Betsy Cutler

Most of my studies have been in biology, chemistry, and animal science.  I like to link the characteristics of these studies into my world of writing ultimately through human nature and chaos.  For me, there is no ‘off’ switch to writing.  It doesn’t care if I am miles away from a computer or under my house wondering what to do with an old coal furnace.  At any moment, I can become a victim of the forgotten idea.  The best thoughts can come at the least expected time.  Therefore, when brilliant thoughts come — I never, ever, say, “I’ll write it down later.”  Even when I say to myself, “I’m sure I’ll remember that.  How could I forget?”  An hour later, I’ll be asking myself, “Now what was that great idea I had?”  I try to have ‘writers-idea’ insurance with me — a pen and paper or recorder.

I’m a writer who reads.  My reading tastes can be pictured as a rainbow, or perhaps a grayscale — each color, shade, or tint a representative author.  Some  authors who I admire:  Denis Johnson, particularly his story “Emergency,” shifts from humor to darkness with great talent.  Dorothy Allison’s “River of Names,” sprays out — like buckshot — an unimaginable life on the pages.  Annie Dillard and Alice Walker.  I study their techniques of shifting tense, flashbacks, sentence structure, and visualization.

I’m interested in what I’m interested in.

This changes from time to time as I change from time to time with my writing and the weather and how I decide to spell my name. Lately I’ve been obsessed with tennis and foxglove and sharks, and I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be a fish; which, as I was recently told, there is a theory that suggests we have vestiges of gills. If I could I remember the name I would tell you, but I can’t, I can’t. But what I can share is I’m turning red, and I usually turn red with anything I say and write. So between us I’m not even here. I’m some species of poet and there’s someone at my door.

I am a short story fiction writer and once in a while ... a poet, so it is safe to say that my interests are in the creative work.  I am interested in the use of academic writing and language in defining and redefining characters, relationships, and stories on the whole, thus creating something that is innovative and transient to stereotypes of experimental fiction.  I am also fascinated by non-fiction, especially memoirs, and their juxtaposition to creative work.  So much of the ‘human experience’ is defined by how we think and internalize what is happening around/to us, and writing is a wonderful tool to bring those internal experiences to the external, contrasting fiction and non-fiction and challenging us to question what is real.

My principle area of interest, under the creative writing umbrella, is poetry. Since my freshmen year of undergraduate study at Bucknell University, I have been enrolled in poetry workshop classes. Through the nurturing support and tutelage of my professors at Bucknell, my art has grown and developed exponentially. It was not until my senior year that I realized my uncontrollable desire to continue my education, as I feel I still have much more to learn. Of all the programs I discovered, Virginia Tech’s M.F.A. program was the best fit for me. I am extremely honored to be among the chosen few who will have the opportunity to grow and learn in this incredible literary environment.

Geri Roberts

My writing currently focuses on familial and societal dysfunction — its roots and how it plays out.  I enjoy experimenting with voice and style, and particularly like writing in the second person.  Also, I am interested in exploring sex/sexual orientation/gender and environmental issues.

I am a poet by trade, but I also write fiction and non-fiction.   My work exists near the intersection of Technology and Poetics.  What interests me most is exploiting bleeding-edge technologies for poetic purposes.  I also enjoy poetic forms, especially stretching and coercing them in new and unique ways.

I mainly write short fiction.  Language is not always a dependable medium and I like to experiment with its limitations.  Miscommunication is a common theme in my work.  My stories are often told in snapshots or fragments that do not necessarily follow a cohesive narrative.  I also use humor in my work to help me ask questions and tackle subjects that I normally would not have the patience or the courage to explore.

Robert Walker is a Florida native who writes poems and plays and stories and things. His work tends to deal with his obsessions, and he’s currently obsessed with Sordid Lives on Logo, cheap white wine, piñatas, sociology, Foucault’s History of Sexuality, and all the random cats that live outside his apartment. His poems can be found in Ashe’: The Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Knockout, and the anthology Queer Collection 2008. He was a featured poet at the 2008 Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. Robert loves teaching and misses hearing the soothing sounds of the ocean as he sleeps

I’m a North Florida farm boy who comes to Blacksburg after nearly a decade editing newspapers throughout the country. I first fell in love with the words of Dr. Seuss, Edgar Allan Poe, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and the Blacks Arts Movement luminaries, including Tech’s own Nikki Giovanni. Music is heaven’s balm and my writing muse, and I feast on an eclectic mix throughout each day. My Pandora.com jukeboxes include Bjork, Lucinda Williams, Donny Hathaway, Mahalia Jackson, Celia Cruz, Stevie Wonder, Amel Larrieux and Stevie Nicks. I’ve been blessed to become a member of the Cave Canem family and to win Tech’s Emily Morrison Prize in 2008.