Ian Stansel is the Editor of Gulf Coast. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston. His work has appeared in the Antioch Review, Barrelhouse, Ecotone, Ploughshares and elsewhere. Hello readers! Thank you for stopping by the Gulf Coast website. We are happy to present Gulf Coast 22.2, over three hundred pages of some of the best fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art you're likely to find for just a scant ten bucks. One of the most exciting elements of the new issue must be the first (of what will be many) writers' round table discussion. Our reviews editor Hannah Gamble sits down--well, electronically--with poets Heather Christle, Matthew Rohrer, Zachary Schomburg, and Matthew Zapruder to discuss surrealism and surrealist poetry. What, exactly, is the definition of 'surrealism'? Read the discussion to find out. (But here's a hint: it has nothing to do with Tom Delay's appearance on Dancing with the Stars.) If that isn't enough for you poetry lovers, the issue also includes new work by the likes of Cal Bedient, Dan Beachy-Quick, Adrian Blevins, Michael Cherry, Paul Killebrew, Brandon Shimoda, Timothy Donnelly, and others, as well as a selection of work, Wild on the Field--poems that enter the animal world and come out as things wholly extraordinary. This theme continues in fiction with Megan Mayhew Bergman's story "Every Vein a Tooth," where one woman lets the animals cross the boundary into the human world. In Anjali Sachdeva's story "Pleides," the last of scientifically begat septuplets hits the westward road. In "Mutt-Face Meets Himself," Joseph Scapellato introduces us to a cowboy who loses his "bigness" and must face a Harley-riding nemesis. And in Roderic Crooks' "Townie" we discover just what might be lost and found in the cold, flat lands of the Midwest. We also have the winner and runners-up for 2009 Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose chosen by Mary Robison. Speaking of the Barthelme Prize, we are now accepting submissions for the third annual contest. Click here to submit your best very-short work. Nonfiction in this issue has Lee Martin and Margaret MacInnis remembering their fathers and the other men of childhood, and K.C. Wolfe crossing the border into Canada. Nancy Geyer investigates the danger and allure of abandoned refrigerators, and Peter Selgrin the danger and allure of solitude. And Nellie Bellows provides us with a lyric take on our romance with salt. GC 22.2 also contains interviews with Tom Perotta and Eula Biss, and a critical essay by poet and musician Dean Gorman. Finally, we couldn't be more pleased to present the breathtaking artwork of Jules Buck Jones, whose work blurs the lines between the natural and the imaginative, and of Dawolu Jabari Anderson, who, in the words of our art editor, "re-imagines an unjustly attenuated Black History as fresh and nuanced narratives." If you haven't already, take a quick moment to subscribe to Gulf Coast. For you budget-minded readers, we have special deals on one- and two-year subscriptions. We hope you enjoy Gulf Coast 22.2, and if you find that this website and your new subscription just aren't enough, you can also find Gulf Coast on Facebook and Twitter. Happy reading, Ian Stansel Editor