Blackbirdonline journalFall 2010  Vol. 10  No. 2
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A joint venture of the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review, Inc.


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EDITORIAL STAFF

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 photo and Flash animation by Patrick Scott Vickers                                                     reset

(Left to right) Kneeling: Michael Beskin, Patrick Scott Vickers; First Row: Mary Flinn, Susan Settlemyre Williams, Lauren Miner, Stephanie Mack, Stacy Belcher, Ross Losapio; Second Row: Lena Moses-Schmitt, Chad Luibl, Doug Fuller, Stephan Bayless; Third Row: Sallie Lupton Jennings, Sarah Riddick, Carver Weakley, Spencer Philips, Suzanne Mancini; Fourth Row: Randy Marshall, Ben Orth, Kitty Ball, Morris Reese, Chrissie Lozano Griffith; Fifth Row: Katelyn Kiley, Whitney Herdon, Andy Tran, M.A. Keller (Not pictured: Gregory Donovan, Emilia Phillips, Maria Lourdes De Panbehchi )

Blackbird joins individuals from its publishing partners—Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review, Inc.—with members of the Richmond, Virginia, and Doha, Qatar communities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only venture at VCU that joins together international collaborators, undergraduate students, MA and MFA students, PhD students, alumni and community volunteers, and a regional non-profit.

spacer Lead Associate Editors
  Ross Losapio 2011–2012
  Emilia Phillips 2010–2011
  Grant White 2009–2010
  Matthew Baker 2008–2009
  Tarfia Faizullah 2007–2008
  Kate Beles 2006–2007
  Anna Journey 2005–2006
  Steven Collis 2004–2005
  Maria Hagan 2003–2004
  Tara Moyle    2002–2003
  Jamye Shelleby 2001–2002

Blackbird benifits from the contributions of student interns, as well as from MA and MFA Graduate Assistants from the VCU Department of English. Students from the interdisciplinary PhD program in Media, Art, and Text (MATX) have also worked with us over the past five years. We are grateful for everyone's contributions. Several MATX students remain with Blackbird as advising editors.

Each year, Blackbird awards the coveted lead associate editor position to a second–year VCU MFA graduate student; to qualify, the student must already have been awarded a graduate fellowship and must have worked as an intern for the journal. The lead associate staffs the Blackbird office and is at the center of all the journal’s activities, working to coordinate communication between literary and production editors, as well as between the editors and contributors.


Staff listings are by categories; individuals are listed alphabetically under each subhead.


EDITORS
Gregory Donovan
, senior editor, is a faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University’s creative writing program. Among other awards for his writing, he received the Robert Penn Warren Award from New England Writers as well as grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and fellowships from the Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Donovan is the author of Calling His Children Home (1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry from University of Missouri Press, as well as poetry, essays, and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Chautauqua, storySouth, 42opus, Gulf Coast, diode, The Southern Quarterly, and elsewhere. His work has been anthologized often, most recently in Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003). Donovan has served as guest faculty for summer conferences such as those held by the Chautauqua Writers’ Center and the Other Words Conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition. He has also helped to establish VCU summer programs for writers and visual artists in Scotland and Peru. In the summer of 2012, he will join the faculty of the University of Missouri Summer Seminars in Greece, located in Athens and the island of Serifos.

Mary Flinn, senior editor, has been the director of New Virginia Review, Inc., since 1985 and is the editor, with George Garrett, of Elvis in Oz, New Writing from the Hollins College Creative Writing Program (University of Virginia Press, 1992). She facilitated the editing of The Gazer Within by Larry Levis (University of Michigan Press, 2001), and has served as poetry and fiction editor of 64 Magazine and as editor of New Virginia Review. Flinn has served as a participant on editors’ panels, as a literature fellowship judge for numerous art councils, and as a review panelist for the National Endowment and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She was the first recipient of the Theresa Pollack Award for Words presented by Richmond Magazine.

