Photo by Brenna Camping
(Left to right) Top Row: Caitlin Wilson, Brenna Camping, Kayleigh Hughes, Mary Flinn, Callie Maginnis, Destiny Price; Second Row: Katy Scarlett, Chase Ober, Alton Ayers, Melissa Allbrandt, Brandon Young, Danielle Kotrla; Third Row: Pao Cordero, Christina McBride, M.A. Keller, Hayley Graffunder, Isaac Wheeler-Rowlingson, Rachel Rivenbark; Fourth Row: John Shoupe, Hayden Nielander, Camryn Smith, Joy Luong, Juan Harmon, Ashley Williams; Fifth Row: Anthony Ponichtera, Noelle Hepworth, Rebecca Poynor, Sonja Livingston, Justin Pulver
Managing Editors
“Lead Associates” prior to 2021
Hayley Graffunder 2020–2021 Caitlin Wilson 2019–2020 Katherine M. Brooks 2018–2019 Brandie Gray 2017–2018 Victoria C. Flanagan 2016–2017 Jake Branigan 2015–2016 Chelsea Gillenwater 2014–2015 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, founded in 2002 as a joint venture of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of English and the former New Virginia Review, Inc., benefits from the contributions of graduate and undergraduate 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 in past years, as have community volunteers and MFA alumni. We are grateful for everyone's contributions.
Each year, Blackbird awards the coveted managing editor position, previously titled lead associate editor until the 2020–2021 academic year, 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 managing editor staffs the Blackbird office in the historic Anderson House, 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.
With sadness we note the passing of former Blackbird staff member Doug Fuller. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as a copy editor and as lead audio editor. He held both undergraduate and graduate degrees from VCU, and we continue to remember his quiet efficiency, his kindness, and his thoughtfulness as a reader and team member.
Staff listings are by categories.
EDITORS
Mary Flinn, founding editor, began her tenure as the director of the New Virginia Review, Inc. in 1985. She is 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 the New Virginia Review. She has participated in 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, and Style Weekly recognized her as one of their 2016 Richmond Women in the Arts.
Sonja Livingston, editor, is the author of The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions into Devotion (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). She is also the author of the award-winning nonfiction books Ladies Night at the Dreamland (University of Georgia Press, 2016), which was named a best nonfiction book of 2016 by Kirkus; Queen of the Fall (University of Nebraska Press, 2015); and Ghostbread (University of Georgia Press, 2009), winner of the AWP Prize and a Bronze Prize by Foreword. Her essays appear in The Kenyon Review, Salon, Sojourners, and Lithub. Her work is widely anthologized in texts on writing and craft, including in Best of Brevity,Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, Waveform: Twenty-First Century Essays by Women, Poverty & Privilege: A Reader, and many others. She has received fellowships from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Deming Fund, as well as awards from Arts & Letters, The Iowa Review, and Ruminate Magazine. Sonja has taught for Writing Workshops Abroad in Edinburgh, San Miguel de Allende, and Cork. Besides being an associate professor in VCU’s Creative Writing Program, Livingston serves as writer-in-residence at the Gap Creek Writers’ Studio and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Art’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference.
M.A. Keller, online editor, is a technologist, web coordinator, and writing instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry has appeared in the New Virginia Review, Runes, and The Southern Review, among others. 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 poetry and advanced writing workshops as well as courses in hypertext and new media. He publishes the visual blog Abaculi and is the editor of The Abaculi Project. Keller earned his MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Gregory Donovan, founding editor, is the author of the poetry collections Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press, 2015), long-listed for the Julie Suk Award, and Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), which won the Devins Award for Poetry, as well as the co-editor (with Michele Poulos) of Prismatics: Larry Levis & Contemporary American Poetry (Diode Editions, 2020). His poetry, essays, translations, and fiction have been published in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, TriQuarterly, diode, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, and many other journals. His work has also appeared in several 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 a visiting writer and guest faculty for a number of summer conferences and low-residency programs, such as the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Center, the River Pretty Writers Retreat, the VCFA Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, and the University of Tampa MFA program. With the writer/director Michele Poulos, he is a producer of A Late Style of Fire, the feature-length documentary on the life and work of the late Larry Levis. Donovan is a founding faculty member of Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate creative writing program.
