Bennington Launches Second Edition of Literary Anthology
Bennington College has released the second annual edition of plain china, a first-of-its-kind anthology of premier fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and artwork selected from more than 30 American undergraduate literary journals. Featuring work from the University of Georgia, Harvard, Louisiana State University, Princeton, Oberlin, Rice, Susquehanna, Stanford, and Vassar, the anthology is the only national online compilation of undergraduate writing today.
plain china: Best Undergraduate Writing 2010 was compiled by student editors at Bennington College and judged by prominent literary figures including essayist Phillip Lopate (nonfiction judge), The Atlantic fiction editor C. Michael Curtis (fiction judge), and former Vermont poet laureate Ellen Bryant Voigt (poetry judge).
"Anyone reading the 24 finalists [in poetry]," said Voigt, "cannot help but come away with enormous confidence in the future of American poetry, having witnessed such tremendous linguistic and imaginative energy."
The inaugural 2009 edition attracted more than 11,000 site visitors from every U.S. state and almost 100 countries. One of the fiction submissions was accepted for publication in The Atlantic.
The 2010 anthology will feature two more issues, launching online on April 18 and May 9, respectively.