When we began designing Issue 6 of The Virginia Normal in the fall of last year, we were excited to be working on our biggest issue yet and were on schedule for publication in early spring. With proofreading finally complete and the issue ready to be sent to the printer, we were looking forward to an open mic scheduled for Friday the 13th in March, but on the 12th, Virginia State University announced that we would close and transition to online instruction. Other events were canceled: a poetry slam, an honors dinner that would have celebrated our staff and other students in our department, and a launch party for Issue 6. Eventually, we received word that publication of our print issue–the issue that we had been working for months to create–would have to be postponed.
Though all of this has been disappointing, we have been forced to adapt and convert, along with the rest of our students, faculty, and staff, to an online format. We have been forced to reconsider the future of The Virginia Normal, and what it means to be a literary journal in this new world.
We are proud to present Issue 6 in a free, online format.
We have tried to preserve the original intent of our design and the hard work of our staff, all while making the issue easier to navigate and share online. I hope that our work has paid off, and that you will enjoy reading the issue in this format.
Though we do not know when we will be able to publish the issue in print, we still plan to do so. We also still plan to publish Issue 7 in print. However, we cannot predict what the future may bring, so we are discussing alternative ways for publishing Issue 7 and beyond. We will keep you updated, so please follow us on social media.
As always, thank you for reading.
THE VIRGINIA NORMAL 