Congratulations to Natasha Tretheway, U.S. Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Natasha Tretheway, U.S. Poet Laureate On the evening of Sept. 13, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway gave her inaugural reading at the Library of Congress. VQR was there and live-tweeted the event; click here to check out our Twitter feed, with photos. The Virginia Quarterly Review is proud to mark her appointment by issuing a signed, limited edition broadside of her poem “Enlightenment.” The broadside was printed at the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, Charlottesville, by Kevin McFadden, with an original woodcut by Josef Beery (pictured above with VQR publisher Jon Peede and Tretheway). Click here to see the broadside, including information on how to order. The Poetry Factory: Mass-Submission Culture We have a new columnist at the VQR blog, writing professor and editor Sean Bishop. His first post is about poets gearing up for the upcoming submissions cycle, and how the culture of mass submissions is hurting literary culture. Click here to read. Upcoming issue: The Female Conscience Our next issue, shipping on Oct. 1, focuses on The Female Conscience. It's 85% written by women, about women. Contributors include Marie Arana (who served as guest editor), Judith Warner, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Sylvia A. Earle, Reeve Lindbergh, and more—plus a personal essay by Stephen Burt on his cross-dressing. Subscribe now and receive this issue when it releases next month. Winter & Spring 2013 Issue Theme Announcement We are accepting pitches that tie into upcoming issue themes. Winter 2013 focuses on the culture and business of Hollywood; Spring 2013 focuses on the business of literature. If you have an article idea for either issue, contact us at editors@vqronline.org.