VCU news

By Anthony Langley
Office of Development and Alumni Relations

Virginia Commonwealth University has been selected to take over management of the online undergraduate literary anthology plain china, previously published by Bennington College. Greg Weatherford, director of the VCU Student Media Center, couldn’t be happier, as the acquisition brings the prestigious publication’s influence and popularity among scholars and readers to Richmond. 

“We’re very excited,” Weatherford said. “Bringing it on certainly positions VCU in the top rank of institutions that support undergraduate creative expression.” 

Named in reference to a Virginia Woolf essay, plain china compiles the nation’s best fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art by undergraduates at universities throughout the United States. Bennington College’s Rebecca Goodwin created the publication six years ago, but when Goodwin recently announced her retirement, the Vermont-based college decided to find plain china a new home. 

The VCU College of Humanities and Sciences will offer a course based on plain china to teach students the basics of editing and publishing. The class will select which submissions to send to judges, who have included top writers and editors such as Ian Frazier, Susan Cheever, Susan Orlean and Major Jackson, Weatherford said. The judges will select 60 pieces, and five will be published online each month. 

Publication is a creative field. It involves original, creative expression. It’s one of the reasons we’re trying to focus on it here at VCU.

The course aligns with VCU’s efforts to help students learn by doing.

“Publication is a creative field,” Weatherford said. “It involves original, creative expression. It’s one of the reasons we’re trying to focus on it here at VCU.” 

VCU’s student-run journals Poictesme and Amendment helped secure the university as the top choice among the selection committee. While searching for a new home for plain china, Bennington wanted a university that was not only great at publications, but editing and art as well. 

“There are about 500 students involved in creating media, including VCU’s media journals,” Weatherford said. “We have sort of a holistic approach where we have students who do a bit of everything. I think that’s what they were looking for.” 

Plain china has already begun its transition to VCU, and the journal’s move will be completed by the end of the fall 2015 semester. Initially no major changes are in the works. However, Weatherford says there are plans to build the anthology out and perhaps create downloadable and physical editions as well. 

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