Barely South Review began as The Dominion Review, an annual student literary journal housed at Old Dominion University in 1983. Following the creation of ODU’s graduate program in Creative Writing in 1994, The Dominion Review became a national journal of literature and the arts that throughout its illustrious run published writers such as Sue William Silverman, Diane Williams, Mark Cox, David Kirby, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Vivian Shipley, Kelly Cherry, Bryan D. Dietrich, and Billy Collins, among others. In 2008, the journal relaunched under the name Barely South Review as an online biannual publication staffed by students of the MFA program with issues every Fall and Spring, as well as a Winter craft-themed interviews issue. Today, BSR continues to featuring innovative new voices alongside well-established writers, and recent writing from the journal has been included in the Best American Series.

2017-2018 Reading and Editorial Collective:

Managing Editor: Dexter Gore

Fiction Editors: Dexter Gore, Ethan Ross, Will Yarbrough

Fiction Readers:  Shayne Clark, Lizzie Golliher, Raoul Lobo, Emmy Moore, Bhavika Sicka, Hannah Trammell, Nina White

Poetry Editors: Amanda Gomez, Greg Chandler

Poetry Readers:  David Jacobson

Nonfiction Editors: Tarin Kovalik

Nonfiction Readers: Maddie Carey, Rachel Francis, Amy MacKenzie

Editorial Advisory Board: Luisa A. Igloria, John McManus, Michael Pearson, Janet Peery, Sheri Reynolds, Tim Seibles

Barely South Review Logo: Josephine A. Carino

Managing Editor

Dexter Benjamin Gore is a native to Aynor, South Carolina, but has spent the past three years working on his MFA in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His work has been published in Barking Sycamores, Deep South Magazine, Inklette, Lavender Bluegrass: LGBT Writers on the South, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Archarios, and Tempo. He is currently working on his first novel.

Poetry Editors 

Amanda Gomez is an MFA candidate in poetry at Old Dominion University. Recently, she received Honorable Mention for ODU’s 2016 Graduate Poetry Prize for her poem, “Mastectomy.” Some of her works have been published or are forthcoming in the following publications: Eunoia Review, Ekphrastic Review, Manchester Review, Expound Magazine, San Pedro River Review, and Avalon Literary Review.

Gregory Chandler is a second year MFA student at Old Dominion University with a concentration in poetry. He has previously worked on The Rappahannock Review, a national literary journal run by the English department at The University of Mary Washington.

Fiction Editors

Ethan Forrest Ross grew up in Michigan but has since relocated to Virginia. He is working toward his MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University.

Will Yarbrough is a native Southerner who grew up to be a Yankee. His short fiction has appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, Literary Orphans, and other journals. He lives in Virginia.

 

Nonfiction Editor

Tarin Kovalik is an MFA candidate at Old Dominion University. Her writing has appeared on her mother’s Facebook page and in her sister’s spam folder. She is passionate about coffee, fried chicken, and beer, in that order. Tarin is testing the waters of adulthood and finding that she is not yet ready to swim, and a proper biography will come when this bitch is ready to be proper.

Poetry Reader

David Jacobson grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Virginia where he is attending Old Dominion University as a poetry candidate in the MFA Creative Writing Program.

 

 

Fiction Readers

Shane Clark is working toward his MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University. He is currently working on his first collection of short stories.

Christopher Giofreda is working toward his MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University. He is currently working on his first novel.

Lyzzie Golliher is a native to Virginia. She is a first year fiction student in the Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University.

Raoul Lobo is from Mumbai, India, where he worked as copywriter in various ad agencies and as a features writer and later editor at Magna Publishing.  He has since relocated to Norfolk, Virginia to pursue an MFA in fiction from Old Dominion University.

Emmy Moore prefers lime to lemon, comedy to tragedy, whiskey to gin*, and imagination to reality. Her short stories have been published in Deep South Magazine and Inklight Journal. She is currently working towards an MFA in Creative Writing in Norfolk, VA.

*Gin tickles her nose, but she’ll drink it if you buy it for her.

Bhavika Sicka is a native to India but has since relocated to Norfolk, Virginia to pursue an MFA in fiction from Old Dominion University.

Hannah Trammell enjoys writing, doodling, beer, poetry slams, and reading about the occult. She went to undergraduate at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, majoring in English and minoring in Religious Studies. She considers it the eighth deadly sin to speak during a really good movie (e.g. The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden). She is working toward her MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Nina White discovered her love for the marvelous literary world amid injury. The first time she picked up a book was after breaking a leg. Though she was once a competitive runner, this turn of events allowed her to discover a world that was even more vast and exciting than she could have ever imagined. She now enjoys channeling that extra energy into her reading and writing. She is working toward her MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Nonfiction

Maddie Carey is a native to West Virginia. She located to Norfolk, Virginia to pursue her MFA in Creative Writing. She is a second year nonfiction student.

Rachel Francis is a native to Virginia. She is a first year nonfiction student in the Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University.

Amy J. E. MacKenzie is a creative nonfiction writer and aspiring children’s literature author. She holds a Master of Arts in Writing from Coastal Carolina University (Creative Nonfiction and Literary Editing; 2015). Amy is currently an M.F.A. in Creative Writing candidate (Creative Nonfiction) at Old Dominion University, where she has been awarded the Perry Morgan Fellowship in Creative Writing (2017-2018). Her work has appeared in NewPages, The Truth About the Fact: International Journal of Literary Nonfiction, The Same Literary Journal, and The Pinch Literary Journal, where she won first place in the 2016 Pinch Literary Awards for her narrative nonfiction essay, “Shakedown.” Amy is currently working on a memoir-in-essays, which will include her published pieces, “Ciao Bella,” “Shakedown,” and “Ashes. Remains. My Father.,” as well as a series of illustrated children’s books which focus on the significance of historical studies. You can connect with Amy on Facebook and Twitter @amyjemackenzie.