Photo by Waverley Vesely
(Left to right) Top Row: Christopher Shaw, Lauren Patrick, Cael Stump, Chase Ober; Second Row: Isabel Grasis, Corinne Bogden, Nadia Vugteveen, Caroline Richards; Third Row: Faith Centa, Elysia Lin, Dina Folgia; Fourth Row: Maddie Rees, Abby Asimos, Macy Major; Fifth Row: Mary Flinn, Waverley Vesely, Rebecca Poynor, M.A. Keller. (Not pictured: Ashley Barnhill, Danielle Kotrla, Peter Powers, Destiny Price, Kork Pullman, and B. Luke Wilson).
Managing Editors
“Lead Associates” prior to 2021
Waverley Vesely 2022–2023 Rebecca Poynor 2021–2022 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.
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 coeditor, 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 editors’ panels, served as a literature fellowship judge for numerous arts councils, and been a review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She was the inaugural recipient of the Theresa Pollak Award for Words from Richmond Magazine, and Style Weekly recognized her as one of their 2016 Richmond Women in the Arts.
Waverley Vesely, managing editor, is a second-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Their poetry has appeared in Blackbird and Grub Street Literary Review. They hold an MA in creative writing from the University of North Texas and a BA in English from Towson University.
Rebecca Poynor, managing editor emerita, lead copy editor, lead reading group facilitator, and lead social media editor, is a third-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Carve, Chestnut Review, Nashville Review, New York Quarterly, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. She holds a BA in English from Mississippi State University with minors in creative writing and linguistics.
Danielle Kotrla, lead pagebuilder, holds an MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the recipient of the 2022 Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, and her work appears in the South Carolina Review, The Pinch, Moon City Review, and elsewhere. She is a PhD student in philosophy at the University of Georgia.
M.A. Keller, online and founding editor, worked as technologist, web coordinator, and writing instructor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of English. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IX: Virginia, New Virginia Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He has created a number of historical suites in Blackbird’s Gallery, including a four-part 1918 influenza suite of researched and republished material. Keller has taught workshops in poetry and advanced writing, and courses in hypertext and new media. His work centers on issues related to electronic publishing, including materiality, multimodal writing and design, and questions regarding the durability of digital archives. Recent teaching and research interests center on the transmission of error in print and digital formats, as well as lay and professional attitudes toward error.
Gregory Donovan, founding editor, is the author of the poetry collections Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press, 2015), longlisted for the Julie Suk Award, and Calling His Children Home (University of Missouri Press, 1993), winner of the Devins Award for Poetry. He is the coeditor (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, 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 is a founding faculty member of Virginia Commonwealth University’s graduate creative writing program.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Dina Folgia, literary intern and assistant social media editor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has appeared in Foglifter, Ninth Letter, Dunes Review, Grub Street Literary Review, Variant Lit, and elsewhere. She holds a BA in Writing Arts from Rowan University.
Caroline Richards, literary intern and assistant copy editor, is a first-year MFA student in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a BA in English and anthropology from Trinity College, Hartford, where she worked as poetry editor for the Trinity Literary Magazine.
Chase Ober, literary intern and lead media editor, is a second-year MA student at Virginia Commonwealth University. They earned their BA in English and a minor in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Christopher Shaw, literary intern and copy editor, is a first-year MFA fiction and nonfiction student at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work has appeared in The Santa Ana River Review, Press Pause Press, and The Matador Review. He also holds a BA in English, a BFA in creative writing, and an MA in English from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
INTERNS
Abby Asimos, literary intern and copy editor, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her short story, “Flowers That Smell of Nothing,” won the Undergraduate Fiction Award at Virginia Commonwealth University for 2023. She will graduate in the spring of 2024 with a BA in English and a minor in media studies.
Corinne Bogden, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BA in English and a minor in art history.
Faith Centa, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BA in English and a minor in professional writing and editing.
Isabel Grasis, literary intern and copy editor, is a sophomore undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in 2025 with a BS in biology and a minor in creative writing.
Elysia Lin, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a staff member for Amendment, a student literary and art journal. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BIS in interdisciplinary studies and minors in sociology and creative writing.
Macy Major, literary intern and copy editor, is a junior undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. She will graduate in spring of 2024 with a BA in theater performance and a minor in creative writing.
Lauren Patrick, literary intern and copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BA in interdisciplinary studies. Her focus areas are creative practices, creative writing, and professional writing and editing.
Kork Pullman, literary intern and pagebuilder, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in the fall of 2025 with a BA in English and a minor in anthropology.
Maddie Rees, literary intern and copy editor, is a sophomore undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2025 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing.
Cael Stump, literary intern and copy editor, is a freshman undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in the spring of 2026 with a BA in English.
Nadia Vugteveen, literary intern and copy editor, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2024 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing.
VOLUNTEERS
Ashley Barnhill, copy editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has worked as a staff member for Symposium, West Springfield High School’s literary and art magazine. She is currently a staff member for Amendment, a student-run literary and art journal. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BA in English and a minor in creative writing.
Peter Powers, pagebuilder, is a junior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He will graduate in the fall of 2023 with a BA in English.
Destiny Price, assistant copy editor and bios editor, is a senior undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will graduate in the spring of 2023 with a BA in English and minors in psychology, creative writing, and professional writing and editing.
B. Luke Wilson, reader and reading group leader, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2021 with a BA in English. His work has appeared in East by Northeast, the Virginia Writers Club, and elsewhere. He won the 2020 Blue Nib Contest for Fiction with the Blue Ridge Writers.
& MANY THANKS
to all the editors, staff members, interns, and volunteers who made Blackbird, volume 21, number 3 possible.
Special thanks to Waverley Vesely, 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 Rebecca Poynor for her efforts as managing editor emerita, for directing our reading group with close attention, inspirational leadership, and unwavering respect. Special gratitude to her for always ensuring no task was missed and for supporting us more than can be expected. And for gracing our production room with numerous berets.
Thanks to Danielle Kotrla for her stalwart work and generosity. For leading the pagebuilding team with vigilance, humor, and for committing much time and energy to building this volume. To Rebecca Poynor for leading our copyediting team with deftness, intelligence, and patience.
Thanks to Destiny Price for her hard work editing bios.
Thanks to Rebecca Poynor and Dina Folgia for their work to maintain our social media pages.
Thanks to Mary Flinn for her many years of commitment to the literary community, continued support of our editorial staff, and substantial contributions to in-house copy.
Thanks to M.A. Keller for supporting our quality and efficacy, and for his extensive effort on Blackbird’s gallery and features.
Thanks to the browse menu team, Caroline Richards, Abby Asimos, Elysia Lin, and Cael Stump, for assisting with the task of creating a thematically engaging reading order for the issue’s content.
Thanks to Abby Asimos, Corinne Bogden, and Cael Stump (“Team Ferrandi”) for helping get a handle on materials for Gallery.
Thanks to pagebuilder Kork Pullman for his excellent questions and knowledgeable coding.
Thanks to Peter Powers for“Artificial Bodies” research and ongoing conversations about robots and gender.
Special gratitude to Chase Ober the lead media editor, who did audio editing and closed captioning work, followed by a thirteenth-hour AI translation.
And to all others—manuscript readers, pagebuilders, transcribers, and copy editors—our sincere appreciation. Your dedication, ingenuity, and good spirits make it all possible. 
return to top