heartwood literary magazine
is an alumni-run semi-annual online literary publication in association with the low-residency MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia. HeartWood was founded in 2015 by graduate Danielle Kelly and guest poetry faculty member Mary Carroll-Hackett.
The name of our journal—the scientific term "heartwood, used in dendrology, the study of woody plants, and referring to the core—was inspired by Karen Salyer McElmurray's application of the word to the writing process in a lecture delivered during an MFA residency at WVWC. Read more about what heartwood means in this context in Larry Thacker's interview with Karen Sayer McElmurray in Issue 10.
Each spring and fall, we publish poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and an interview with a writer who has been a guest reader or guest faculty member for WVWC’s MFA program.