Congratulations to VisArts’ writers Deirdra McAfee and Betty Joyce Nash on receiving a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts to edit their project The Second Amendment Reader, an anthology of contemporary short fiction.
Their fiction project received nearly 100 story submissions, and they are using their VCCA residency to read through and select the pieces that will become part of their anthology, while also soliciting other stories from nationally known writers.
Fiction instructor Deirdra has been teaching creative writing at VisArts since 2001, and has been published in The Georgia Review, Willow Springs Confrontation, The Diagram, and more. On top of winning local awards such as the 2004 Style Weekly Fiction Prize, she has won many notable national wards and recognitions for her fiction writing.
Betty Joyce, one of Deirdra’s VisArts’ writing students completed her MFA in fiction at Queens University in Charlotte, and after The North Dakota Review published her story “Laser Vision” she joined Deirdra with her writing endeavors. She also recently received a writing residency at MacDowell Colony and another at VCCA France.
Congrat Betty Joyce and Deirdra! We are so lucky to have you at VisArts! Best of luck with The Second Amendment Reader. We can’t wait to see it in print.