photo and Flash animation by Patrick Scott Vickers reset
(Left to right) Sitting: Patrick Scott Vickers; First Row: Mary Flinn, Emilia Phillips, Ross Losapio, M.A. Keller, Gregory Donovan; Second Row: Randy Marshall, Samantha Moore, Clinton Ellis, Lauren Miner, Lindsey Jenkins, Stephanie Mack; Third Row: Morris Reese, Lena Moses-Schmitt, Callie Day, Carver Weakley, Annie Gannon, Doug Fuller; Fourth Row: Ben Orth, Alexander Burke, Yousef Karim, Katelyn Kiley; Fifth Row: Charles Thompson, Remy Elmore, Chad Luibl, Zachary Marson (Not Pictured: Susan Settlemyre Williams, María 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.
Lead Associate Editors Lena Moses-Schmitt 2012-2013 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, has been a faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate Creative Writing Program since its inception. 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 one collection of poetry, Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry. His poetry, essays, and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, 42opus, diode, Stone Canoe, Hayden's Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. His work has also been anthologized frequently, most recently in Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003). Donovan has often 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.
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 Copper Nickel, The Emerson Review, Italian Americana, Milk Money, the minnesota review, Naugatuck River Review, among others, and Off Line (South Mountain–Watchung Poets, Inc.), an anthology of New Jersey poets. He has also self-published a chapbook of poems titled The Measure of Healing. His reviews have appeared in 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).
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 has appeared in Prairie Schooner, diode, Mississippi Review, Sycamore Review,and Shenandoah, among other journals, and been anthologized in 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
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.
Emilia Phillips, associate literary editor, is a third-year MFA poetry student and the Levis Fellow for the coordination of the Levis Reading Prize at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Beloit Poetry Journal, Birmingham Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, The Collagist, Connotations Press: An Online Artifact, Copper Nickel, diode, Ecotone, Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, Indiana Review, Sycamore Review, and Third Coast, among others. She has written reviews in Blackbird, Connecticut River Review, James Dickey Review, The Journal, and Pleiades; and her fiction is forthcoming in Hobart. She was a Mona van Duyn scholar to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a finalist in the 2011 Copper Nickel Contest in Poetry and the 2011 Wabash Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center.
ASSISTANT EDITORS
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.
Ben Orth, lead bio editor and volunteer, will earn an MA in English literature from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2012. He earned a BA in fiction writing with a minor in literature from Columbia College Chicago in 2008.
INTERNS
Alexander Burke, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MA student in the English research program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in English with a minor in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Callie Day, literary intern and media editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn her BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2012.
Clinton Ellis, literary intern and media editor, is an undergraduate senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will receive a BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2012.
Remy Elmore, literary intern and media editor, is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is expected to earn a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013.
Doug Fuller, third-semester literary intern, copyeditor, and reading group leader, 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.
Annie Gannon, literary intern and media editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English with minors in writing and American studies in May 2012.
Lindsey Jenkins, literary intern and media editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has a short story forthcoming in Amendment. She will earn a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in fall 2012.
Yousef Karim, literary intern and media editor, is in his final year of the English BA program at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Stephanie Mack, second-semester literary intern and co-lead page builder, 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.
Zachary Marson, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn a BA in English in May 2012, and will continue his studies in the English MA program at Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall of 2012.
Samantha Moore, literary intern and page builder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English in May 2012.
Lena Moses-Schmitt, second-semester literary intern, copyeditor and reading group leader, 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 assistant at National Public Radio.
Morris Reese, second-semester literary intern and co-lead pagebuilder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn his BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2012.
Charles Thompson, literary intern, bio editor and copyeditor, is a first-year MA student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Carver Weakley, second-semester literary intern, copyeditor, and reading group leader, 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.
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 11, number 1 possible.
Thanks to Katelyn Kiley for taking charge of the copyediting team; Ben Orth, for his meticulous work as lead bio editor; Stephanie Mack and Morris Reese for graciously returning to lead the pagebuilding team; and Emilia Phillips for continuing to serve the journal as associate literary editor.
Thanks to Lulú De Panbehchi for her involvement in special features and media research, and to 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. 
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