“Elizabeth Grace Roland prayed every night to wake up with cancer.” This is the first line of a short story by Katja Zurcher in the Summer 2014 edition of Lopez Island-based SHARK REEF Literary Magazine. The story, along with additional, equally-compelling stories, essays, poems, and visual art, is online now at sharkreef.org.

As with the past four editions, SHARK REEF editor and co-founder, Lopezian Lorna Reese, partnered with Jeremiah O’Hagan on the prose selections. O’Hagan is a former teacher and now a staff reporter for a small-town weekly newspaper in Washington State. Poets Gayle Kaune and Richard Widerkehr chose this issue’s featured poems. Judith Connor continues on as art editor; for the summer issue, she chose luminous watercolor and acrylic paintings by Laurel O’Gorman.

Kaune and Widerkehr are in their first turn on the editorial team. Kaune, from Port Townsend, is published widely in literary journals, and her poems have won numerous awards. Widerkehr, also an award-winning poet, has had two collections of poems and a novel published. He lives in Bellingham.

Connor, an artist from St. Paul, MN, is currently creating mosaic fish.

“We’ve been fortunate to work with such brilliant co-editors over the years,” says Reese. “Our publisher, Iris Graville, met Jeremiah while both were students in the MFA program of the Whidbey Writers Workshop. Earlier poetry co-editors John Sangster and Elizabeth Landrum were well-known Lopez poets. When they stepped down, John introduced us to Tom Aslin and Gary Thompson. Tom, in turn brought us to Gayle and Richard.”

About her prose co-editor, Reese notes, “I can’t say enough about Jeremiah O’Hagan, who is exceptionally skilled in the art of the essay and never misses a deadline. His introductions to each issue are thoughtful, probing and often lead to surprising places.” Jeremiah’s piece in the summer edition opens like this:

“So much writing doesn’t say what it came to say. So much tries to say more than it was meant to, and sags and splits and spills adjectives and adverbs and unholy descriptive phrases. Or pieces try to cheat, saying less than they need to, and they fail, too.” O’Hagan’s last paragraph left the editors a tiny bit stunned.

Founded in 2001 as a venue for Lopez Island writers, SHARK REEF, now in its 15th year, welcomes submissions from writers and artists living wherever the Internet reaches. This issue features writing from around the U.S. as well as Europe and the Middle East.

After all these years, it’s still exciting to see what turns up in SHARK REEF’s e-mailbox, Reese notes. “Reading each piece takes us to people, places and feelings outside of our own lives– as well as to others that resonate deeply. Dipping into the the work of creative people – writers and visual artists from around the globe is always an adventure. We appreciate the support of our readers, too, and hope people will keep turning to SHARK REEF for good writing and visual art.”

Originally published by the Lopez Writers Guild, SHARK REEF has, for several years, been published by Lopez Island author and publisher, Iris Graville. Readers can subscribe to SHARK REEF at no cost at sharkreef.org. Updates about the publication also are posted on the magazine’s Facebook page (Shark Reef Literary Magazine).

SHARK REEF publishes two issues a year, one in the summer and one in winter, with submission deadlines of March 31 and September 30, respectively. The literary magazine considers solicited and unsolicited material: fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry and dramatic writing. It also features artwork by visual artists in each issue. Go to sharkreef.org for submission guidelines, current offerings and archived issues.