In Duston Spear’s Bird Girl, a reclusive painter is thrust into the spotlight
Duston Spear couldn’t wait to get out of Richmond, and left the day after she graduated high school. Her mother always told her she could be a writer. Instead, Spear […]
Garth Greenwell continues to explore well-being in Small Rain
The privilege of health
“What a strange thing a body is, I thought, how eerie to be filled with blood and covered with hair, to be a machine any part of which might fail,” […]
Ebony Walden details the transformative power of travel
Recounting the experiences of an around-the-world trip, author and poet Ebony Walden’s new memoir, Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents, engages deeply with her childhood in New […]
How Rachel Beanland’s childhood home in Italy influenced her latest novel
Framed by one woman’s story of self-discovery amidst geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Italy in the 1970s, The Half Life is the latest historical fiction novel by Richmond-based author […]
Local book club dives into Alan Opts Out
In the opening pages of Alan Opts Out by Courtney Maum, readers meet the titular character as he prepares for a big pitch—perhaps his biggest yet—to try to land a […]
Lara Call Gastinger’s guide to viewing nature
As an artist and botanical illustrator, Lara Call Gastinger’s work reflects our local environment, detailing native plants near her Charlottesville home and in the nearby mountains. She was the chief […]
In conversation with poet Sophia Terazawa
Sophia Terazawa is a Vietnamese-Japanese poet, novelist, and performance artist whose work explores diasporic identities and experiences of exile as well as polyvocal and experimental forms of writing. She is […]
Lauren Catlett on working with Carmelita Estrellita
Recently re-released in a 10th anniversary edition, Little Star is the memoir of Carmelita Estrellita, a trans poet, artist, and educator who lived in Charlottesville until her death in 2016. […]
Fat Swim gives meaning to the messy, physical reality of being alive
“Perhaps you are sick and fear you will never be well, the brochure said, more or less. Perhaps you spend your days off on the couch, half napping, half awake. […]
Diana Khoi Nguyen on censorship, time, and language
Poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen often explores themes of intergenerational and family trauma through her work, which includes two books of poetry: Ghost Of, which was a finalist […]