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.

Copyright © 2013 by Blackbird and the individual writers and artists

ISSN 1540-3068

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EDITORIAL STAFF


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photo, drawing and Flash animation by Patrick Scott Vickers     reset

(Left to right) Sitting: Patrick Scott Vickers; First Row: Mary Flinn, Annie Rudy, Leia Darwish, M.A. Keller, Christian Detisch; Second Row: Lena Moses-Schmitt, Randy Marshall, Gabrielle Robinson, Taryn Dollings, Gregory Donovan; Third Row: Sarah Curry, Paige Powers, Samantha Drake, Christie Maurer, Nelia Dashiell, Joe Woods; Fourth Row: Chelsea Gillenwater, Meagan Lawrence, Jennifer Revis, Alex Jones, John-Michael Bloomquist; Fifth Row: Mary Selph, Matthew Phipps, Mitch Russell, Michael Waite; Sixth Row: Doug Fuller, Remy Elmore, Gabriel Boudali (Not Pictured: Susan Settlemyre Williams, Connor McCormick, Brittney Scott)

 

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
  Leia Darwish 2013–2014
  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 benefits 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
Leia Darwish, lead associate editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared in Copper Nickel, Blackbird, Evening Will Come, and Southern Indiana Review. Darwish has worked as a managing editor at Copper Nickel.

Gregory Donovan, senior editor, is a faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate creative writing program, where he serves as the director of creative writing. Donovan is the author of Torn from the Sun (forthcoming from Red Hen Press, 2015) and Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry. His poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, 42opus, diode, Crazyhorse, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared in a number of anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003). Among other awards for his writing, he is the recipient of 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 has served as guest faculty for many summer conferences, including the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Center, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Florida Literary Arts Coalition’s Other Words Conference. He helped to establish Virginia Commonwealth University’s summer study abroad programs for writers and visual artists in Scotland and Peru.

Mary Flinn, senior editor, has been the director of New Virgina Review, Inc., since 1985. She is the co-editor, with George Garrett, of Elvis in Oz: New Stories and Poems from the Hollins Creative Writing Program (University of Virginia Press, 1992), and facilitated the editing of The Gazer Within (University of Michigan Press, 2001), a collection of essays by Larry Levis. Flinn served as the poetry and fiction editor of 64 and the editor of New Virginia Review. She has participated on numerous editors’ panels, served as a judge for literature fellowships from various arts councils, and been a review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Flinn won the inaugural Theresa Pollak Award for Words from Richmond Magazine.

M.A. Keller, senior online editor, is a technologist, web coordinator, and writing instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, New Virginia Review, Runes, and elsewhere. Keller is the author of a chapter, “Meghan Sapnar’s ‘Car Wash’ as a New Media Sonnet,” in RAW (Reading and Writing) New Media (Hampton Press, 2010). His work centers on electronic writing, issues of materiality and multimodal writing, and how to define, support, and teach online publishing and new media. He has taught advanced writing and poetry workshops, and courses in hypertext and new media. Keller earned an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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

Lena Moses-Schmitt, associate editor emeritus and lead copyeditor, is a third-year MFA student in poetry and the 2013-2014 Levis Fellow for the coordination of the Levis Reading Prize at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris-AmericanConteTHRUSH Poetry Journal, and Superstition Review, and she was a finalist for Crab Orchard Review’s 2013 Rafael Torch Literary Nonfiction Award. She earned a BA in English from the University of Mary Washington. Moses-Schmitt has worked as an editorial assistant at National Public Radio.

Patrick Scott Vickers, online editor, is a technologist and instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry, fiction and nonfiction have appeared in 32 Poems, Strange Horizons, Mid-American Review, Touchstone, and Miracle Monocle. His Flash art has appeared in failbetter.com. Vickers earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama.

Susan Settlemyre Williams, book review editor and literary editor of Blackbird, is the author of a collection of poetry, 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, and Anthropology and Humanism, among other journals, and in various anthologies, most recently The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2007). She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Christian Detisch, co-lead copyeditor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in English from Allegheny College. Detisch has worked as senior managing editor at The Allegheny Review.

