By Tiana Dottin

My time as a personal trainer, yoga teacher, and life coach has taught me a lot about people. More than designing workouts or creating playlists, connecting to people is the most important part of my job. And if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s this: Humans have untapped and unlimited potential, stored in the body and mind. That’s what each of my clients has shown me. ​

By Joanna Patzig

Stranger Things is way too consumable, I found myself binge watching the third season at an alarming rate -- just like I did with the first and second. It was great, the perfect series to watch while I stayed in with a cold. Season three is rich with that winsome nostalgic humor the show is known for, and dramatic coming of age stories as the characters grow up. The only pitfall Stranger Things faces is becoming predictable as the series continues. 

By Rachel Rivenbark

Dr. David Coogan is an English professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, largely specializing in both rhetoric (the study of argument, and how it is formed) and the topic of social change. He has been teaching at VCU for more than ten years, and just this last Spring, I had the distinct advantage of being able to take his Introduction to Modern Rhetoric course at the university, which allowed myself and the rest of the class to engage in an ongoing, semester-long debate about issues such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and many others.

In 2016, Dr. Coogan - in association with Richmond’s own Brandylane Publishing - published Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs From Jail, a vivid, emotional, and highly enthralling collection of memoirs written by ten men incarcerated in the Virginia prison system, detailing their life stories and the circumstances which led to their incarceration. These men included Kelvin Belton, Karl Black, Stanley Craddock, Ronald Fountain, Bradley Greene, Tony Martin, Naji Mujahid, Terence Scruggs, Andre Simpson, and Dean Turner, all of whom formed a significant and lasting relationship of trust and respect with Dr. Coogan throughout the years he worked with them to write this book. 

Early last week, Dr. Coogan and his good friend and co-author Mr. Craddock both agreed to meet with me at Mr. Craddock’s place of employment, for the sake of conducting an interview about their involvement in the process of creating Writing Our Way Out. 
​

By Christine Sloan Stoddard

"Are you dead yet? Good, then you're not done learning. Saddle up! Life is (or will hopefully be) a long ride!" That's the gist of what I wish I had said to fellow creative writing undergrads back in my own arrogant days of youth. Some classmates were just...the worst. I'll never forget the woman who started sobbing in the middle of class and exclaimed that she was more talented than all of us. Dear reader, I promise you that we were not attacking her. She simply couldn't bear an ounce of constructive criticism. If anyone did the attacking, it was her, workshop after workshop. Now that I have a few years of emotional distance, I wish I could go back and say these 7 things to her and other smug creative writing classmates:
​

By Ryan Brunt

We’re in a golden age of alternative R&B.  There are seemingly countless new artists from around the country pushing the boundaries of the genre and producing some great music in the process.  One of the most exciting artists in this new crop of talent is Chicago’s KAINA, who’s just released her debut full-length album, Next to the Sun.  Following up a string of promising EPs, Next to the Sun offers a warm and genre-bending vision of R&B, but also delivers some strong political messaging.
​

Words and Images by Marleen S. Barr

E. Jean Carroll’s account of being raped by Donald Trump in the Bergdorf Goodman department store’s lingerie area initially did not receive a lot of attention. On June 24, CNN’s   Anderson Cooper corrected this oversight when he engaged in a lengthy interview with Carroll. While sexual accusations against Trump are not new, the interview reveals several timely  insights related to language and intention. ​
​

By Joanna Patzig

By now you’ve probably heard about how wild the movie Midsommar is, and it’s all true. It’s a marathon of grief, sex, and death, shown in bright northern daylight. The story follows Dani, a young woman with anxiety that’s compounded when she tragically loses her family. Struggling with grief, she ends up joining her unsupportive boyfriend and his friends on a trip to Sweden where they find themselves immersed in a pagan festival. Director Ari Aster aptly describes the film as “a break up movie disguised as a folk-horror.” Like Aster’s first film, “Hereditary,” the movie combines psychological horrors with the occult.
​

By Ghia Vitale

​Today is the 30th anniversary of Kiki’s Delivery Service's release. Happy anniversary, Studio Ghibli! After all these years, this classic is still giving viewers a taste of its magic.

By Christine Sloan Stoddard

Dear People Who Ignore Me At Poetry Readings,

I know you. You know me. I know you know me and that you know I know you.​ We've read together before. We've had our work published in the same magazines. Our work appears in some of the same anthologies. Our books are sold at so many of the same venues. So why are you pretending not to know me? 

By The Editors

Belladonna Magic: Spells In The Form Of Poetry And Photography, a book by our founding editor Christine Sloan Stoddard, made it on New World Witchery's list of books employing graphic witchery. The other books are mostly—but not all—occult graphic novels. Check out the list here.