The Fourth River

A Journal of Nature and Place-based Writing Published by the Chatham University MFA Program

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Back to Issue 0.8

This issue is dedicated to the life and legacy of

Jeffrey “Boosie” Bolden

Associate Editor, The Fourth River, 2016-2020

Chatham University MFA, 2018

Rest in Power

Featured

Blog

Marc Nieson, fiction editor, interview

Speaking to the Pulse: A Conversation with Marc Nieson

Marc Nieson, fiction editor, interview

I think literary journals as a rule have more of a sense of what is being written more widely than, say, publishing houses. Literary journals’ distance from the commercial aspect allows an avenue that’s invaluable for the literary scene.

Marc Nieson, fiction editor, interview

Heather McNaugher, interview, poetry editor

I Just Want to Be Around Books: A Conversation with Dr. Heather McNaugher

Heather McNaugher, interview, poetry editor

I really feel like The Fourth River, especially the poetry, has this opportunity to shift the stereotype around what “nature poetry” can be, and that’s why I’m always asking you all to look for the risks, look for the surprises. Look for the weeds poking up through the cracks in the sidewalk, in a really denaturalized setting, because I find that more interesting.

Heather McNaugher, interview, poetry editor

News & Selections

Beautiful Confusion and Real Material: What I Learned from Following the Frackers, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Steven Rubin, Shale Play

Beautiful Confusion and Real Material: What I Learned from Following the Frackers

News & Selections

Beautiful Confusion and Real Material: What I Learned from Following the Frackers, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Steven Rubin, Shale Play

When I told people I was trying to write poems as an investigation into the impacts of fracking, they often immediately asked, “Are you for it or against it?” They also sometimes said, “Poems?”

News & Selections

Beautiful Confusion and Real Material: What I Learned from Following the Frackers, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Steven Rubin, Shale Play

call for submissions, Future(s), sci-fi, cli-fi, solarpunk, hopepunk, afro-futurist, magical realist, eco fabulist

Call for Submissions: FUTURE(S)

call for submissions, Future(s), sci-fi, cli-fi, solarpunk, hopepunk, afro-futurist, magical realist, eco fabulist

Tributaries

Tributaries, Sarah Fawn Montgomery

Tributaries: "Hermit Crab Struggles to Move House"

Tributaries, Sarah Fawn Montgomery

Tributaries, Paul Cunningham

TRIBUTARIES: "Must Have Been a Bridge"

Tributaries, Paul Cunningham

Tributaries, Dani Putney

Tributaries: "Heart, Wine, and Desert"

Tributaries, Dani Putney

Stephen Crane wrote of my bitter
heart a century ago.

Tributaries, Dani Putney

Tributaries, Beth Gilstrap

Tributaries: "Give a Straightened Ear"

Tributaries, Beth Gilstrap

On her last day in an unfamiliar city, she imagines her name is Valentina, her hair longer than it has been since she was nineteen, her skin, less freckled.

Tributaries, Beth Gilstrap

ISSUE O.8/Summer 2020

Editor’s Note

Featured