Cameron Awkward-Rich (Dispatch), Morgan Parker (Magical Negro), and Amy Woolard (Neck of the Woods) give readings of their poetry during this annual “late-night” Festival program.

Just steps away from the Omni Hotel Charlottesville, enjoy the work of acclaimed poets in an informal setting, with music, drinks, and mingling.

Please note: Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Book sales of readers’ work will also take place throughout the evening.

Allison will join authors Casey Cep (Furious Hours) and Emma Copley Eisenberg (The Third Rainbow Girl) to discuss their examinations of violent crime and imperfect justice in rural communities and the overreaching impact felt by community members and those who came to investigate and report. These stunning books include courtroom drama, individuals whose lives were devoted to uncovering unachievable truths, and small towns terrorized by fear. Book sales and signing will follow. FREE to attend and open to the public.

The submission process can be daunting and mysterious. Most of us use an online submission system and them patiently wait—sometimes for more than a year—before receiving a canned rejection. So what can the average writer do to be a better submitter of their work, to catch an editor's eye, to get past the slush pile? This diverse panel assembles some of the top literary magazine editors in the country to answer your questions about the submissions process and what goes on behind the scenes.

What are the paths to editing a literary magazine? This panel of accomplished editors will share their own experience and best advice for hopeful future editors. We’ll cover getting that first job, getting paid, what hiring parties are looking for, issues of inclusivity and bias, industry trends, and how editing can complement or conflict with other parts of a writer’s career. Journals represented include Ecotone, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, Shenandoah, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

Can journalism save objective truth?

Presented by The University of Texas at Austin. Programmed in partnership with the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia.

This event is part of Open Congress, a free, open-to-the-public street festival held on Austin's historic Congress Ave. on Saturday, Sept. 28. RSVP to attend Open Congress here.

PANELISTS: Kathleen McElroy, John Schwartz, Angie Drobnic Holan, Allison Wright(mod.)

The submission process can be daunting and mysterious. Most of us use an online submission system and then patiently wait—sometimes for more than a year—before receiving a canned rejection. So what can the average writer do to be a better submitter of their work, to catch an editor's eye, to get past the slush pile? This diverse panel assembles some of the top literary magazine editors in the country to answer your questions about the submissions process and what goes on behind the scenes. Panelists: Christian Kiefer, Oscar Villalon, Allison Wright, Emily Nemens, Karissa Chen.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black), Karen Bender (The New Order), and Chaya Bhuvaneswar (White Dancing Elephants) discuss their powerful collections of short stories, ranging from the lyrical and meditative to the bizarre and darkly dystopian. Allison will moderate. This panel is always a fan favorite at the Festival of the Book.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black), John Lingan (Homeplace), and Mathangi Subramanian (A People’s History of Heaven) give short readings of their work during this annual “late-night” Festival program. Jesse Jarnow (Wasn’t That a Time) and Tim Mohr (Burning Down the Haus) will deejay.

Just steps away from the Omni Hotel Charlottesville, enjoy the work of acclaimed emerging writers in an informal setting, with music, drinks, and mingling.

Please note: Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Book sales of readers’ work will also take place throughout the evening.

Hosted by Charlottesville Reading Series and Virginia Quarterly Review

Talley English (Horse), Michael Knight (At Briarwood School for Girls), and Kristyn Kusek Lewis (Half of What You Hear) discuss their writing and intricately imagined characters, and the setting of the American South as an influence on their work. Moderated by Allison Wright.

Bestselling author Leslie Jamison will be reading from her memoir, The Recovering, in the shop on Friday at 7 PM, followed by a Q&A with Allison Wright of the Virginia Quarterly Review. You don't want to miss this one!

What makes a story/poem/essay stand out in the slush pile? What do editors love? What are their secret pet peeves? This panel of literary magazine and small press editors is here to pull back the curtain and let you know what happens behind the scenes of the submission and rejection and acceptance process and answer your questions about publishing and the writing life. 

Publishing, cross-genre. Panelists: Nate Brown (American Short Fiction), Paula Whyman  (Scoundrel Time), Marcos Martinez (Stillhouse Press), Allison Wright (Virginia Quarterly Review), Mark Drew (Gettysburg Review). Moderated by Joe Killiany (Barrelhouse).

