Editor's Note: This essay includes a personal account of a mental health crisis. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, support is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7. Richmond-area...
The ceilings were all collapsing. The moldering roof was seeping through to the drywall and paint inside. What was once a small emerald speck of mold above the shower had turned into a fuzzy kaleidoscope of blacks and pinks and grays and greens that coated the entire top of the room and filled it with a smell so pungent that I couldn’t spend more...
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 14 years old. Most likely because other boys my age in the neighborhood were smoking. I thought it was the next logical step on the way to losing my virginity. I wasn’t peer pressured. I did this because I wanted to. John McClane in the Die Hard movies was a cigarette smoker. Frank Sinatra was one. Pantera...
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. Atmospheric Dread by Richmond...
Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. We feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week, we’re featuring a new story from Richmond writer Eric Kalata. In his first two pieces for RVA Magazine, Kalata...
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...
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...
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...
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 “Come In...
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...