Hayley Graffunder, managing editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO, Salt Hill, Occulum, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the 2020 Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. She earned a BA in English with minors in creative writing and linguistics from the University of St. Thomas, where she served as co-editor of the Summit Avenue Review and was the recipient of the 2018 Lon Otto Prize for poetry.
Caitlin Wilson, managing editor emerita, is a third-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in ENTROPY, Rogue Agent, Iron Horse Literary Review, and RHINO. She is the recipient of Virginia Commonwealth University’s 2020 Graduate Poetry Award. She is also the winner of a 2019 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Intro Journals Project Award in poetry. She earned a BA in English with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was the recipient of the 2018 Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award and a Jiménez-Porter Literary Prize for Poetry, and served as the 2017–2018 editor in chief of the literary journal Stylus.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Danielle Kotrla, lead pagebuilder, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work can be found in The Pinch, Moon City Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA in English creative writing and a BA in philosophy from the University of North Texas.
Brandon Young, lead copy editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work is forthcoming in RHINO. He holds a BA in English and creative writing from Indiana University, where he won the Bertolt Clever Poetry Writing Prize.
Brenna Camping, literary intern, social media intern, and lead photo editor, is a first-year MFA student in fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her BA in creative writing from Arizona State University, where she was the recipient of the ASU Homecoming Writing Award in fiction. Her work has been featured in Heavy Feather Review, Blue Earth Review, and elsewhere.
Kayleigh Hughes, literary intern, social media intern, and lead time-based media editor, is a first-year MFA student in fiction and creative nonfiction set to graduate in May 2023. She earned a BA in English from the University of Texas with a minor in French. She previously served as the deputy editor of the geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor, and her work as a journalist, critic, and essayist has appeared in Pitchfork, Vox, Catapult, The Establishment, Paste Magazine, Consequence of Sound, the Austin American-Statesman, Bustle, Ovrld, Hothouse, and Analecta, among others.
Rebecca Poynor, literary intern, social media intern, and copy editor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry has appeared in Rogue Agent. She holds a BA in English from Mississippi State University with minors in creative writing and linguistics.
Katy Scarlett, literary intern and copy editor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry and creative nonfiction at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds an MA in art history, theory and criticism from Hunter College, City University of New York and a BA in art history and visual arts, with a concentration in Spanish from Stockton University. She is a practicing independent curator and visual culture educator.
INTERNS
Chase Ober, literary intern and assistant lead time-based media editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in May of 2021 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing.
Melissa Allbrandt, literary intern and copy editor, is a second-year MA student in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds BAs in English and public relations with minors in business and creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She served as Humanities Section Editor for Auctus Publishers from 2017–2018. Her work has appeared in Grimmer Fairy Tales and Horroscopes from Spectral Visions Press in Sunderland, England, where she worked as an editing intern during the spring of 2018. Currently, she works with the Mighty Pen Project to curate and archive veteran stories.
Alton Ayers, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in spring of 2021 with a BA in English.
Pao Cordero, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. They have worked as a poetry editor and copy editor for Plain China. They have served as president of spoken word group Good Clear Sound since 2018. They will graduate in the fall of 2020 with a BA in English with a minors in gender & sexuality studies, and creative writing.
Juan Harmon, literary intern and time-based media editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in spring of 2021 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing.
Noelle Hepworth, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University. They will graduate in May 2021 with a BFA in communication arts and a minor in creative writing. They were an artist for Point of No Return, which was a video game collaboration between VCU and NASA Langley. More of their work can be found under the username crisanonymous.
