Poetry

Virginia Bell is a Pushcart Prize nominee, recipient of a Ragdale Foundation residency, and second-place winner of the 2019 RiverSedge Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Kettle Blue Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Rogue Agent, Gargoyle, Cider Press Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cloudbank, CALYX, Poet Lore, Pebble Lake Review, Wicked Alice, Ekphrasis, The Burden of Light: Poems on Illness and Loss, Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose and Photography, 50/50 Poems & Translations by Womxn over 50, and A Writers’ Congress: Chicago Poets on Barack Obama’s Inauguration, among others.

Selected Poetry 

"Sallie Gardner (1878)" and "A Blackout and A Meltdown" Kettle Blue Review 2018.
Four Poems in Escape Into Life 2017.
"Consolation." Hypertext Magazine 2017.
“If--” Rogue Agent Journal  Fall 2015.
“My Mother’s Hands” and “Filial Epistle.” Fifth Wednesday Journal Fall 2015.
“Much Madness.” Stirring: A Literary Collection Spring 2015.
“The Man Who Perfected the Disappearing Thumb Trick.” Cider Press Review Spring 2015.
“Forgiveness.”  Gargoyle Spring 2015.
“Mad Lib.”  The Nervous Breakdown 2014.
 “Forgiveness.”  Gargoyle 2015.
“Nino (b. 1848 - d. 1850).” Ricochet Review, Spring 2014.  
“How I Became Seth Rogen, Who Shaved His Buddy’s Head with the Same Clippers He Used to Shave His Own Balls.” The Burden of Light: Poems on Illness and Loss. Tanya Chernov, ed. Foreword Literary, 2014. - Book link
“Three Obits.”  Cloudbank. Fall 2013.
“How To.” Minerva Rising. Fall 2013.
“The fourth is named Estevanico” and “They Called Me una India, Take Two.” Spoon River Poetry Review. Summer 2013.
“The Big C” and “Cereus.”  Northwest Cultural Council Poet and Artist Chapbook 2012.
“The Workshop.”  The Mom Egg.  Spring 2012.
“No Words for These Matters.” Calyx.  Winter 2012.
“Learning to Read Porno.” Poet Lore. Summer 2011.
“Wherever.” Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose and Photography. DePaul University Humanities Center, 2011.
“What Holds Constant.”  Wicked Alice.  Fall 2010.
“Skinned Mammals.” Pebble Lake Review. Summer 2010.
 “We Are Here with Our Sticks.”  A Writers’ Congress: Chicago Poets on the Inauguration of
Barack Obama. DePaul University Humanities Center, 2009.
“Field Dressing.”  Her Mark 2009. Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL 2009.
“Lost.” Ekphrasis. Fall/Winter 2008.
“Things We Find.” Contrary Magazine. Spring 2008.
“What Happened There” and “First Kiss.”  The Innisfree Poetry Journal. Spring 2007.
“No Pope.”  Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Spring 2006.