Doug Fuller, associate production editor and lead audio editor, is a third-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in MeadThe Pinch, Superstition ReviewSpry Literary Journal, Bodega, and The Monongahela Review. Fuller earned a BA in English with a minor in creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Annie Rudy, lead page builder, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry is forthcoming in West Branch. She earned a BA in English and art history from the University of Virginia.

Mary Selph, associate production editor, is a first-year PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned an MFA in poetry from Texas State University–San Marcos and a BA in liberal arts from Hofstra University.

 

INTERNS
John-Michael Bloomquist, literary intern and page builder, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poems have appeared in Third Coast, The Carolina Quarterly, Tampa Review, and elsewhere. He earned a BA in English from Arizona State University.

Gabriel Boudali, literary intern and photo editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is majoring in English.

Sarah Curry, literary intern and page builder, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned an MA in anthropology from George Mason University. She has worked for nonprofits and campaigns as a writer, researcher, and advocate.

Nelia Dashiell, literary intern and photo editor, is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is majoring in English and minoring in media studies.

Taryn Dollings, literary intern and audio editor, is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is majoring in English.

Samantha Drake, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MA student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work appears in The Daily Press, and she has presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. She earned a BA in English from Longwood University.

Chelsea Gillenwater, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English and communication from Virginia Tech. She has served as an associate editor and contributor for Philologia Undergraduate Research Journal.

Alex Jones, literary intern and audio editor, is a first-year MA student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Meagan Lawrence, literary intern and copyeditor, is a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University. She plans to major in English and minor in media studies.

Christie Maurer, literary intern and bio editor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a BA in English from the University of Houston.

Connor McCormick, literary intern and copyeditor, is a first-year MA student in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in history from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Paige Powers, literary intern and audio editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will earn a BA in English with a minor in creative writing in May 2014.

Jennifer Revis, literary intern and photo editor, is a first-year MA student in English. Her work has appeared in The Mace & Crown. She earned a BA in English with a concentration in journalism and a minor in psychology from Old Dominion University.

Gabrielle Robinson, literary intern and audio editor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared in Amendment. Robinson is double majoring in English and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.

Mitch Russell, literary intern and page builder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will earn a BA in English in December 2013.

Michael Waite, literary intern and copyeditor, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is majoring in English.

Joe Woods, literary intern and page builder, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. His band, Marketing, was featured as a staff pick on Bandcamp. He will earn a BA in English with a minor in French in May 2014.

 

VOLUNTEERS
Remy Elmore, photo editor and volunteer, is a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is majoring in English.

Matthew Phipps, copyeditor and volunteer, is a second-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a BA in creative writing from Florida State University.

Brittney Scott, volunteer manuscript reader, earned her MFA from Hollins University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, The New Republic, Crab Orchard Review, Poet Lore, New South, The Malahat Review, Water~Stone Review, Salamander, Notre Dame Review, Confrontation, The Journal, The Fourth River, Folio, Copper Nickel, basalt, Knock Magazine, Quiddity, and Quarter After Eight. She is the recipient of the 2012 Joy Harjo Poetry Award and a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize. Scott teaches creative writing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

 

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 12, number 2, possible.

Thanks to Doug Fuller, for his meticulous sound editing and for leading the audio team; Lena Moses-Schmitt and Christian Detisch for taking charge of the copyediting team; Patrick Scott Vickers and Remy Elmore for editing photos and leading the photo team; and Annie Rudy for shepherding the page builders.

Thanks to Mary Selph for her tireless work re-encoding video to the new standards, and John Bresland for his advisory role in this venture.

Thanks to Randy Marshall for his extensive work with submissions and for running reading group.

Thanks to M.A. Keller for his work organizing and designing a wide array of gallery suites and special builds, and for keeping us on track under tight deadline.

Thanks to Joe Woods, whose coding expertise made certain special builds possible, and whose initiative to restructure the site from the inside out has helped ensure Blackbird's usability into the future.

Thanks to Randy Marshall, Lena Moses-Schmitt, Chelsea Gillenwater, and Mary Selph for contributing text to the foreword.

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


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