About

Masthead

Managing Editor

Sandra Kobos (Director of Cataloging)

Associate Editors

Ainslee Golomb (Information Services), Alicia Stier (North Branch), Laura Harding (Youth Services), and Janelle Bruno (Plains Branch)

Editorial Advisor

David J. Bauman (Now, Director of the West Pittston Library)

Proofreaders

Rebecca Schmitt (South Branch)  & Book Elves (from their hiding places in the stacks)

Founding Editors 

Rachael Goetzke Hughes, Iris Johnston, and Ed Lupico (Now, Library Development Advisor, Bureau of Library Development in the Office of Commonwealth Libraries in Harrisburg, PA)

To Order

You can pick up your own copy of the new issue of Word Fountain, as a gift from the library at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, or at one of our three branches. If you’d like a print copy shipped to you, please go to our library’s donation page here. We suggest a five dollar donation (click the “other” box). Please write in the “Notes” section that you are requesting a copy, or copies of Word Fountain #16, 2019.

Mission

Word Fountain is the literary magazine of the historic Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. We publish twice each year, so please see our Call for Submissions page for complete guidelines and the dates of our latest submission window.

Our goal for each issue is to print 40 to 60 pages of the strongest writing we can find. Based in Northeast Pennsylvania, we aim for a portion of our magazine to reflect some local or regional flavor but, like the library who sponsors us, we are eager to bring the world to our readers. We publish fiction and poetry from writers across the globe as well as in our own backyard.  We aim to feature a broad range of styles from both emerging and established authors in a harmonious but diverse package.

History

From 2009 to 2014 Word Fountain produced 10 issues including the commemorative “Flood Issue” of 2012, a collection of creative responses to the 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 our Franklin Street location, as well as our three branches. Online versions of most of those issues can be found via the archives.

Word Fountain came out of it’s hiatus with a new team of editors, and began taking submissions again in February of 2016, resulting in our new Summer 2016 issue. We’ve put out five more issues since, including the current issue #16, 2019.

Circulation

Recent issues, including the commemorative Flood Issue, have printed up to 2,500 copies, and can be shipped anywhere in North America, by going to the library’s donation page (we suggest a 5 to 10 dollar donation), and in the “Notes” box, mention that you would like a copy of the current issue, and or the Flood Issue shipped to you.

Contact

All submissions must be done electronically and should follow our Guidelines and current Call for Submissions.

For other inquiries, please use one of the methods below:

 

Or Email: wordfountain@luzernelibraries.org

Osterhout Free Library
71 S. Franklin Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701