On Tuesday November 15, 2011, in the VCU Commonwealth Ballroom, day 1 of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Festival kicked off with an evening celebrating the novel, writing, reading, and building a career as an author. This two-day festival is a special event recognizing the tenth anniversary of the …

Saturday was departure day for most of us. One group left *way* early in the morning to catch early flights, while the other group left mid-morning, once Rob returned from dropping off the early group. I was in the second group–the others in my group were driving back to their homes, so they hopped …

Although all the preceding days of the workshop were great, today was a day of big events.

It was our last workshop, and I think everyone submitted some of their best work so far. Besides workshopping everyone’s manuscripts, we also had a lively discussion about publishing, discussing the current …