Joy Luong, literary intern and copy editor, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University and will graduate in May 2022 with a BA in Mass Communications: creative advertising.
Callie Maginnis, literary intern and photo editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in spring 2021 with a BA in English and a BFA in fashion design.
Christina McBride, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a first-year fiction student in the Virginia Commonwealth University’s MFA program. She graduated from William & Mary with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing. As an undergraduate, Christina won the Newton-Blanchard Prize in 2020 and first prize at the William & Mary Student Literary Awards in 2019.
Hayden Nielander, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in the spring of 2021 with a BA in English.
Destiny Price, literary intern and copyeditor, is a sophomore undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in Spring 2023 with a BA in English and a BS in psychology
Justin Pulver, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. They will graduate in fall 2020 with a BA in English and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies with a minor in creative writing. They have a short story publication in Crab Fat Literary Magazine, published in 2015.
John Shoupe, literary intern and copyeditor, is an undergraduate senior. He is on track to graduate in the fall of 2021 with a BA in both English and political science.
Camryn Smith, literary intern and photo editor, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. They intend to graduate in May 2022 with a BA in cinema and a minor in English. Her work has appeared in Local Wolves Magazine and was awarded first place in the Undergraduate Writing Awards for her short story “Migration.”
Isaac Wheeler-Rowlingson, literary intern and copy editor, will graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University in fall 2020 with a BA in English.
Ashley Williams, literary intern and copy editor is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the fall of 2020 with a BA in English.
VOLUNTEERS
Kayleigh Dumont, former Blackbird literary intern and copy editor, is a second-year MA English student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She graduated from VCU in the spring of 2017 with a BA in English and minors in creative writing and psychology. She has volunteered as a reader since fall 2019.
Anthony Ponichtera, volunteer and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in the spring of 2021 with a BA in English.
Rachel Rivenbark, volunteer and copy editor, is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the summer of 2021 with a BA in English. She has worked as a nonfiction writer for Quail Bell Magazine.
Daniela Villegas is a former literary intern and pagebuilder, and current volunteer and copy editor. She is a senior BA student at Virginia Commonwealth University in English and Spanish with a minor in creative writing. She will graduate in the spring of 2021.
& MANY THANKS
to all the editors, staff members, interns, and volunteers who made Blackbird, volume 19, number 2 possible.
Special thanks to Hayley Graffunder, our managing editor, for keeping us all focused on this big effort, and for bringing the work of the contributors and the Blackbird team to fruition.
Thanks to Caitlin Wilson for her efforts as managing editor emerita and for leading our reading group with direction and grace.
Thanks to Brandon Young for running the first-ever virtual copyediting room with flexibility, thoroughness, and much-needed levity.
Thanks to Danielle Kotrla for leading the pagebuilding team and dedicating so much time and energy to building this volume, Kayleigh Hughes for leading the audio team, and Brenna Camping for her leadership of the photo team.
Thanks to Rebecca E. Jones for her outstanding PR and social media efforts, and to Brenna Camping, Kayleigh Hughes, and Rebecca Poynor for creating and executing a robust social media schedule.
Thanks to Melissa Allbrandt, Pao Cordero, and Noelle Hepworth for their work to create the browse menu.
Thanks to Mary Flinn for her many years of commitment to the literary community, continued support for our editorial staff, and contributions to in-house copy.
Thanks to M.A. Keller for supporting our quality and efficacy, dedication to the Mountain Lake Triptych, and the work put into making production an all-virtual effort.
Thanks to Sonja Livingston for leading social media efforts and championing Blackbird.
A special shout-out to Gregory Kimbrell and VCU Cabell Library for providing Covid-age video content of live-streamed events (edited, titled, and captioned, no less).
And to all others—manuscript readers, pagebuilders, time-based media editors, photo editors, transcribers, and copy editors—our sincere appreciation. Your dedication, ingenuity, and good spirits make it all possible. 
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