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 #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.

By

Who made it? | Issue #22

Who made it?

December 2022 | Issue #22

With “Hinoki – ‘breath of life’” by Martin McGowan

“Just Breathe” by Pearl Jam.
© God’s Prototype, The Nature of Man: Lungs, by Ian Crawley.
“American Beauty” by Thomas Newman.

With “What You Should Know (The Nile)” by John Bradley

“The Sound of Nile” by AAM World Music.
Feather, 2014, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in, by Katherine Ace.

With “the final chord” by Andrew Oram

“Final chords of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4” by the Vienna Philharmonic and Herbert Blomstedt.
La Sultane Bleue, 1910, costume sketch for the ballet Schéhérazade, by Léon Bakst.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of Reclining Buddha in Gal Vihara, Polonnaruwau by Lankapic via Wikicommons.

Background image of the Nile River via Google Earth.

Background photo of the Sydney Opera House by Nick-D via Wikicommons.

By

Who made it? | Issue #21

Who made it?

November 2022 | Issue # 21

With ” Iowa, 1955″ by Benjamin Carson

“Exploring the underwater world through sculpture” by Jason Taylor.
woman with red hair and a stern look on her face stands in a wheat field holding a coiled row of wheat like it's a blanket
“Untitled” by Oprisco Photography.

With “Now Are You” by Rebekah Bloyd

“Malagueña” by Soledad Bravo.
psychedelic painting that explore human perception and the vibrant complexity of the natural world. To build his collage-based works, he gathers a multitude of images from field guides, nature books and other sources, and assembles them into pulsating figures and geometric patterns
Fungi and Flowers, 2002, 48 x 36 in., mixed media and resin on wood panel, by Fred Tomaselli.

With “When We Come to Class” by Carol Gremli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i2Q_l4ZCK8
“Suzelle Poole, age 80.”
Terpsichore, Muse of Music and ballet, an oil on canvas painting (1739) of woman holding a lyre and pen wearing a white dress
Terpsichore, Muse of Music and Ballet, 1739, an oil on canvas painting by Jean-Marc Nattier.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of hayloft by Pezibear via Pixabay.

Background photo of wildfire at Lick Creek, Umatilla National Forest, Oregon, United States via wikicommons.

Background photo of pointe shoes by Jessica via Running with Scissors.