying the choices of all the editorial groups who came before them. In certain moments, I found myself retelling our past editorial conversations—how a particular piece won everyone over, how something was fought for and prevailed, or how one piece or another had become a reference point for those to come after. Every literary magazine’s lineage is made up of these conversations, strung from one issue to the next, becoming the lore and guidepost by which the future of a publication continues to create itself. And for every poem, story or essay chosen, three got away, and countless were admired and spoken well for, but didn’t end up in our final curation. We are as proud to be a writer’s first publication as much as their fiftieth, and there’s no pleasure like seeing those we read years ago publish their first book, then second, and so on.
Too, our student editors have gone on to impressive places, both professionally and creatively (check out our Instagram to see where some of these folks are now). Hundreds of students have taken their moment at the editorial table—through a pandemic, the catastrophic Camp Fire in 2018, personal losses, and collective upheaval (sometimes simultaneously)—and gathered voices and images together to bring another issue to life. Literary magazines are pivot points, for authors, editors, and their readers, capturing the movement of language, history, and the conversations of a moment. The world has changed since our first digital issue in the spring of 2013. Who can say where we’ll be in another ten?
We want to thank all of our contributors for trusting us with your words and art. Without you, there is no Watershed Review. As well, the support of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and the English Department here at CSU, Chico have never wavered in their support of our publication and its growth. We thank you for believing in the preservation of literary editing and publishing at our institution and beyond. And finally, a thousand thanks from me to all of my students who’ve spend countless hours imagining and shaping Watershed Review into what it is and what it will become. Ten years ago, a group of students asked to keep our magazine going even after the programs that supported it were cut. We sat in a classroom together every Friday for months re-visioning what it could become and how to make it a sustainable effort. Now, all of the support programs are reinstated and we have a Literary Editing and Publishing certificate program in full swing. Everything was built back up from this magazine and the refusal of a small group to allow the destruction of something beautiful and essential. We hope you’ll stay a while and explore this stunning gathering of voices from the archives.
Ever onward,
Sarah Pape, MA, MFA Managing Editor
fiction
Justin Bryant | #TwitterJumper Jessie Carver | Andromeda Tammy Delatorre | Red Sea A. Farrier | The Curvy Cage Wei He | Dear Sherlock Holmes, Anastasia Jill | Mother of Kenneth Kelly | Cogs Rupprecht Mayer | Description of a Coast Teresa Milbrodt | Four Abigail Miles | Three Hundred and Sixty Five Tanya Perkins | Green Abandon Jennifer Popa | Useless Prey Kimberly Ramos | Fable Containing the Warmth of a Hand Adrienne Rivera | Risk Management J.T. Townley | Preview Man Annie Vitalsey | It's Not You, It's Jesus LaToya Watkins | Man Work Katherine Wasche | The Chronologist Tina Xiang | That Same Sad Tale
nonfiction
Saanya Ali | Reasons to Never Fall for the Writer Fred Arroyo | Pulsar Watches Daria Booth | Three Food Stories Ashley Bowen | Waiting Rooms Sophie Buckner | Strokes Through Water: A Feminine History Pamela Dellinger | Nothing Was Out of Control Matthew Gavin Frank | Oaxaca Night Marion Goldstein | Shattered Glass James Craig Hartz Jr. | Killing for Non-Majors Heather Momyer | All the Ways We Exist Sjohnna McCray | Love and Illness Eva Saulitis | 49: The Last Five Days Alaina Scarano | The Mariana Trench Caitlin Scarano | Body, Baby, Water; Moon Christine Stewart-Nuñez | Toward Intimate Spaces Emily Stoddard | Orienteering Katie Stine | First and Last Day Frank Soos | Doubling, Doubling Back David Tromblay | Yabba Dabba Do
Poetry
Crystal Boson | What It Is to Be a White Man Abdulmueed Balogun | I Feel Like Writing Brittney Corrigan | Elegy for One Billion Animals Hollie Dugas | Alchemy's Darling Rae Gouirand | Arils on Velvet Nathan Hassall | Pills Sara Henning | I'm Not Saying Goodbye, I'm Thinking of the Moon Javan Howard | Give Me One Reason Amy Hsieh | Parabole Robert Krut | Watch Me Trick Ghosts Kelly Nelson | First Date Sarah O. Oso | Self-Portrait as a Dragon Annie Przypyszny | Sometimes I Dream About Whales Esther Ra | Dear America / Beautiful Country Michelle S. Reed | Catcall #27 Katherine Riegel | Kites Almost Too Strong to Hold Peggy Shumaker | Tiny Infinity Martha Silano | My Guardian Angel Was a Crow and God Did Not... Nathan Slinker | In the Play We Are Blossoms That Close Each Night Clint Smith | Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class Nicole Stellon O'Donnell | A Reply to the Obtrusive Narrator Valerie Wallace | Small Seams Jeff Whitney | Love
