Celebrating Writers and Writing at VCU and Beyond!
07/23/2025
"In the metal womb of her mother’s sedan, Cherry and I weave around Pleasant Valley Road, looking for nothing."
Massive congratulations to VCU MFA student, Jesse Lacy, whose essay 'Roadmarks" appears in Roxane Gay's The Audacity today.
Roadmarks Emerging Writer Series
10/14/2024
Congratulations to MFA Student, Sarp Demerol, whose poem, "Human Landscapes from my Datça," won the 2024 Catherine & Joan Byrne Prize and is up at Poets.org now! Way to go, Sarp!!
https://poets.org/2024-catherine-joan-byrne-poetry-prize
2024 Catherine & Joan Byrne Poetry Prize Human Landscapes from my Datça by Sarp Armağan Demiral
10/04/2024
We are so so proud of 3rd year MFA students, Josh Galaraza, whose book, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky, is a NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST!!!!
We're also proud of YOU--our students, alums and friends who believe in the value of good writing and work hard every day. You are all cool ranch Doritos to us!
Image credit: Dorito oil painting by Karen Barton
Massive congratulations, to MFA student, Josh Galarza, whose book, THE GREAT COOL RANCH DORITO IN THE SKY, has been longlisted for the National Book Award! Way to go, Josh!
08/30/2024
Congratulations to third year MFA student, Allison Weissman, on having their flash CNF, “Perennials”accepted for publication by Pithead Chapel! Way to go, Allison!!
08/13/2024
Congratulations to faculty member, Geoff Bouvier, whose American version of US FROM NOTHING is out in September and available now for preorder! Also: Save the date for the book launch on 9/6 at Shelf Life. More info to follow! Congratulations, Geoff!
Book description: From the big bang to the emergence of Homo sapiens to Kushim and the first recorded use of writing in 3200 BCE to the moon landing in 1969, Us From Nothing is a sprawling history of humanity. Striving to answer the big questions – Who are we? Where did we come from? How did we get here? – Geoff Bouvier has created a sweeping collection of poetry that gracefully captures the arc of our universe. Fifteen billion years ago, there was nothing, not even light. Now, we live in a universe that plays host to trillions of galaxies with uncountable stars, worlds and maybe even other life. Us From Nothing recounts this epic tale in richly imagined, yet crisp, prose poems that are carefully grounded in historical fact. The result is a remarkable poetic retelling of history that challenges us to think deeply not only about where we’ve come from, but also about where we’re going.
07/26/2024
Congratulations to MFA Student, Josh Galarza, whose beautiful book is out in the world this week!! Check out the interview on the book here!
In debut novel, VCU creative writing student Josh Galarza brings life to teen experience The MFA candidate shares the inspiration for his young adult title and the lessons he has learned.
04/29/2024
What a stellar lineup for our final Feast Reading of 2024! Celia Cummiskey, Jamie Walters and Jay Fowler read from their beautiful MFA theses on Friday! No glass was empty, no heart was untouched, no mouth was left unlaughed. Big congratulations to our writers, as well as to EVERYONE who worked hard to host this event and series all year!
04/26/2024
Massive congratulations to MFA Student Allison Weissman who won the 2024/25 Claudia Emerson Scholarship (!) and was recently accepted into the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices this summer in nonfiction and speculative fiction! Way to go, Allison!
04/05/2024
Friday inspiration via Sean Thomas Dougherty.