Clifford Garstang is a former international lawyer and current resident of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He is the author of a novel, The Shaman of Turtle Valley, and three story collections, including What the Zhang Boys Know, which won the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction, and the newly released House of the Ancients and Other Stories.

Heidi Kumao creates animations, video installations, photographs, machine art, and fabric works to give physical form to the emotional dynamics underlying ordinary conversations and relationships. Using a feminist lens, she translates these intangible experiences into poetic visual narratives and hybrid art forms.

Tune in to the live stream at 7:30 p.m. ET, Thursday, August 6. Bring your questions!

Fellows, please fill out this form to submit a message. This is a way to tell the VCCA community about how you're navigating these times as an artist and human and to spread the word about work affected by or created during the pandemic.

"Friends, It was so encouraging to receive news of support by New Music USA for a new work, Their Own Words: Voices of Migrant Women, commissioned by the Piano on the Rocks International Festival, Sedona, to premiere Spring 2021. After recording the stories of several women struggling for asylum or other legal status, I'll fashion a narrative for two singers, piano and electronics. This work will be the seed for a full-length opera."

"A short story of mine appears in Vol. 4, Issue 3 of RIGOROUS, a literary journal edited and written by people of color."

A recent Sweet Briar College podcast episode features interviews with Fellow, writer, and Professor of English & Creative Writing Carrie Brown and SBC President Meredith Woo on the "natural synergy" between VCCA and Sweet Briar.

Carrie offers a comprehensive look at the creative partnership between VCCA and the College's new Center for Creativity, Design and the Arts. We particularly love Carrie's stories of past VCCA-SBC collaborations and previous Fellow involvement with the College. Give it a listen.

These updates come from members posting in Virtual VCCA, our online community platform powered by Mighty Networks.

Patricia Dahlman shared information about a mail art collaboration project supporting the U.S. Postal Service. She says, "I just finished doing a collaboration with the artist Mary Pinto and found it challenging, interesting and fun." Read More in Virtual VCCA

David Ebenbach passed along an essay by fellow Fellow Katy Didden. Here's an excerpt of an excerpt from "Refuge": "If we cannot crawl inside a poem, I do think poems provide a refuge; poems give us the means to clarify our feelings. I don’t mean to simplify our feelings; I mean that, somehow, the rhythm of poetic speech helps us find a way forward—it sets us in motion. Read More in Virtual VCCA

Look to this comprehensive list of ways to stay virtually engaged with our creative community during VCCA's temporary closure.

Support new work by VCCA Fellows whose book launches, readings, signings, tours, and other events have been canceled or postponed due to the pandemic. Submit this form to request your book be added.

🧡 Stay safe, and be well.

Want to stay in touch with VCCA, just not on a weekly basis? Simply reply to this email to let us know, and we'll understandingly unsubscribe you from this particular email list.