Dear Readers,

When we launched Waterwheel Review, we were keen to explain why we were so moved and motivated by the image of the waterwheel. Water stands for language, an ever flowing, renewable source; the waterwheel, an engine of labor, circles through, lifting words and then dropping them back into the running stream. Our magazine is a mill, we said, where the waterwheel powers writing and publishing. “We want—and need—to make things.”

For a couple of years, now, we have known that we can’t make enough of our own things while we give so much energy to the work of others. We have had to cut substantially the time and attention devoted to our own writing, and mostly we have been glad to do it, determined to find a way to repay our own work in the end. We never did find that way.

If we could quit our jobs and earn that income publishing this magazine, we would take that deal in an instant. But that’s not the world we live in. For many, many months we have known this, but we couldn’t accept it until now. And thank goodness for that.

Every single issue of this magazine has been a wonder that transported and enchanted us. We can’t say we gloried in every moment. We read or edited or built the site at times while sick, exhausted, grieving—that’s the nature of any publication. But we damn well gloried in every word, every paired image and sound.

Four years and thirty-six issues: What an honor to publish our contributors. What a privilege to offer stunning work to our readers. We must use the word pleasure, too, always rolled out to accompany “honor and privilege,” but pleasure isn’t strong enough, nor is gratitude nor joy nor blessing. For once we find ourselves at a loss for words to express precisely what it has meant to keep this waterwheel turning.

Maybe this will do it: How many times does anyone ever fully achieve the glittering, half-glimpsed vision floating above; that winking, flirting piece of art we ache to manifest? For the three of us, precisely this once.

We will keep making things and so will you. We started this magazine with the image of the waterwheel and a Jean Rhys quote, and we will end in the same way, as we thank you for reading and submitting, and wish you and yours all the very best:

Listen to me. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don’t matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.

—Claire, Suzanne, Cheryl

September 1, 2024: Waterwheel Review will stay online for the foreseeable future. It remains as it looked for the final June 2024 issue.

Waterwheel Review

Literature Without Labels

By

Rauh Family Shout-Out

Rauh Family Shout-Out

pencil drawing of woman sleeping and feeling connected to the outside ocean and cliffs

The first piece we accepted at Waterwheel Review was “Forgive the Form,” by Christina Rauh Fishburne. We three editors shared the giddy moment on the phone, delighting in the revelation of our first author’s name when we clicked “accept” in Submittable. Christina was just as excited when she set our mill in motion with her reply: “Forgive the Form is yours!”

Not content with one first, Christina quickly delivered another. We would publish her work with two companion pieces, we’d told her, and we welcomed any suggestions. “My brother is musician Charlie Rauh and he would love to write a companion piece of music if that would work!”

aged-looking scrolls lettered with a folktale

If that would work? Our vision for Waterwheel Review had led, already, to exactly the kind of collaboration and community-building we’d fantasized about. I laughed with joy when I read that understatement. Why, yes, Christina, that would work very well.

“Until the Charm Fades” came to us a few days later. I must have listened to it fifteen times, reveling in every note. And now… here we are again. The mill keeps turning, there is yet another talented Rauh sibling, and Christina logs another Waterwheel Review first: A contributor shout-out.

It is our absolute delight to shout about another collaboration connected to the one sparked by our publication of “Forgive the Form.” Today Charlie Rauh celebrates the pre-release of his EP, “The Silent Current from Within.” As with “Until the Charm Fades,” which is included in this newest album, “Silent Current” is a family affair. The piece is inspired by the work of Anne Bronte, Anne Carson, and sister Christina, and the music in turn inspired another sibling project.

Charlie asked his brother Chris to write a folktale based on the music and writings, and he asked Christina to create a map based on the folktale’s details of landscape and setting. Check out the pre-release of the EP by Destiny Records. Charlie tells us there will be a limited run of packages that include the album art, an individually crafted map, a handwritten excerpt of the folktale, and a PDF of the complete tale.

medieval-looking map inked onto a scroll

I love everything about this project. The line from the Bronte siblings to the Rauh siblings; the spiraling out of vision and collaboration; the leaping from one art form to another and back again. In a time of enduring disconnection, when all of us are suffering one kind of loss or another, when even those of us who have stayed well and mostly whole are beginning to fray…. Well. We can still make beautiful things. And share in the joy of it.

Claire Guyton