Issue 18:

The Literary Issue

It’s been six years since Joe and Zac had the idea for Orca, and after eighteen issues, 14,000 submissions, more than 1,000 feedback critiques, and about 300 published works we have decided to close our operation this coming June.

The decision was prompted by a variety of developments among the staff. Life changes mostly, as in growing families and growing older, and those factors have decreased the amount of time we can devote to the journal. And it isn’t always easy to face a mountain of submissions every day, almost without fail, for that long.

We had a couple of non-negotiable guidelines when we started—to be professional and, simultaneously, devoted to the art of writing. It was always our priority to champion what we believed was the best writing, regardless of whether it conformed to current trends or politics, and we think we’ve been successful at that.

We hope to go out with a bang and not a whimper. We will publish two more issues in June. One will be our annual literary-speculative issue, and we’ll also release a final literary issue.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way, whether it’s been with the purchase of an issue or a submission. Thanks also to the two dozen staff members who have helped us read and decide over the years. A special thanks to Kellie Tatem, our assistant editor. And a very heartfelt thanks to our Managing Editor, Renee Jackson, who came on board soon after we started and helped us in so many ways.

– Joe and Zac

Table of Contents (click the links for stories and excerpts)
About the Cover Artist
Wolf’s Milk; Brickle, Caroline Goodwin
Untitled; but with Wings, R. Renee Branca
Meditation Attempt #246; The Poet as Fetus; Welcome to Hades, Cam McGlynn
I give myself a migraine, Hallie Fogarty
Hold On, Juliana Zalon
When You Came Home from the War; Wife at the Parole Hearing, Colleen S. Harris
In Response to Randall Jarrell, Elizabeth Hill
Four Capriccios on Wittgenstein, Giorgio Fontana
Ignis Fatuus, Brendan Stephens
The New Neighbours; To the Girl Who Stole My Guitar, Gerald Arthur Moore
The Gappadoko, D.E. Lee
I Dream of Drowning; Norma Jeane; Houses That Explode, Shutta Crum
Haunting You, Stephen Mead
By the Shore of the Aral Inland Sea, Jaime Gill
Portals, Laurinda Lind
Texas Weather, Sophia Hammerle
Moonshine, Jess Simms
Contributors

Please consider purchasing a copy of the full issue. A pdf is a mere $4, and a print copy is $11.99 on Amazon.

Editor’s Note: We have not Americanized spellings and grammar native to other English-speaking countries, but have left them in their original form in order to fully convey the voices of our authors.