Blackbird

Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts, is the US's premier online literary magazine and is generally considered to be among the best literary magazines published in any format. Housed in Richmond, Virginia, it is the product of a partnership between the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review, Inc., a state-wide, not for profit, literary arts organization based in Richmond.

We publish fiction, poetry, plays, essays, book reviews, and documentations of art exhibits. We publish, in RealMedia, readings, interviews, lectures, video essays, and more. We have published newcomers as well as National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners—in addition, Blackbird stories and poems have been included in books that later won both awards. And because space isn't a problem, we have even published a full-length book of poetry serialized across three issues.

Blackbird's founding editors were Mary Flinn, Gregory Donovan, Bill Tester, Michael Keller, and me. Bill moved on a few years ago, and I left in the fall of 2006, though I still serve as a contributing editor, conducting, recording, and editing audio interviews of artists visiting VCUQ and gathering, editing, and processing materials documenting their exhibitions for publication in Blackbird.   Additionally, I am working with fellow VCUQ faculty to identify prominent Middle Eastern and South Asian poets for translation and publication in Blackbird and to then facilitate that translation. I am also, on an as-needed basis, reviewing and editing the magazine's fiction submissions.