Windward Review Vol. 17: Stories of South Texas, the Coastal Bend, and Border Regions
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Following the 100th anniversary of the 1919 Hurricane that ravaged Corpus Christi Bay and as part of Hispanic Heritage Month at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the largest volume of Windward Review will be released during the Windward Review Literary Publishing Reception and Open Mic on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 6-8:30 p.m. in University Center, Anchor Ballroom. Windward Review is a literary journal showcasing narratives unique to South Texas, the Coastal Bend, and border regions.
“Storytelling is an important way to share who we are and to witness the lived realities of the people in our communities. Our journal is a space to celebrate and/or raise awareness about those experiences and, especially, the voices, lives, histories, and cultures that may otherwise go unheard,” said Dr. Robin Carstensen, Creative Writing Coordinator and Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Carstensen is also Senior Editor of Windward Review and The Switchgrass Review. “It’s also a way to document the major and unsung events of a diverse body of people along the border and coastal region, and represents how our lives intersect, the challenges we’ve faced, and what cultural dynamics have evolved in our day and age.”
New this year, Windward Review volume 17 features Hurricane Harvey narratives that were created by Islander history graduate students. As part of the Hurricane Harvey Oral History Project, which took place in fall 2017 and summer 2018, students collaborated with Coastal Bend community members, including State Representative Todd Hunter and Dr. Nancy Vera, Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers President, to collect personal narratives regarding the tragedy and aftermath of Harvey.
“The human experience is best documented on a personal level, which is why interviews like these are such important contributions to history as a whole,” said Nicole Vickers, who took part in the Hurricane Harvey Oral History Project. “The history of individuals tells more of a story than a broad overview of facts, dates, and statistics ever will.”
Additionally, the volume contains four of Dr. Octavio Quintanilla’s FRONTEXTOS, a blend of poetry and visual media that Quintanilla posts on social media. According to the San Antonio Poet Laureate, he chose to write with frontera Spanish, a language commonly used along the border, to become more intimate with the language he grew up with and to resist anti-immigrant rhetoric and practices. His visual poems can also be seen at the Weslaco Museum, and have been featured at the AllState Almaguer art space in Mission, TX, and the Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, San Marcos, TX.
“The creative writers and artists, whose voices are gathered in our journal, speak from the leading edge of a confluence of histories, cultures, and serious complex issues along the South Texas Gulf Coast region,” Carstensen said. “A&M-Corpus Christi was built by the Corpus Christi community to serve our community, and has grown to serve a much wider gulf coast region as a prominent educational institution. Our Windward Review editors and contributors are thrilled to be a central part of this leading edge.”
Windward Review is a national literary journal published by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Department of English and Islander Creative Writers that features internationally and nationally distinguished, as well as emerging, writers. The journal includes work from Islander faculty, students, community members, and beyond.
Windward Review is currently accepting submissions for volume 18. Writers and artists of all genres are invited to submit work that speaks to any of the many dynamic borderland or South Texas experiences, including bilingual work and translations. Visit the Windward Review website for more information.
Additional Information
Windward Review is currently accepting submissions for volume 18. Writers and artists of all genres are invited to submit work that speaks to any of the many dynamic borderland or South Texas experiences, including bilingual work and translations. Visit the Windward Review website for more information.