Allison will also participate in Speed Dating with Editors at noon. 

Reprising her role as moderator of the Festival's debut author panel, Allison will appear with authors Kelly Barnhill (Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories), Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties), and Eric Puchner (Last Day on Earth), whose works blend domesticity, dystopia, and fantasy with questions of gender and sexuality.

Allison will moderate a conversation between Thomas Mira Y Lopez (The Book of Resting Places) and Jessie van Eerden (The Long Weeping), whose essays draw on personal experience, history, mythology, religious tradition, and the landscapes of love and loss.

Writing concerned with feminism is receiving unprecedented readership. This inclusive panel will discuss the role of political feminist writing/writers and the forms this writing takes, especially the political/personal essay, novel, and memoir. Discussion topics: the inherency of revolution in women writing the body/sexuality, the call to create change, and the writers’ recent works confronting topics such as being transgender, presidential politics, and parenting. There will be craft and publishing handouts. 

Panelists: Allison Wright, Anna March, Elizabeth Isadora Gold, Mischa Haider, Kaitlyn Greenidge

Join us for an evening with award-winning writer Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, in conversation with Virginia Quarterly Review executive editor Allison Wright. Alexandria will discuss her new book, The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, followed by a signing. RSVP on Facebook or email rsvp@eastcitybookshop.com. RSVPs are appreciated, but not required. This event is free and open to the public.

At the tenth annual Barrelhouse Conversations & Connections: Practical Advice on Writing conference at George Mason University, Allison will represent VQR on the Editors' Panel, titled "From the Slushpile to the TOC," and she will participate in Speed Dating with the Editors, where conference participants bring material and have nine-minute meetings with editors who give them on-the-spot feedback.

Mike Curtis (fiction editor for The Atlantic), Dallas Hudgens (novelist and founder of publishing houses Relegation Books and Stillhouse Press), and Erica Wright (poetry editor for Guernica) discuss literary publishing. Allison Wright (executive editor for Virginia Quarterly Review) moderates.

Editors and publishers share the details of their work in the contemporary publishing world of literary magazines and small presses, including the type of work they see and the work they seek.

Allison will moderate a conversation between authors Viet Dinh (After Disasters), Emily Fridlund (History of Wolves), and Jung Yun (Shelter) on the topic of their acclaimed debut novels, taking readers from the woods of northern Minnesota to post-earthquake India and behind closed doors in family homes everywhere.

Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales (Through Darkness to Light) discusses her work with Allison Wright, executive editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. Attendees will be invited to view the exhibition and enjoy a free reception before and after the discussion.

As part of the 75th anniversary symposium of the American Studies graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin, Allison will join fellow graduates Carly Kocurek (Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies, Illinois Institute of Technology), Rebecca Onion (Staff Writer, Slate), Donn Rogosin (Independent Filmmaker and Producer), Siva Vaidhyanathan (Robertson Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia), and David Wharton (Director of Documentary Studies, University of Mississippi) on this panel moderated by Eddie Whitewolf.

BinderCon is a professional development conference for women and gender-nonconforming writers. At the 2016 BinderCon NYC, Allison will moderate a keynote conversation with Elif Batuman and Porochista Khakpour.

Join us for wine, cheese, and a discussion of Bronwen Dickey’s book, Pitbull: The Battle Over an American Icon, moderated by Allison Wright, managing editor of Virginia Quarterly Review. A book signing will follow the discussion.

Over the past ten years, several titans of the magazine industry have floundered or folded. Meanwhile, a host of small magazines and journals have emerged as enclaves of cultural criticism and creativity. N+1, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jacobin, The Point, VQR and Public Books all join a tradition of magazines and journals with small but committed readerships that continue to flourish, such as The Baffler, The Boston Review, and The Hedgehog Review. What role do little magazines play in American public and cultural life? And what might the future hold? Panelists: Mark Greif, Lorin Stein, Laura Marsh, Jay Tolson, Chris Lehmann, Medaya Ocher, Allison Wright, Robert Wilson. Part of the HUMAN/TIES events in honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities.