Welcome to the ninth issue of Waccamaw, an online literary journal published at Coastal Carolina University.

This issue was launched May 9, 2012—two-and-a-half weeks later than our traditional spring launch date of April 23, Shakespeare’s mythical birthday. A server upgrade at Coastal Carolina in early April caused some unexpected problems for the site, and we’ve spent the last month recovering. We apologize to our contributors and readers for the delay.

I wish to extend thanks to Joe Bueter, Caroline Cahill, and Hastings Hensel for their assistance in selecting the poetry for this issue, as well as to Jason Bordt and Colin Burch for the work they did assisting Joe Oestreich, who served double duty editing both fiction and creative nonfiction this issue in the absence of our usual fiction editor Jason Ockert, who is enjoying a sabbatical this spring. Jason will return to his fiction editor role in the fall.

In this issue, we are pleased to offer the fifth in a series of features on contemporary authors: “Nine More Gates,” a collection of nine essays by previous Waccamaw poetry contributors.

Our next period for accepting unsolicited submissions runs July 15 through August 31. Interested authors should consult our submission guidelines. Please note that we only accept submissions online via our Submission Manager. Submissions sent by any other method cannot be considered or acknowledged.

We hope you will enjoy this issue and once again find the literary work we’re presenting to be as essential and mysterious as the water of the Waccamaw River that has flowed through Conway, South Carolina, home of Coastal Carolina University, since long before the area bore any of those names.