This journal is open to a variety of subjects and styles. “No topic has been alien: literary, public affairs, the arts, history, the economy. If it could be approached through essay or discussion, poetry or prose, VQR has covered it.”
In the Winter 2007 issue, Floyd Skloot’s essay, "When the Clock Stops," opens with him sharing about his college job reading for the chairman of the English department, Robert Russell (author of To Catch an Angel: Adventures in the World I Cannot See), who was blind.
One line of the essay drew me in and I was hooked. Skloot described what began happening to him as he recorded books for Russell onto a reel-to-reel recorder: “I was reading with my mouth and tongue and throat, not just my eyes, learning that good writing fills the body with its rhythm, moves through the reader with its own tempo.”
After reading Skloot’s work, I dove into Dr. Pauline Chen’s intriguing essay, "The Gross-Out Factor." I then moved to fiction and poems. I checked out the Spring 2008 issue that featured Superhero Stories, including the fiction story, "My Interview with The Avenger" by Tom Bissell.
Amazing writing filled page after page. Writers seeking a top-notch home for their work should look into the Virginia Quarterly Review.
For submission guidelines visit: http://www.vqronline.org/submission/guidelines/
Kerrie Flanagan is a freelance writer and director of the Northern Colorado Writers. Visit www.the-writing-bug.blogspot.com to read her blog and visit www.ncwc.biz to learn more about Northern Colorado Writers.
