NEPA Scene Staff

Wilkes-Barre literary magazine Word Fountain releases new issue at Osterhout Free Library on Nov. 2

Wilkes-Barre literary magazine Word Fountain releases new issue at Osterhout Free Library on Nov. 2
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From a press release:

On Thursday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m., Word Fountain, the literary magazine of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, will celebrate the launch of its 14th issue since their first experimental leaflet back in the fall of 2009.

There was a two-year hiatus before the relaunch of the summer of 2016 issue, with a new look and a new mission – to bring local, national, and global poets and storytellers together into one literary magazine for the friends and patrons of the Osterhout Free Library. This will be the fourth issue since the magazine’s rebirth.

The free Fall/Winter 2017 Word Fountain launch party will be held in the Reading Room of the library’s main branch (71 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre). Several contributors from both in and out of the area will be present to read their work. Light refreshments will be served, and all attendees will receive a copy of the issue.

From 2009 to 2014, Word Fountain produced 10 issues, including the commemorative “Flood Issue” of 2012, a collection of creative responses to suffering caused each time the Susquehanna River overflowed its banks, especially in 1972 and more recently in 2011. Copies of that issue and others are still available at the library, as well as its three branches. Online versions of most of those issues can be found on wordfountain.net.

Word Fountain came out of its hiatus with a new team of editors and began taking submissions again in February of 2016. It is now published twice a year. Recent issues featuring short fiction, poetry, and flash fiction have printed up to 2,500 copies.