"The Plague," 2021 Whistling Shade Release

Whistling Shade is a Saint Paul literary newspaper. They take a populist approach to literature, and their readers are the general public rather than the academics and literati targeted by most lit journals. Their hope is to keep literature, that whistling ghost at the back of our social consciousness, enjoyable and accessible in the Twin Cities.

Publisher and Managing Editor Joel Van Valin will be joined by readers to celebrate this latest issue.

Ethna McKiernan’s latest collection is Light Rolling Slowly Backwards—New & Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry).

Mark Rhoads began writing poetry when he was 50. His poems have been published in The Christian Science Monitor, The Ballard Street Journal, The Deronda Review, Contemporary Rhyme, and Snakeskin. In 2015 he published his first book of poems titled No Gathering In of this Incense.