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

Who made it? Issue #25

Who made it?

March 2023 | Issue #25

With “Old Men Love Me” by Caroline Simpson

engraving/etching of two Passenger pigeons, one--with brown and light teal feathers--on a top branch bending down to feed the other--with blue wings and head, a rust red belly and throat--on a lower branch
Passenger Pigeon, 1838, print: etching and/or engraving, 41.25 x 29.12 mm, by John James Audubon.
oil painting with large brush strokes of stone bench between two brown tree trunks, in front of a stone fountain with shades of brown grass
The Stone Bench in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital, 1889, oil on canvas, 51 x 24 cm, by Vincent Van Gogh.

With “How Simple Steps Become a Dance” by Sara Ries Dziekonski

“It Only Takes a Taste” by Sara Bareilles and Jason Mraz.
50s diner with green chairs, blue tables, red barstools, and miscellaneous brick-brack on the walls and shelves
Diner Nostalgia Retro by Michelle Maria.

With “Ars Antoinettica” by Elizabeth Sylvia

Prince & The Pauper clip via Andreas Deja.
Marie Antoinette, a white upper-crust English woman with blue eyes and pink rosy cheeks, wearing a white Muslin dress with ruffles around the collar, a large gold bow tied at the waist, a large sunhat with a gray plume and bow, holding a pink rose
Marie Antoinette in a Muslin dress, 1783, oil on canvas, by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.
digital art of a silhouette of a person standing and looking up with a background of red, orange, green, blue blending together with what looks like start and a milky way
Untitled by Greg Rakozy.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of elder men via Italy Magazine.

Background photo of red hearts on black background by RODNAE via Pexels.

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From the Editors | Issue #24

February 2023

From the Editors

That’s all we have, finally. The words, and they had better be the right ones. —Raymond Carver

editors Cheryl Wilder, Suzanne Farrell Smith, and Claire Guyton sit in beach chairs on a cold sunny day on a sandy beach

How many people live inside stories / that never come true asks Richard Jackson in the final of his three “Understories,” a word that could serve as a title for Issue 24. Kalani Padilla’s “Translator’s Note” hints at the stories we might find if we dig into the layers built into words. In “Sight-Paths,” Hoyt Rogers reminds us that in truth there is just one story containing everything, and in that grand narrative, the pilot of a helicopter is much the same as a frigate bird or a buzzard hunched in a tree. To make artful sense of it all, we have to get the words just right. And we do.

—Claire, Suzanne, Cheryl 

Join Our Growing Community

We’re in our third season here at Waterwheel Review, and we couldn’t be happier. But we have big dreams. Right now we have two ways—in addition to being an author or maker—to be a part of our labor of love.

1. Sign up for our newsletter.

You’ll know when each issue goes live and learn news about WWR and our authors.

*We promise never to sell or share your information. We hate spam as much as you do. For more info, read our full Privacy Policy.

2. Support literature without labels.

All expenses are out of pocket. Any help goes to our submissions manager and media. We would LOVE to one day pay authors, hold contests, speak at conferences… (slow down, deep breath). Thank you for supporting literature and art!

Support WWR

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Who made it? Issue #24

Who made it?

February 2023 | Issue #24

With “Translator’s Note” by Kadini Padilla

Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, ca. 1842
Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, 1842, by Utagawa Hiroshige.

With “Understories” by Richard Jackson

“The Night is so Moonlit” by Vera Lytovchenko.
Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow looking over her shoulder at the camera
“Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow” by David Selbert.
A star cluster within a nebula. The center of the image contains arcs of orange and pink gas that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of orange and pink gas expands from the center to the top left of the image. To the right of this plume is a large cluster of white stars. There are more of these white stars and galaxies of different sizes spread throughout the image.
“Star Formation in Cluster’s Dusty Ribbons” by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.

With “Sight-Paths” by Hoyt Rogers

Murmurations by Xavi Bou.
drawing of two black birds by a record player outside on the grass by a pond and a small tree
Listening for Birds by Fiona Watson.

Acknowledgments

Infographic of left and right brain found at Get Blend.

Image of Shakespeare engraved quote found at Sandpoint Wellness Council.

By

Who made it? Issue #23

Who made it?

January 2023 | Issue #23

With “Self Portrait” by Terri Brown-Davidson

Bubble Artist 蘇仲太 by Kuma Films.
painting with blue background, two green spirals like a slinky going upward outside one yellow cone spiral facing upward with a small tight orange coil coming from the center
Primordial Chaos, No. 16, The WU/ROSEN Series. Grupp 1, 1906-07, by Hilma af Klint. 
Le livre du Ciel et du Monde (Illustration of the Celestial Spheres), 1377, author Nicole Oresme, artist unknown.

With “Edward Hopper, Hotel Room” by Mark Katrinak

“M.C. Escher – ‘Relativity’ Stairs” by Visual Impact Systems.
circa 1770 illustration of a British soldier where one half of the man is only his skeleton and the other half is fully fleshed and dressed
Life and Death Contrasted, ca. 1770, by Valentine Green.
oil painting of a woman in a white dress sitting in front of a large window at a sewing machine on a sunny day in front of a burnt maroon wall
Girl at Sewing Machine, 1921, oil on canvas, 48.3 x 46 cm, by Edward Hopper.

With “Odradek” by DB Jonas

“Upstairs Neighbour Walking on Creaky Floor” by Dead Perspective.
late 1500s painting of an anthropomorphic landscapes where a mountain is a man's face with houses in the eye sockets, a tower for the nose, trees and country side on the head and a bridge going over the mouth with a waterfall running underneath
From a series of four seasons in anthropomorphic landscapes: Allegory of summer, early 17th century, oil on panel, 52.5 x 39.6 cm, by Joos de Momper the Younger.
late 1500s illustration of a pear, caterpillar, fly, and centipede
“Fly, Caterpillar, Pear, and Centipede” from Mira calligraphiae monumenta (The Model Book of Calligraphy), 1551-96, Joris Hoefnagel.