VIRGINIA LITERATURE




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The Veiled Mirror Comes With Ghost Stories Included

If you are in the market for a glass eye in the same shade as your lover’s, some elaborate hair jewelry, or even an electric couch to use as a Victorian cure-all, then you need to head over to The Veiled Mirror. This Victorian antique store opened downtown in January,...

Richmond Had a General Strike and a First Friday on the Same Night

It was 72 and breezy. Unseasonably pleasant, almost chilly. VCU students were splayed out on picnic blankets in Monroe Park enjoying soft serve and the sunshine. Citronella and the smell of hot dogs wafted through the air from some folks having a cookout. “High...

My Life As a Spider: The Two Years I Tried to Delete

Editor’s Note: Max Winter is a University of Richmond alumnus reflecting on his time at UR in the late ’90s and the campus culture he experienced. You can read more of his work on his Substack HERE. Recently, while eating carnitas in East LA, I check my phone and get...

It’s Still Our City Ep. 20 | Katie Davis, Salvation Tattoo

“Katie Davis left home (Maine) at 16 and moved to Richmond Virginia. She started working in a tattoo shop at age 17. A total dream job for a music and art loving minor delinquent. While apprenticing and working full time, she also attended/graduated VCU with a BFA in...

Proof In The Park! Richmond Arts Park Gets Trial Run This Weekend

The City of Richmond is giving organizers behind a proposed arts park under the Manchester Bridge a one-day opportunity to test the concept in real time. Scheduled for Saturday April 25 from 12-5pm, the event will serve as a live proof of concept for what supporters...

Virginia MOCA Launches New Era

Before the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU was even around, and before the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts really began to embrace contemporary work, especially anything connected to street art or artists working in the present, Virginia Museum...

Salon De Résistance | Art Against Power

Join us for Salon de Résistance on April 30 at Black Iris for an unfiltered conversation about the role of art and culture during times of political upheaval with three of Richmond's leading artists. This is a free event open to the public. Event...

Love Thy Neighbor

There was a new guy that moved across the street from me, a new neighbor, and every time he saw me on the front porch puffing away, he asked to bum a smoke. It got so incessant that I had begun smoking in the backyard instead, not wishing to part with any of my...

The Bully.

Or The First Time I Learned How Fear Works Ed. note: This memory came back to me in the middle of the night, and it felt connected to the way fear shapes people and systems right now. It’s just a moment from childhood that suddenly made a lot more sense as an adult. Every morning I rode the same bus to school, and every morning we had to deal...

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The Bully by R Anthony Harris_RVA Magazine 2025

Writer’s Block | The Poetry of Mary Beth Cox

Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week we’re featuring two poems by Mary Beth Cox, a former Peace Corps volunteer (1999-2001, Togo) living in...

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Poems-by-Mary-Beth-Cox_photo-Jasmin-Ne_RVA-Magazine-2025

Diamonds Aren’t Forever: Richmond Says Goodbye to The Diamond

Al Campanis was a scout for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s. He said the hair on his arms only stood up twice in his life. Once when he saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the other time when he witnessed Sandy Koufax throw a fastball. Years later, baseball pundits called Koufax “The Left Arm of God,” and if God...

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Diamonds Aren't Forever by Ryan Kent_RVA Magazine 2025-01-2

Writer’s Block | Four Poems by Breanna Hoch

A Sunday series from RVA Magazine featuring writers from Richmond and Virginia Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. In this week’s collection, Breanna...

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Breanna-Hoch-poetry_RVA-Magazine-2025

Writer’s Block | Hotel Gaslight — Two Pieces by Robert Hoekman Jr.

A Sunday series from RVA Magazine featuring writers from Richmond and Virginia Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week, we’re featuring two...

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Stories-by-Robert-Hoekman-Jr_cover-art-for-Mend-by-PSYCHOSIS_Richmodn-VA_RVA-Magazine-2025

Writer’s Block | Poems by Kaylee Walton

A Sunday series from RVA Magazine featuring writers from Richmond and VirginiaWriter’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week, we’re featuring a...

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Kaylee Walton poems_photo by Sara-Kurfess RVA MAgazine 2025

Writer’s Block | Poems from ‘ARTHROPOETRY’ by Noah Strickler

A Sunday series from RVA Magazine featuring writers from Richmond and VirginiaWriter’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week, we’re featuring three poems...

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Writers-Block-Noah-Strickler_Vidar-Nordli-Mathisen-RVA-Magazine-2025

Because None of This is Important, All of It Is.

Amid feedback loops, flickering lights, and fleeting connections at Get Tight Lounge, a local sound tech finds clarity in the chaos and meaning in the impermanence. by Eric Kalata I had to go across town first, to a different venue, to grab the microphones and monitors that I would need for the night. There were six speakers, and I was to take...

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Eric Kalata writing_photo by R Anthony Harris_RVA Magazine 2025