North Dakota Quarterly is pleased to announce the release of our newest issue, Volume 83.1. Chuck Kimmerle’s lovely black and white photographs point to the chilly and sometimes chilling themes found in this Winter issue. On the cover, lines of leafless trees stand against the bleak backdrop of snow covered fields near Grand Forks, North Dakota. Stories and poems often echo that motif.

The opening poem, “He Will Cover You with His Feathers,” contemplates the ache of self-imprisonment. The story, “The Gospel According to Gabriel,” opens with a hitman talking to God and contemplating his crimes. In an essay, “Good Night,” a boy ponders family connections and the loss of his grandfather. Another essay entitled “Diphtheria” details a family’s multiple losses from diphtheria in the 1880s.

Not all is bleak, however. No issue which contains a story from the point of view of a feminist sheep (“Rosie the Ruminant”) could be entirely bleak. Stories about cancers and car wrecks end on a hopeful note.

Peter Grandbois’ essay “Honor” provides food for thought, and in a different way so does the poem “Choose Your Adventure” by Ned Balbo. Another story, “Despite Many Gone,” makes us think of an e. e. cummings’ poem in its lack of syntax.

Copies of NDQ 83.1 are available at the University of North Dakota Bookstore, the North Dakota Museum of Art, and at our office, Room 15 Merrifield.