The Body Parts of Sheepshead Review

The current issue of Sheepshead Review features an illustration of a liver on its cover. In the editor’s note, Kelsey DuQuaine explains that, “This semester’s theme reflects the process the journal goes through in choosing these pieces.” The layout editor, Jake Jenkins, brought the idea of body parts to the table. The kidney on the cover represents the way in which the staff filters the writing for selection in the magazine. Then, each section inside features a different body part: lungs for Prose (“that breathe life into the stories we tell”), a beating heart for Poetry (“symbolizes the emotion and passion”), an eye for Visual Arts, and a stomach for the special Eat Up! section.

This issue also features the two winning poems for the Rising Phoenix Award, selected by Sarah Busse and Wendy Vardaman. In the judges comments, they write, “When you ask two poets to judge a contest, you may well end up with two poems selected. In our case, this is not because we each championed one and refused to compromise, but because we agreed that the two poems featured here represent very different voices and choices. By selecting them both as winners, we can highlight their comparative strengths and more clearly demonstrate through contrast what tools we poets have at our disposal, and what decisions go int o writing a poem.” The two winners are Mitchell Sabez with “You See the Hut Yet You Ask ‘Where Shall I Go for Shelter?'” and Jake Jenkins for “Kentucky Chase.”