Last year, UVA creative writing department director Chris Tilghman was trying to convince a prospective MFA graduate student to enter his program when he dropped a quiet bomb. “I said we were hoping to welcome James Salter as a writer-in-residence,” Tilghman recalled. “There was this long pause on the phone, and then there was this […]
Last year, UVA creative writing department director Chris Tilghman was trying to convince a prospective MFA graduate student to enter his program when he dropped a quiet bomb. “I said we were hoping to welcome James Salter as a writer-in-residence,” Tilghman recalled. “There was this long pause on the phone, and then there was this […]
The first time I read my work in front of an audience, I knew something had changed. The piece evolved as it left my lips, transforming the frisson I’d felt at the writing table into a brief but visceral tether with others. Listening to authors read their works, I understand the real invitation: to connect […]
As C’ville residents, we often hear, “Charlottesville has changed so much since I moved here.” Some see this as a positive, others less so. Either way (and regardless of how long you’ve lived here) it’s likely that we all have indeed witnessed some evolution. Recent development has obviously changed the landscape of familiar areas including […]
It takes a village to raise a writer, or at least it did in my case. When I was in eighth grade my best friend applied to a local performing arts high school, where she was accepted as a creative writing major, and I—propelled by love of adjectives and X-Files fan fiction—did the same. Four […]
“Who I am is not really defined. Most of the questions you asked I’d probably answer differently two weeks from now,” said Raven Mack, smiling under his long beard. “I always reserve the right to change suddenly.” Mack’s a poet without pretension, scribbling sonnets on his lunch break and supporting a wife, three children, and their […]
In a world increasingly dependent on text messages, two-sentence emails, and other abbreviated missives, why do artists do what they do? Why slave over word choice or perfect lighting, or attempt to sculpt poetry from the confusion of everyday experience? As she edited the new ebook anthology Back Talking on the Mountain of God, author […]
On any given day, you’ll find author Earl Swift writing in one of three places: the third floor of the VFH offices, Alderman Library, or Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar on the Downtown Mall. As he types in the company of academics and baristas, you’d never guess that he once lived in a canoe for 22 […]