WEBER—THE CONTEMPORARY WEST
AN INTERNATIONAL, PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL SPOTLIGHTING PERSONAL NARRATIVE, COMMENTARY, FICTION, NONFICTION, AND POETRY THAT SPEAKS TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE OF THE AMERICAN WEST AND BEYOND.
CURRENT ISSUE
VOL. 39, NO. 2
(Spring/Summer 2023)
CONTENTS
Conversation
Deborah Uman & Jad Abumrad; Felicia Mitchell & Barbara Kingsolver; María del Mar González-González & Guillermo Galindo; Luke Fernandez, David L. Ferro & Janet Abbate, Yu-Jane Yang, Karen Brookens-Bruestle & Ta'u Pupu'a; Ashley Marie Farmer, Ryan Ridge & Tobias Wolff; Adrienne Andrews & Clint Smith; Michael Wutz & Monica Lundy
Poetry
Michelle Bonczek Evory, Connie Wieneke, Radha Marcum, George Such, James Grabill, Joanna Solfrian
Essay
L. Annette Binder, G.D. McFetridge
Fiction
Richie Swanson, Bill Bilverstone, Alice Kinerk
Art
Monica Lundy
"Poetry is an avocation, in a sense—something I do purely for pleasure. (Though I’m of course grateful when my poems become books, and readers buy them!) This means I can approach it in a less pragmatic way, not seeing it as daily bread or an engine I have to fix. I’m not required to make it happen every day. It’s more accurate to say that poetry happens to me, on its own terms, like a summer storm or a house fire. Or the coincidence of both on the same day. When a poem arrives, it feels like an apple has fallen into my hand, and I give thanks for the luck involved."
—Barbara Kingsolver
HIGHLIGHTS
FEATURED
COMMENTARY:
READING THE WEST
Spring/Summer 2023
There are more than 550 species of North American bark beetles, although the extensive damage to conifer forests is done by only 20 species. In western forests they often affect an area larger than the actual wildfire area. Recent outbreaks of beetles are among the most severe in recorded history.
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CONVERSATION:
Deborah Uman & Jad Abumrad
Spring/Summer 2023
"I remember going to a demonstration of a radio station in Brooklyn. They would drive around and have these parties where they would park on a block, put the antenna in an apartment, or sometimes just on top of the car, and broadcast for the few blocks around. And so, I went to one of those to see how they did it. . . ."
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Phyllis Barber, author
Katharine Coles, University of Utah
Diana Joseph, Minnesota State University
Nancy Kline, author & translator
Delia Konzett, University of New Hampshire
Kathryn Lindquist, Weber State University
Fred Marchant, Suffolk University
Madonne Miner, Weber State University
Felicia Mitchell, Emory & Henry College
Julie Nichols, Utah Valley University
Tara Powell, University of South Carolina
Bill Ransom, Evergreen State College
Walter L. Reed, Emory University
Scott P. Sanders, University of New Mexico
Kerstin Schmidt, Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Daniel R. Schwarz, Cornell University
Andreas Ströhl, Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, South Africa
James Thomas, author
Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, author
Melora Wolff, Skidmore College
EDITOR
Michael Wutz / mwutz@weber.edu
MANAGING EDITOR
Kristin Jackson / kristinjackson@weber.edu