VCFA Journal of the Arts
By the time I found my way into a creative writing workshop I had already been to and dropped out of three different colleges. I had published a shitty, immature collection of poetry, fiction and non-fiction and had no formal education in writing whatsoever. I had no one directing me, assisting me, telling me what… Continue reading Interview with Linda Pennisi
by Lennie DeCerce
Shapeshifting is my ultimate obsession in storytelling. Because as we all know, change is unyielding and constant. It never sleeps. Shapeshifting stories allow this truth to manifest literally—so ultimately, transformation is ever-present in lore because it is ever-present in life.
On the right side of his neck, just below his ear, poet and professor Ruben Quesada has a tattoo of the Chinese character 晨, set within a thick black circle, which he tells me means, “early light.” Quesada was born on an early morning in a late summer day, in August in the 1970s. “I… Continue reading Ruben Quesada Talks Poetry, Translation, and Neck Tattoos
by Blake Z. Rong
Michael Brosnan is a writer, educator, and editor. He is the author of Against the Current, a book on inner-city education for kids at risk of dropping out and most recently, The Sovereignty of the Accidental, his debut collection of poetry. Brosnan’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including: Confrontation, New Letters, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, The Moth, and… Continue reading Michael Brosnan Feels Like One of the Lucky Ones: Poets in Conversation
by Lennie DeCerce
The opening scene of Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowersevokes this bold declaration: a vision of a sleek Italian motorcycle, screaming across Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. The hero, Reno—leather-clad and fearless—hits 130 miles per hour, her record-setting attempt.
When the reader first meets Iván the hotel owner in Daniel Peña’s debut novel, Bang, he is ruminating on all the reasons why his mother seemed to never let him outside into the Mexican city of Matamoros as he was growing up. “At first it was sun-exposure (too much of it),” Iván thinks. “And as… Continue reading Review: Bang by Daniel Peña
by Mariah Hopkins
Let’s Talk about Boyfriend(s) School dance, prom, holding hands, kissing, dating, love, and boyfriends. Full of reminiscent nostalgia for the past, Bachofner explores young love in her latest poetry book, The Boyfriend Project (2017). The catchy title attracts instant attention, especially from girls of all ages, who love to reminisce about romantic relationships from their… Continue reading Review: The Boyfriend Project by Carol Willette Bachofner
by Lauren Lang
Let’s Play The Lying Game. Tell a lie. Everyone has told a white lie in their lives. I have never been one of those people. Caution: Continue at your own risk for I fear I may be an unreliable narrator with a past I am trying to bury. Once in a while these lies creep… Continue reading Review: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
by Kayleigh Marinelli
From her corner in Brattleboro, Vermont, Dede Cummings has carved out a multifaceted career: poet, literary agent, publisher, and book designer. Her debut collection of poems, To Look Out From, won the 2016 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize: “New England poems that transcend New England,” praised the poet Clarence Major. A little over three years ago she… Continue reading The Many Hats of Dede Cummings: An Interview
by Ma’ayan D’Antonio
The Infinite Future likes to mix its genres, stories, and narrators. Released in January 2018 by Penguin Press, Tim Wirkus’ work is a novel that is broken into two sections. There is the search for an ancient manuscript, and the manuscript itself: Two tales live within this one book.
“Shifting between different forms, even ordering of the lines, helps expose what should be cut. I’m a poet who errs on the side of too many words, and it takes me tricking myself to see where I should lose any of them.”
