Dear Friends of RHINO,

Thank you for supporting RHINO Poetry in its 48th year as an all-volunteer, independent journal of poetry, flash fiction and non-fiction, and translations. When you open the pages of RHINO collections, you might feel as if you are entering a wilderness, an image that reminds us of Constance Hansen’s poem “Annunciation” in RHINO 2023:

You are entering a wilderness where syllables are subject to aria
You are entering a wilderness where violence is subject to syllables
You are entering a wilderness where countenance is subject to resin
You are entering a wilderness where resin is subject to time
You are entering a wilderness where location is subject to prayers for intercession
You are entering a wilderness where importance is subject to interpretation

We are thrilled to welcome you into this space and we hope you encounter, just as we have, literary works that invite, enthrall, disturb, unsettle, and hold you spellbound.  

In the past year, we released RHINO 2023 with original cover art by Nazifa Islam, added poems to the online archive at rhinopoetry.org, held readings and craft talks online and onsite in Chicagoland and at the AWP Conference in Seattle, Washington, and hosted Bookfair tables at AWP and the Printers Row Litfest in Chicago. RHINO also forged collaborations with Hypertext Magazine and the Guild Literary Complex for special event readings, and to publish the winner of the Guild’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards (GBOMA) in RHINO 2024 (forthcoming). 

RHINO 2024’s cover art will be thanks to a generous donation of this “Untitled” image by photographer Stacy Arezou Mehrfar, author of The Moon Belongs to Everyone (GOST Books, 2023). The human gesture captured in this image feels familiar yet leaves us with questions: are they shielding their eyes from the sun?  From the moon during an eclipse? From an explosion? Or from a beauty too sublime to encounter head-on? Is this what entering a wilderness feels like?

In RHINO’s ongoing commitment to building a culture of anti-racism in the literary community, RHINO sponsored three Helen Degen Cohen Summer Reading Fellows who identify as BIPOC, AAPI, or Latinx: Nicholas Goodly, Jalynn Harris, and Aria Pahari. Angela Narciso Torres curated and edited the free online series RHINO Reviews, including a Graphic Reviews issue, curated by Naoko Fujimoto. We also welcomed new Associate Editors Marcy Rae Henry, Megan Malachi, and Colin Pope to the ‘crash’ of Rhinos!

The Guest Judge for this year’s Founders’ Contest is Rodney Gomez, author of Arsenal with Praise Song, Ceremony of Sand, Citizens of the Mausoleum, and the visual poetry collection Geographic Tongue. The finalists and winning poems will appear online and in the pages of RHINO 2024.

Here is a small sample of what else you will find in the upcoming wilderness:

 How does one watch destruction?
Do you imagine yourself inside?
from “Monumental” by Rebecca Morgan Frank       

This way, bones!
The old century is dead. No more
lollygagging outside the cafés; come gather in my oxcart.
So many ants march from your earholes!
from “Manuél Sánchez. Scrape” by Lis Sanchez

[…] my mother her garden gloves perfumed with earth
pointing out a garter or ribbon sluicing through grass
saying save your fear for when you need it and so i learned to find
shining eyes and quick tongues sweet laugh at their puzzled faces
from “Ophidophobia” by Arah Ko

 Your donation keeps poetry alive and growing, and responsive to our times but also timeless! All donations of $25 or higher made after April 1st, 2024 will receive a print copy of RHINO 2025!

In peace and poetry,
The Editors of RHINO Poetry

Virginia Bell  Ariana Benson  Jan Bottiglieri  Andrea Busch  Kimberly Dixon-Mays
Teresa Dzieglewicz  Carol H. Eding  Laura Evers  Naoko Fujimoto  Gail Goepfert  
Nicholas Goodly  Ralph Hamilton  Jalynn Harris  Marcy Rae Henry  Ann Hudson  
Sarah Jack  Nile Lansana  Minh Hà Lê  Megan Malachi  John McCarthy  
Elizabeth O’Connell-Thompson  Aria Pahari  Colin Pope  Angela Narciso Torres

Giving Levels Named after the Poetry of Emily Dickinson:

$25 A Formal Feeling Comes
$50 A Bird Came Down the Walk
$75 There’s a Certain Slant of Light
$100 I Dwell in Possibility
$250 Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant
$500 Wild Nights! Wild Nights!

Our 2024 Donors