fiction
Justin Bryant | #TwitterJumper Jessie Carver | Andromeda Tammy Delatorre | Red Sea A. Farrier | The Curvy Cage Wei He | Dear Sherlock Holmes, Anastasia Jill | Mother of Kenneth Kelly | Cogs Rupprecht Mayer | Description of a Coast Teresa Milbrodt | Four Abigail Miles | Three Hundred and Sixty Five Tanya Perkins | Green Abandon Jennifer Popa | Useless Prey Kimberly Ramos | Fable Containing the Warmth of a Hand Adrienne Rivera | Risk Management J.T. Townley | Preview Man Annie Vitalsey | It's Not You, It's Jesus LaToya Watkins | Man Work Katherine Wasche | The Chronologist Tina Xiang | That Same Sad Tale
nonfiction
Saanya Ali | Reasons to Never Fall for the Writer Fred Arroyo | Pulsar Watches Daria Booth | Three Food Stories Ashley Bowen | Waiting Rooms Sophie Buckner | Strokes Through Water: A Feminine History Pamela Dellinger | Nothing Was Out of Control Matthew Gavin Frank | Oaxaca Night Marion Goldstein | Shattered Glass James Craig Hartz Jr. | Killing for Non-Majors Heather Momyer | All the Ways We Exist Sjohnna McCray | Love and Illness Eva Saulitis | 49: The Last Five Days Alaina Scarano | The Mariana Trench Caitlin Scarano | Body, Baby, Water; Moon Christine Stewart-Nuñez | Toward Intimate Spaces Emily Stoddard | Orienteering Katie Stine | First and Last Day Frank Soos | Doubling, Doubling Back David Tromblay | Yabba Dabba Do
Poetry
Crystal Boson | What It Is to Be a White Man Abdulmueed Balogun | I Feel Like Writing Brittney Corrigan | Elegy for One Billion Animals Hollie Dugas | Alchemy's Darling Rae Gouirand | Arils on Velvet Nathan Hassall | Pills Sara Henning | I'm Not Saying Goodbye, I'm Thinking of the Moon Javan Howard | Give Me One Reason Amy Hsieh | Parabole Robert Krut | Watch Me Trick Ghosts Kelly Nelson | First Date Sarah O. Oso | Self-Portrait as a Dragon Annie Przypyszny | Sometimes I Dream About Whales Esther Ra | Dear America / Beautiful Country Michelle S. Reed | Catcall #27 Katherine Riegel | Kites Almost Too Strong to Hold Peggy Shumaker | Tiny Infinity Martha Silano | My Guardian Angel Was a Crow and God Did Not... Nathan Slinker | In the Play We Are Blossoms That Close Each Night Clint Smith | Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class Nicole Stellon O'Donnell | A Reply to the Obtrusive Narrator Valerie Wallace | Small Seams Jeff Whitney | Love
Art
All of the art for this issue was pulled from our generous art archives. On most contributors' pages you'll find a correlating art piece with a link to its original publication, as well as listed here (in order of appearance in the issue): Lea Wülferth (Vol. 41.1) Sioban Bedford (Vol. 37.2) Priyanka Tewari (Vol. 38.2) Cynthia Schildhauer (Vol. 35.2) W. Jack Savage (Vol. 37.2) Bill Wolak (44.2) Sheri L. Wright (Vol. 37.2) Karen Purdy (Vol. 36.2) Max Talley (Vol. 41.1) Leah Oates (Vol. 38.2) Caitlin Schwerin (Vol. 37.1) Sara Pedigo (Vol. 35.2) Britta Cartagena Goldmann (Vol. 35.1) Kris Wheat (Vol. 36.2) Jesse Treece (Vol. 36.1) John Kirsch (Vol. 39.1) Angjelin Hila (Vol. 42.1) Ana-Maria Prundaru (Vol. 38.1) Ashley Penning (Vol. 35.2) Roger Salucci (Vol. 39.1) Ira Joel Haber (Vol. 40.1) Alain Laboile (Vol. 38.2) Dr. Ernest Williamson III (Vol. 37.1) Jury S. Judge (41.2) Daniel Papke (Vol. 36.2) Christine Connerly (Vol. 42.1) Rebecca Pyle (Vol. 40.2) Simon Fyrdundel (Vol. 41.1) Maurizio Bongiovanni (Vol. 36.1) Deborah Angyo Gorman (Vol. 37.1) Ed Touchette (Vol. 40.1) Christina Rosche (Vol. 45.1) Sandy Coomer (Vol. 40.1) MaryRose Lovgren (Vol. 37.2) Mandy Cooper (Vol. 42.1) Shara Johnson (Vol. 37.2) Laura J. Stein (Vol. 38.2) Brittany Brown (Vol. 35.1) Federico Federici (Vol. 40.2)
selection editors
Mataya Bryson O'Connor, Jen Carter, Dylan Cox, Sydney Cox, Brady Freitas, Harrison Hoang, Celeste Lentz, Sandra Martinez, Alejandro Mendez, Ally Moreno, Carlo Ortiz, Deeanna Prescott, Elisa Quintero, Tyler Reed, Jocelyn Sanchez, Myra Scott, Paityn Spector, Sarah Speegle, Nicolas Spevak, Faith Vargas, Elise Wall, Whitney Williams, Dana Wilske, Manting Xiong
Publication Team
Kayley Amen, Anthony Avakian, Alysa Baker, Amber Barth, Audrey Brostrom, Cameron Cross, Quinn Falconer, Reilly Hall, Paige Harrington, Eli Morrison, Austin Moyer, Hailey Murphy, Charlotte Nunes, Annika Oseguera, Dasha Petrov, Charlotte Price, Elisa Quintero, Mary Thompson, Mason Tovani, Mylie Turney