The fifth annual edition of The Delmarva Review, Volume 5, is off the press and available to readers. The new issue contains thirty percent more original content than the previous issue, in 2011.

Featuring new short stories, poetry, and essays from 27 authors, the nonprofit literary journal highlights work from the region and beyond. Most of the writers are from the tristate Delmarva and Chesapeake area. In all, authors are from nine states, the District of Columbia and three other countries.

“The selected stories and poetry express the human themes of aging, independence, loss, love, a sense of place, and healing,” said Wilson Wyatt, executive editor. “The cover photograph, by Rafael Garcia, depicts the metaphor of life as a distant journey over time.”

The review is published by the Eastern Shore Writers’ Association (ESWA), a nonprofit organization supporting writers and the literary arts across the Delmarva Peninsula.

An anonymous gift of appreciation supporting the review enabled the 2012 edition to publish additional short fiction, including the first-place winner of The Delmarva Review Short Story Prize, “The Flight,” by Iain Baird, from Annapolis.

Other features of the new review over past issues include clusters of some of the poetry by author, giving exposure to the unique voice and range of the poet.

The editors invited an original essay, “Writing Rwanda,” by scholar Lee Slater, about the power of writing to heal a nation after one of the worst genocides in history. A similar theme follows in a review of Ron Capps’s Writing War, a book offering guidance to soldiers returning from combat, using writing as a tool for healing and expression, in project Operation Homecoming.

The review receives hundreds of submissions for each issue. Selection is competitive, resulting in a literary accomplishment for the published author. Over the review’s five-year history, eighteen works have been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.

Produced entirely by volunteers, the review’s editorial board includes, in addition to Wyatt, Mala Burt, managing editor, Amanda Newell, poetry editor, Margot Miller and Harold Wilson, fiction editors, George Merrill, nonfiction editor, and Laura Ambler, the issue’s designer. The copy editor was Jeanne Pinault.

Joining the board for the next issue are Anne Colwell, associate professor of English at University of Delaware, as the new poetry editor, Melanie Rigney, former editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, as editorial advisor, and Mary Ann Hillier, a writer from Trappe, Maryland, as the submissions administrator.

The review is for sale at regional bookstores, including: the News Center, in Easton, Mystery Loves Company, in Oxford, Creative Xpressions, in St. Michaels, and The Writer’s Center, in Bethesda, Maryland. Single issues are $12 each. Two-year subscriptions are $20. An order form is available on the website: www.delmarvareview.com, or by writing: The Delmarva Review, P.O.Box 544, St. Michaels, MD 21663.

A digital edition of volume five, for download to most digital reading devices, is available at Amazon.com.

Writers interested in submitting work for the sixth edition should consult the Review’s website for guidelines. The submission period for the 2013 issue is from November 1, 2012 through February 28, 2013.