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 #8

Who made it?

April 2021 | Issue #8

With “After You’ve Saved a Life” by Jonie McIntire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdZO_DGyo1w&ab_channel=aireenq
Quidam by Cirque Du Soleil.
abstract digital art with bright orange streak on a black and pink background
Untitled, digital, by Markos Pechlivanos.

With “A Brief History of Blue” by Dawn Denham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuh95aVF920&ab_channel=RagtimeDorianHenry
“Mississippi River Blues” by Big Bill Broonzy.
steps up to southern porch and front door with haint blue colors
Southern front porch with “haint” blues by author.

Acknowledgments

Retro car with heart by Sergey Peterman from Bigstock.

Background photo of blurred crowd by Brian Merrill from Pexels.

Background photo of rotary phone by 幻影 多媒体 from Pexels.

Background photo of lapis lazuli by Hannes Grobe (CC BY-SA 2.5) via Wikicommons.

By

Who made it? Issue #7

Who made it?

March 2021 | Issue #7

With “The Shut-In” by Erica Kent

“Who Can It Be Now?” by Colin Hay.
painting of woman with red hair and a frown, hands on her head and a man with his head tucked into his arm in shame
Ashes, oil on wood, by Edvard Munch.

With “Reduction” by Danielle Joffe

abstract of naked woman with lots of curves from the back
Untitled, digital on iPad, by the author.

With “My New York Accent” by Anne Myles

Street Scene (Hester Street), oil on canvas, 65.5 x 91.1 cm, by George Luks.
“New York City Ambience Sounds” by Nomadic Ambient.

Acknowledgments

“Edvard Munch: Beyond the Scream” by Arthur Lubow, Smithsonian Magazine 2006.

Background photo of house in disrepair by karamush from Bigstock.

“Mitosis vs. Meiosis” and image of a tiny embryo at CK-12.

Background photo of fabric tape measure by newsong from Pixabay.

“Visiting the Lower East Side in 1905” by Dr. Margarita Karasoulas, Assistant Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Dr. Steven Zucker, Smarthistory.

Background photo of New York City skyline by Michael Pewny from Pixabay.

By

Who made it? Issue #6

Who made it?

February 2021 | Issue #6

With “A Little Watershed” by Bill Vernon

dragonfly on tip of brown spiky plant
Photo of wandering glider dragonfly, in Botswana’s Okavango Delta during its seasonal flood, by Justin Smith.

With “There’s Something a Little Wrong with Everything” by CG Miller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SO9ysDXFYY&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=ClaphamJunction
“I Can See Now” by Dead Can Dance.
“I Am Stretched on Your Grave” by Scullion.

With “The Night Janet Brought Her Rhymer Home” by Stephanie Friedman

“Clohinne Winds” by Niamh Parsons.
“Thomas the Rhymer” by Michael Kelly.
portrait of a young woman in the 15th century by Sandro Boticelli
Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1485, tempera on wood, 61 x 40.5 cm (Pitti Palace) by Sandro Boticelli.

Acknowledgments

Photo of blue heron with crawdad by Andrea Westmoreland via Wikicommons.

“Ovakango: Africa’s Miracle Delta” by Kennedy Warne, National Geographic Society 2009.

Background photo of graveyard by Creaturart from Bigstock.

Background photo of forest by jplenio from Pixabay.

By

Who made it? Issue #5

Who made it?

January 2021 | Issue #5

With “The Beach Bum and the Midwestern Freshman” by Zebulon Huset

“Clairvoyant” by The Story So Far.

With “Sink or Swim” by Heather Diamond

abstract seagull a couple shades deeper than the sea background
Sea Glass in oil on canvas by friend of the author, Sandra York.
figure skater Tiina Pakkanen skating on a frozen lake
Click image to watch figure skater Tiina Pakkanen. If you don’t have a Facebook account, watch here. Photo and film by photographer Esko Liukas.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of window by Marina1408 from Bigstock.

Photo of woman by Natasha_S from Bigstock.

Background photo of open door by AkintevS from Bigstock.

Background photo of lighthouse by maxime raynal from Flickr.