Fall 2021

The Fall issue features a portfolio by the artist Alicja Wróblewska, whose beguilingly vivid sculptures give shape to the impact of consumer plastics on the world’s oceans. Reporting by Lois Parshley examines the fallout of neglected radioactive waste in Washington state, and how its mismanagement is part of a larger pattern of neglect across of the country. Emily Maloney reflects on the complicated origins of the opioid crisis in an essay that also looks to what might lie ahead for both chronic-pain sufferers and doctors alike. The fiction rides three distinct waves of tension—through dissolution, reunion, and fragile creatures. Erin Thompson wades into the debate surrounding Confederate monuments. Other content includes work from Deb Lucke, Lenore Myka, and SeongEun Macfarlane; essays by James McWilliams and Raj Telhan; and poetry by Anders Carlson-Wee, Didi Jackson, Sally Wen Mao, Michael Martella, and Jason Schneiderman.

Fall 2021

Volume 97, Number 3

Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 2021 cover
Print: $14.00
Digital download: $14.00

Table of contents

Reporting 
Essays 
Photography 
Fiction 
Poetry 
#VQRTrueStory 
Notes to Self 
Drawing It Out 
On Becoming 
Fine Distinctions 
Human Practice 
Open Letter 
Editor's Desk 

Contributor Profiles

Kevin Canty’s eighth book is a novel, The Underworld (Norton, 2017). He is also the author of three previous collections of short stories (Where the Money Went [Nan A. Talese, 2009], Honeymoon [Nan A.

Sally Wen Mao is the author of two collections of poetry: Oculus (Graywolf, 2019), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James, 2014).

Lois Parshley’s reporting has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper’s, the Atlantic, Granta, National Geographic, and Businessweek, among others.

Alicja Wróblewska is a visual artist and photographer. The focus of her work is anthropopressure, human impact on the environment and climate change, and the extinction of ecosystems.

Spring 2024 Cover; Photo by Mathias Depardon
Spring 2024
Volume 100, Number 1
Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring/Summer 2023 cover
Spring/Summer 2023
Volume 99, Number 1
Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 2023 cover
Fall 2023
Volume 99, Number 3
Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2023 cover
Winter 2023
Volume 99, Number 4