Pilgrimage to the New River

Into the Archives

Today's Episode was recorded in the Fall of 2025, when Lexi, Lauren, and Season One host, Piper Fitzgerald took a deep dive into the archives of The New River Journal in order to explore the shifting zeitgeist of e-literature and the challenge of digital decay. Also, Lauren interviews Nurain Ọlàdéjí, first-year poet in the MFA program at Virginia Tech, and your hosts offer new installments of recurring segments Across Genres and Prompts from the Archives.

Newer Rivers

A new season of the New River Podcast means a new crop of Virginia Tech Creative Writing MFA students will take the helm, both as editors of The New River Journal and as hosts of the podcast. Season two also ushers in new evolutions for both journal and the podcast, as the former begins accepting traditionally formatted poetry and prose submissions, and the latter broadens its focus to include observations on navigating life in a graduate MFA program in Creative Writing. Join hosts Lauren Emo, Kas Armstrong, Mackenzie Anderson, and Lexi Kessens as they seek to demystify the writing life, MFA happenings, and the behind the scenes of editing a literary journal. The first episode includes a discussion about complicating the notions of genre and form, an interview with fellow MFA student William Shaw, a writing prompt drawn from the archives of The New River Journal, and more. For the the latest issue of the New River Journal (Number 50), please visit: thenewriverjournal.org

Pilgrimage to the New River

Brit, Piper, and Amanda discuss their visit to the New River (the body of water, itself), which they undertook in an attempt to connect with the inspiration for the naming of the New River journal.

Editing the New River

In this episode, our hosts get to know the editorial staff of the New River. Amanda speaks with student editors William Shaw and Grace Turner, while Piper sits down with Soham Patel, the faculty Editor-in-Chief of the New River.

Haunted Machine by Isabel Li

The New Media Workshop is a course designed to teach graduate creative writers to work across genres and formats, particularly those that engage with technology. For one of our classes, Isabel Li, a past contributor to The New River visited the class via Zoom to talk about her process in creating electronic literature. In this episode, hosts Piper, Brit, and Amanda present and discuss a recording of the event.