Waccamaw and the Wheel
Waccamaw Journal is a favorite online literary site edited by Dan Albergotti and Joe Oestreich, supported by Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. Waccamaw takes its name from the Waccamaw River, which wanders through Conway on its way to the sea. Albergotti has a collection of poems called The Boatloads that you must read if you haven’t already, and Oestreich’s memoir, Hitless Wonder, published earlier this year, chronicles the plight of Oestreich’s band, Watershed, and is a great read. Albergotti and Oestreich have a current feature called “Nine More Gates” which highlights an essay by University of Tampa MFA faculty poet Erica Dawson called “John Donne is My Pusherman.” In it she claims, “Writing is a gateway drug.” Like Dawson’s essay, the eight others featured on the site consider the topic of “poetry and gateways.”
Another creative feature of Waccamaw Journal is Jason Ockert’s Waccamaw Interview Wheel. Here’s what Ockert says about the concept of the interview wheel:
In an effort to reinvent the traditional author interview, I invited ten of today’s best fiction writers to participate in an experiment. After randomly selecting names, I encouraged each author to both ask and answer questions posed by their peers. There were no stipulations…
Ockert recently won a short story collection contest by Dzanc, who will publish the collection of fiction in 2013; it will be called Neighbors of Nothing. Ockert has also published a highly recommended, surreal collection of fiction called Rabbit Punches.
For those looking for fine fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, Waccamaw Journal offers plenty. Albergotti, Oestreich, and Ockert have created a repository of literature that is sure to please.