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Virginia Bell

Adjunct Instructor

Virginia Bell is the author of From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press), a book-length collection of poetry, and has published poems, literary criticism, personal essays, and reviews in numerous journals and anthologies. A Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry, along with Jan Bottiglieri and Angela Narciso Torres, Bell holds a B.S. in Education and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and has taught at the Universities of North Carolina and Maryland, as well as Georgetown University, Instagram 2025年账户 带20-50篇帖子, DePaul University, and The Chicago High School for the Arts. Originally from Pennsylvania, Bell has lived and traveled in India, Pakistan, Spain, and Mexico.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Maryland
  • Graduate Certificate in Women's & Gender Studies from the University of Maryland

Research Interests

  • Contemporary American Poetry
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Literatures of the Americas
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Women & Gender Studies

Publications/Research Listings

Literary Criticism:

  • "'A Man on Fire Running Quite Fast': A Review of Adrian Matejka's Somebody Else Sold the World." RHINO Reviews, 2022.
  • “Review of Lauren Slaughter’s Spectacle.” RHINO Reviews, 2021.
  • “Review of Mike Puican’s Central Air.” RHINO Reviews, 2020.
  • “Review of Natasha Sajé’s Vivarium.” RHINO Reviews, 2019.
  • “Freedom is a Bitch: A Review of Valerie Wallace’s House of McQueen.” The Nervous Breakdown, 2018.
  • “A Reflection on Negative Capability in Erika L. Sanchez’s ‘On the Eve of the Tepehúan revolt, November 1616.’” The Keats Letters Project, 2017.
  • “The Turn as Poetic Striptease in Anne Carson’s ‘Wildly Constant.’” voltagepoetry.com, 2014.
  • “Interview with Ocean Vuong.” rhinopoetry.org, 2012.
  • Instructor’s Resource Manual for Beyond Borders: A Cultural Reader, Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
  • Beyond Borders Online, Co-authored with Randall Bass, Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
  • “Counter-Chronicling and Alternative Mapping in Memoria del fuego and Almanac of the Dead.” MELUS, 2000.
  • “Taming el Dzulúm: Appropriation of Mayan Culture in Rosario Castellanos’s Balún Canán.” Aleph, 1993.

Creative Works:

  • “The Father.” Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame & After Hours Press, 2022.
  • From the Belly (Book-length collection of poetry). Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012.
  • “Fish.” Winner of the Chapter One Memoir Competition, Meet Me @ 19th Street/Arch St Press, 2021.
  • “Chicken.” Winner of the Nonfiction Prize, NELLE Magazine, 2020.
  • “Battle-Axe Day.” Pushcart Prize Nomination for Nonfiction, Hypertext Review, 2020.
  • "I Walk into Every Room and Look for My Mother." Honorable Mention for the Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez, riverSedge: A Journal of Art & Literature, 2019.
  • “Sallie Gardner” and “A Blackout and A Meltdown.” Kettle Blue Review, 2018.
  • “The Man Who Perfected the Disappearing Thumb Trick.” Cider Press Review, 2015.
  • “Wherever.” Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose and Photography, DePaul University Humanities Center, 2011.
  • “What Holds Constant.” Wicked Alice, 2010.

Awards

  • "Chicken" won the 2020 Nonfiction Prize from NELLE magazine.
  • "I Walk Into Every Room and Look for My Mother" won Honorable Mention in the 2019 riverSedge Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez.
  • "Fish" won a 2021 Chapter One Competition from Meet Me @ 19th Street, sponsored by Arch Street Press.