We’re kicking off March with some really exciting news. The WVU MFA program now has a literary magazine, and it is open for submissions! The Cheat River Review is looking for work “that is consistent and stable—something unforgettable in the landscape of the reader’s memory. But, just as the river bottom changes with every storm, and every rapid is individual in its shape, we want to uphold the distinctive, the unheard of, and the unique.” So, send them your greatest work—up to 5 poems or 7000 words.

According to the editors of CRR, “The Cheat River Review is named after a river that destroyed an entire town in a flood in 1985. This same river was saturated by orange acid mine run-off that tinted its water and shifted its ecosystem. The Cheat is beautiful evidence of nature that adapts and shifts—a body that may change the shape of its banks or even its composition, but has a consistent presence in West Virginia’s landscape and culture. West Virginia residents are challenged to find a delicate balance between use and reverence for this river.”

We are so excited about this new venture, and we want to give a very big thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this project: Editors Jessi Lewis, Rebecca Doverspike, Morgan O’Grady, and computer gurus Ben Bishop and Sandy Baldwin, thank you!

So, go and shout it from the roof tops: WVU has a literary magazine! Tell everyone you know, and tell strangers, too. The Cheat River Review is open for submissions! Huzzah!

Less than one week until AWP! We can’t believe it either. Did you know that WVU is going to have a table again this year? We’ll be at table W7. Stop by and say hi. There will be candy. Until then, read MFA alumna Sarah Einstein’s recommendations on the blog Writers for Dinner on stocking up now so you can survive the weeks after the conference because you know you’ll be sick/broke/in a schmoozing-daze. See you in Boston!

The end of February is near. Send the month off in style by going to a reading. Come join us tonight as Kevin Oderman and Jessie van Eerden read from their work. Tuesday, February 26, 7:30, Robinson Reading Room, Downtown Library. Be there!

Read more about Kevin’s new novel White Vespa.

Learn more about Jessie and her novel Glorybound.

It’s been a good few weeks for our MFA Mountaineers. As spring nears, the publications have started to roll in. First, New Haven Review accepted Christina Seymour’s poem “Something Stands Still.” Then, one of Rebecca Thomas’s short story was accepted by Graze Magazine. Now, we just found out that three other Mountaineers received acceptances.

Congratulations to Jessi Lewis. Her short story “Huckers” was accepted by Stymie: A Journal of Sport and Literature.

Our alumni have also been finding well-deserved acceptances in their mailboxes. Congratulations to Kelly Sundberg whose essay “Cruelty Was The Only Thing She Knew” will be in a forthcoming issue of Quarterly West.

And an across the pond shout out to Lisa Beans. Even all the way over in Poland on her Fulbright Fellowship she’s been writing away. Her poem “The Elk” was accepted by The Southeast Review and is scheduled for their September 2013 issue. Congratulations, Lisa!

If you have publication news, don’t forget to let us know.

Can’t wait for the weekend? What better way to spend a Friday-eve than at a reading? The English Graduate Organization is hosting an MFA reading tonight, 2/21, at 7:30 in 130 Colson Hall. Come join us!

But first, a few pieces of information:

• The West Virginia Writers’ Workshop will be held July 18-21 on WVU’s downtown campus.

• The four-day event features small workshops in which participants discuss their creative work (poems, stories, novel excerpts, screenplays, memoirs, essays) with a writer of national reputation as well as their peers; craft lectures; readings; publishing panels; and—for the first time—an opportunity to pitch work to actual publishers. Seriously.

• Want to learn more? Follow the link

• Want to learn even more? Contact the Workshop’s director, Mark Brazaitis, or call him at 304-293-9707

And now to the list?.

Reason 5: Screenwriting. For the first time ever, the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop will offer a workshop in screenwriting. It will be led by Jeff Monahan, a successful screenwriter who has taught the secrets of his craft at NYU, Seton Hall, Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere.

Reason 4: Speed writing. Participants will learn how to write a novel in 100 days. Don’t blink or you might miss an entire chapter!

Reason 3: New books. Four of the workshop leaders have new books on the shelves (and sailing in Amazon boxes to readers across the country). Poets Sandra Meek (Road Scatter) and James Harms (Comet Scar) will be joined by fiction writers Elizabeth Graver (The End of the Point) and Mark Brazaitis (The Incurables: Stories). Between them, the four authors have won dozens of awards—a good percentage of which recognize their inspiring teaching. They are looking forward to sharing their word, and their writing wisdom, with Workshop participants.

Reason 2: A real, live publisher! PageSpring Publishers will be on hand to offer writers a chance to pitch their work. For more on PageSpring Publishers, which specializes in Young Adult and Women’s fiction, see their Web site. To register for a pitch session, see the WVWW’s registration form

Reason 1: Fun! The West Virginia Writers’ Workshop is always fun. Always. Guaranteed.

Do you like storytelling? Do you like science? History? If the answer is yes to any of the three, come to the Jonathan Gottschall lecture tonight. Hosted by the Departments of History, English, and Biology, Gottschall will be discussing his latest work, The Story Telling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Come join us tonight, February 18, at 7:30 in Ming Hsieh Hall 122.

Christina Seymour’s poem, “Something that Stands Still” will appear in the next issue (summer/June) of New Haven Review, a non-profit print journal that, simply, “aims to publish good writing” and is edited by Mark Oppenheimer, Tom Gogola, Brian Francis Slattery, Susan Holohan, Sarah Pemberton Strong and Alison Moncrief. Browse past issues here.

Congratulations, Christina!

It’s gloomy outside today. The snow has turned to rain, and it seems that the sun has decided to spend the rest of the month in hiding. So what can a person do to beat those winter blues? Attend a reading, of course. Join us tonight (1/28) as Mark Brazaitis and Amanda Cobb read from their work. 7:30 p.m. in the Gold Ballroom, Mountainlair.

MFA Candidate in Poetry Jacqulyn Wilson will have her poem “In the Middle of Feeling It” will be published in the in the Summer 2013 print issue of Emerge Literary Journal. The issue is slated for June of 2013. If you can’t wait until June to read Jacqulyn’s work, check out her poem “Morning After a Snow Storm” in The Orange Room Review

Congratulations, Jaci!