M.A. Keller, senior online editor, is a technologist, web coordinator, and writing instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. He took an MFA in creative writing from VCU in 1989. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, New Virginia Review, Runes, and other publications. Most recently, his chapter “Meghan Sapnar’s “Car Wash’ as a New Media Sonnet” appears in RAW!: Reading and Writing New Media (Hampton Press, 2010). He has taught advanced writing, poetry workshops, and courses in hypertext and new media. His work currently centers on electronic writing, issues of materiality and multimodal writing, and the question of defining, supporting, and teaching online publishing and new media.

Ross Losapio, lead associate editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poems appear in or are forthcoming from Copper Nickel, The Emerson Review, Italian Americana, Milk Money, the minnesota review, Naugatuck River Review, Off Line (South Mountain–Watchung Poets, Inc.), a 2010 anthology of New Jersey poets, and elsewhere. He has also self-published a chapbook of poems titled The Measure of Healing. His reviews have appeared in or are forthcoming from Blackbird, Rattle, and Verse Wisconsin. He holds a BA in writing and English from Loyola University Maryland.

Randy Marshall, senior literary editor, earned his MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in the Richmond Arts Magazine, New South (formerly Georgia State University Review), Cream City Review, and Blackbird. He, along with Mary Flinn, Andrew Miller, and John Venable, edited The Gazer Within (University of Michigan Press, 2001).

Emilia Phillips, associate editor emeritus and lead pagebuilder, is a third-year MFA student in poetry and the 2011–2012 Levis Fellow for the coordination of the Levis Reading Prize at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the author of a chapbook, Strange Meeting (Eureka Press, 2010) and a 2011 Mona Van Duyn scholar to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her poetry appears in or is forthcoming from Beloit Poetry Journal, Cimarron Review, Copper Nickel, Ecotone, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Sycamore Review, Third Coast, and elsewhere. Phillips holds a BA in English: writing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Patrick Scott Vickers, online editor, is a technologist and instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English and a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program. He graduated in spring 2006 with an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama. His poetry and fiction have been published in Strange Horizons, Mid-American Review, Touchstone, and miraclemonocle.com. His Flash art has appeared in the online journal failbetter.com.

Susan Settlemyre Williams, book review editor and literary editor, is the author of a poetry collection, Ashes in Midair (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2008), as well as a chapbook, Possession (Finishing Line Press, 2007). Her poetry appears in numerous journals, including Prairie Schooner, diode, Mississippi Review, Sycamore Review,and Shenandoah, and in the anthologies Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv (Red Hen Press, 2008) and Best New Poets 2006 (Samovar Press). She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Chrissie Lozano Griffith
, associate production editor and senior audio editor, earned her MA in literature from Virginia Commonwealth University in the spring of 2011. She earned a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2008.

Katelyn Kiley, associate production editor and lead copyeditor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA and an MA in English language and literature from the University of Virginia. Before joining the staff of Blackbird, she worked as an editorial intern at albemarle Magazine and on the staff of Meridian.

 

ASSISTANT EDITORS
Stephen Bayless
, assistant photo editor and volunteer, earned a BA in English with minors in writing and British studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2010. He has served as senior editor of Opus literary magazine.

Michael Beskin, assistant audio editor and volunteer, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2011 with a BA in English and minors in writing and religious studies.

Suzanne Mancini, assistant photo editor and volunteer, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2011 with a BA in English and minors in gender, sexuality, and women's studies and writing. 

Lauren Miner, assistant production editor for copyediting and volunteer, is a second-year MA student in the English research program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English from James Madison University in 2007.

Ben Orth, lead bio editor and volunteer copyeditor, is a second-year MA student in the English literature program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in fiction writing with a minor in literature from Columbia College Chicago in 2008.

 

INTERNS
Kitty Ball, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn her BA in English in the spring of 2012.

Stacy Belcher, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn her BA in English in December 2011.

Doug Fuller, second-semester intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in English with a minor in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2011.

