Volume 1, Number 5

Summer solstice tends to feel wildly energetic, especially here in Santa Barbara, the long warm days in the northern hemisphere the opposite of hibernation. This issue of Anacapa Review launches with two poems from our advisory editor Laure-Anne Bosselaar that reflect the kind of “delirious…pure & zealous” impulse that frames this issue. Then again, impulse can go too far; as Gail Wronsky’s poems show—it’s complicated. We loved the way birds seemed to flock in between her poem and Cory Henniges’. Carol V. Davis writes refrains of love and the loss of language, while Bart Edelman almost seems to answer her from the perspective of “the hot mess and a half.” Jess Sand and John Surowiecki write about the shadow side of summertime games. Michelle Petty-Grue’s lament makes me think differently of those long, long days of summer vacation. Clayton Clark captures a moment of mercy and connection, before we close the issue with Natalie Marino’s summertime poems. Let this be a month where the daylight is long, the darkness brief.

As always, we welcome your submissions of poems here and your ideas for essays or reviews here.