Michelle Fabio and I had been friends online for several years before my wife and I spent part of our honeymoon in the southern Italian village where she lives. A fellow Italian-American from Pennsylvania, Michelle writes a blog, Bleeding Espresso, that I’d followed assiduously since deciding to get my dual Italian citizenship in the early… Continue reading The Ins and Outs of Freelancing: An Interview with Michelle Fabio
by Paul Daniel Ash
The literary world has been applying the “-punk” suffix to science fiction sub-genres so frequently and for so long that it sometimes verges on self-parody. It all began with cyberpunk, a description of the 80s noir-esque SF of Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, and of course William Gibson. This was soon followed by steampunk, a term… Continue reading Book Review: Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation
by Paul Daniel Ash
Sean apologized for his messy desk almost as soon as I walked into his office. He had multiple books spread out across his desk with notes scattered throughout. He is hoping to use all of his research to collaborate an Advanced Non-Fiction textbook for high level courses with Jessica Hendry Nelson and his desk had… Continue reading Balancing Life and Writing: A Conversation with Sean Prentiss
by Kayleigh Marinelli
Robert Beatty is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Serafina series published by Disney Hyperion, a spooky mystery-thriller about a brave and unusual girl who lives secretly in the basement of the grand Biltmore Estate. Serafina and the Black Cloak was a #1 New York Times best seller, has been on the… Continue reading The Stories We Dare to Write: With Robert Beatty
by Patrick Graff
No matter how outdated or clichéd you think fairy tales have become, their appeal remains undeniable today. The whimsy and call for the suspension of belief, as applied to the mundane of our everyday, grasps at our hearts, evoking a sense of nostalgia and hope. When I asked the employee at Phoenix Books in Burlington… Continue reading the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace
by Lindsay Gacad
At the Crossroads of Woman and Mother A Review of A Woman is a Woman Until She is a Mother by Anna Prushinskaya How are women’s stories told? Who hears these stories? How do the terms ‘mother’ and ‘woman’ relate and differentiate? Can they coexist? These are some of the questions Anna Prushinskaya tackles with… Continue reading Review: A Woman is a Woman Until She is a Mother by Anna Prushinskaya
by Cameron Finch
John Hodgman has made his living off of telling tales and giving people orders. His first three books, satirical almanacs, cover topics ranging from fake historical anecdotes to the validity of the upcoming Mayan apocalypse. I first came across Hodgman through his podcast, Judge John Hodgman, where he mediates everyday conflicts with a self-righteous demeanor… Continue reading Review: Vacationland by John Hodgman
by Christa Guild
Norman is a master of atmosphere and despite the levity of the parallel detective stories, My Darling Detective has these touches of such realism that we, the readers, leave with a strong sense of the trauma of war on a personal level.
Derek Nikitas is the author of the only James Patterson book you’ll never read. The Murder of Stephen King was an installment of Patterson’s quick-paced BookShots series about a stalker terrorizing the eponymous author by re-enacting scares from King’s own novels.
Fiction
First Place Winner
Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
The office of William Marquess is small but colorful. There is mischief here: rows of books, equal parts vibrant and muted, line the walls, and a herd of plastic and rubber figurines stare impassively from his desk at all who enter. Pictures and poems and paintings galore are tacked to free wall space. Yes,… Continue reading “Little Grace Notes in a Story”: A Conversation with William Marquess
by Laura Kujawa
Louis Sylvester is a cool man. He’s an Associate Professor of English at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. He earned his PhD from Oklahoma State University. As a professor, many students refer to him as the “fun professor” to work with. He mostly dresses in printed cartoon t-shirts and jeans and there is… Continue reading An Interview with Louis Sylvester
by Lauren Lang
“I don’t know” is the best place to write from. I tell my students this all the time, never start an essay because you have some lesson to impart, or you have some theme or thesis already devised in your head. Always come to the page from a place of not knowing, and write in order to refine the question…
Kelly McMahon is a one-time poet who walked into a print shop and never looked back. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont, where she founded and runs May Day Studio, a letterpress purveyor of “quirky paper goods.”
I place my bag on the chair beside me and the weight gives way, my books and notes spilling everywhere. I kick them aside; it is a minor distraction. The room I’m standing in is auspiciously staring back at me. There is an oblong conference table straddling what could only be described as the 40… Continue reading The Motion of Poetic Landscape: An Interview with Sherwin Bitsui
by Bianca Viñas
Erin Moulton is the author of four YA novels – the most recent being Keepers of the Labyrinth – and serves as editor of the forthcoming anthology Things We Haven’t Said. Her books have been nominated and selected for the Kentucky Bluegrass Master List and the Isinglass Teen Read Award List. Erin also works as teen librarian… Continue reading Avoiding Reality with Erin Moulton
by Lindsey Brownson
Travel, community, writing, art, and finding ways to combine these passions are consistent themes in my life. I recently met an author from LA who fully embodies this notion of a creative and wandering imagination and I had to find out more. Trinie Dalton is the author of six books including most recently Baby Geisha,… Continue reading In Conversation with Trinie Dalton: Traveling Geographically and Creatively
by Sarah Leamy
Fiction
Honorable Mention
Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
Creative Nonfiction
First Place Winner
Creative Nonfiction Prize
Creative Nonfiction
Runner-Up
Creative Nonfiction Prize
Creative Nonfiction
Honorable Mention
Creative Nonfiction Prize
Poetry
First Place Winner
Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
Poetry
Runner-Up
Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
Writing is really hard, that’s what I found out. Stories have to hook at the beginning, head somewhere smart and interesting, and end with an inevitable surprise; they can’t all have superheroes sweeping in and saving the day and introducing me to pretty girls and beating up my enemies…