Whitney Herndon, literary intern and audio editor, is a first-year MA student in the English literature program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010.

Chad Luibl, literary intern and photo editor, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2005 he earned a BA in English with a writing emphasis from Lynchburg College in Virginia, and in 2011 he earned an MA in European studies from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, with a dissertation on central European literature.

Stephanie Mack, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English literature from the University of Mary Washington in December 2010.

Morris Reese, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn his BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2012.

Lena Moses-Schmitt, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She graduated from the University of Mary Washington in 2010 with a BA in English. She has worked as an editorial and production assistant at National Public Radio.

Spencer Philips, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn his BA in English with a minor in biology in December 2011. Postgraduation he will be pursuing a teaching career in Hangzhou, China.

Sarah Riddick, second-semester intern, copyeditor, and pagebuilder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English and a BA in Spanish with a minor in creative writing in December 2011. She served as online editor of Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, in which her reviews also appear.

Andy Tran, literary intern and audio editor, is a fourth-year student in the BA English program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned an AA at Northern Virginia Community College.

Carver Weakley, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MA student in the writing and rhetoric program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English with a minor in secondary education from The College of William and Mary.

 

VOLUNTEERS
Ian Bodkin, volunteer manuscript reader, is working on his MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He teaches English and Latin at Benedictine High School.

Sallie Lupton Jennings, volunteer manuscript reader, holds an MA in psychology from The New School for Social Research and studied playwriting with William Packard at HB Studios in New York. Her one-act play was given a staged reading at the Barksdale Theater in Richmond in 2002. Her poems appear in the Quaker journal What Canst Thou Say? and the Unitarian publication, First Folio, 6th edition 2011. She received honorable mention in the 2010 Richmond Magazine/James River Writers' poetry contest.

 

ADVISING & CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
John Bresland
, contributing editor for video essays, works in video, audio, and print. His audio essays have aired on public radio’s Weekend America, and his video essays can be seen at Ninth Letter and Requited. His print essays can be read in North American Review, Hotel Amerika, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing and new media at Northwestern University.

Vera Kononova Brown, advising production editor for the Blackbird index, is a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. A native of Russia, she has a BA in English with an emphasis on technical/professional writing from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, and an MA in English with an emphasis on writing and rhetoric from VCU. Her interests include the use of new media in language instruction, iconography, and stereographic imaging.

Katie Lynch, advising web developer and css programmer, is a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has a BFA in crafts from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Her work focuses on the presence of text in visual art and the relationship between art, science, and technology.

María Lourdes De Panbehchi (Lulú), advising production editor, is a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her BA in Spanish literature from the University of Chihuahua, Mexico, and her MA in Spanish from New Mexico State University. Her work focuses on the relationship between smart phones and simulation, nostalgia, and remediation.

 

& MANY THANKS
to all the editors, staff members, interns, and volunteers who made Blackbird volume 10, number 2, possible.

Our index is possible through continued advising support from Lauren Boasso, Vera Kononova Brown, and Neal Wyatt.

Thanks to Chrissie Griffith for graciously returning to lead the audio team; Katelyn Kiley for taking charge of the copyediting team; Bri Spicer for her design of the 10th anniversary logo; Ben Orth, for his meticulous work as lead bio editor; and Emilia Phillips for taking on the mantle of lead pagebuilder in a time of need.

Thanks to Lulú De Panbehchi for her involvement in special features and media research. To our production volunteers: Suzanne Mancini and Stephan Bayless for their expert eyes and assistance beyond all expectation in photo editing; Michael Beskin for supporting the continued excellence of the audio editing team; and Lauren Miner for her scrupulous copyediting of our most challenging texts.

Thanks to Randy Marshall for extensive work with submissions and willingness to learn (and aptitude for) pagebuilding.

And to all others—manuscript readers, content converters, pagebuilders, audio editors, transcribers, and copyeditors everyone, our sincere appreciation.  bug


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