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Chatham University & Fourth River to Launch Jeffrey “Boosie” Bolden Series

Screenshot of Fourth River WebsiteThe MFA Program in Creative Writing at Chatham University and literary magazine The Fourth River have announced the creation of the Jeffrey “Boosie” Bolden Series. The first publication will be a special anthology called Black Visions. This anthology was conceived of and will be edited by the MFA Emerging Black Writers in Residence Cedric Rudolph and Caitlyn Hunter along with alums Samantha Edwards and Nicole Lourette.

About this anthology: Are you a black writer, or a writer who is black?

Black artists everywhere are all too familiar with this question and label on their work. Why are Black artists always called upon to write about the Black experience, about Black pain? Where are the discussions about craft, form, and futurisms? This anthology was born out of the need to create more space for Black voices; all Black voices. We want to see how your medium amplifies your voice and who you are as an artist, without the limitations of formality, genre, or subject. We are looking for the musicality, depth, and vibrancy that is Black art.

The anthology is accepting submissions through 11:59 PM on Friday, June 18 with expected publication in fall of this year.

The series is named after Chatham MFA alum and former Fourth River editor Jeffrey “Boosie” Bolden who refused to write prose or poetry restricted by genre and pushed himself to create hybrid flows fusing prose and rap. His mixtape-memoir Wolves was released in November 2020 after his passing in June of 2020.

There is no fee to submit to this anthology and accepted writers will receive a copy of the book and $50 honorarium.

The Fourth River: A Journal of Nature & Place

Screenshot of Fourth River WebsitePublished by the MFA program in creative writing at Chatham University, Fourth River is an online and print journal focusing on nature and place-based writing. They publish “works that are richly situated at the confluence of place, space, and identity.”

Fourth River takes its name from a subterranean river beneath Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city at the confluence of three rivers. The unseen fourth river is indispensable to the city’s ecosystem. “The journal grew up from the “idea that between and beneath the visible framework of the human world and built environment, there exist deeper currents of force and meaning supporting the very structure of that world”

They publish one print issue and one online issue a year. Check out the Fall 2020 online issue, “Futures,” and don’t forget to stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more about them.