> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.richmonder.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Richmond-inspired literary magazine publishes final anthology after celebrated run - URL: https://www.richmonder.org/richmond-inspired-literary-magazine-publishes-final-anthology-after-celebrated-run/ - Published: 2026-09-25T18:47:27.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-25T20:44:10.000Z - Description: The concept for Makeout Creek came about over drinks and conversation 20 years ago. - Author: Rich Griset - Tags: Local News Bart Simpson is a faith healer. In the season 11 episode “Faith Off” of “The Simpsons,” Bart “cures” the poor eyesight of his friend Milhouse, among other “miracles.” No longer wearing his glasses, Milhouse mistakes an oncoming truck for a dog and is struck. He then utters what he believes will be his last words on Earth: “Bury me at Makeout Creek.” This scene served as the inspiration for the name of Makeout Creek, a literary journal and book publisher with deep roots in Richmond. On Sunday, Makeout Creek will hold an event at Brave Captain as part of the book tour for the recently [published “Everything’s Coming Up Makeout: A Retrospective.”](https://makeoutcreek.com/product/everythings-coming-up-makeout-a-retrospective/) The concept for Makeout Creek came about over drinks and conversation 20 years ago at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Austin. Andrew Blossom, who was in the midst of completing his MFA in creative writing at VCU at the time, pitched the idea of creating a journal to his friends. “We found the stuff that really felt like it gelled with the sense of what we like to read, but also with what we wanted the magazine to put out into the world,” Blossom said. “We were always open to strange and weird stuff. We were open to stuff that was a little out there.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/Blossom-at-a-reading-in-Pittsburgh-in-2023.-1.jpeg) Andrew Blossom at a reading in Pittsburgh. (Contributed photo) At the publication’s core was an editorial board that often included Blossom, his fellow VCU MFA classmates Lauren Maas and Cynthia Grier Lotze, and Greg Koehler, among others. “The range of stories is really broad, so there’s lots of fiction, poetry and criticism, and found material too,” said Maas, who is now brand manager for the Rhode Island School of Design. “It definitely has a zine quality to it that we are happy to embrace. It’s more casual, but the quality of the fiction and poetry is high.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/IMG_2867.jpeg) The anthology, which is available to purchase at World of Mirth, comes in at 580 pages. Though none of the four lives in Richmond at the moment, Blossom says the River City is undoubtedly part of Makeout Creek’s DNA. “It is born of Richmond in a lot of ways, though not only of Richmond,” Blossom said. “It’s something that has always been shaped by and influenced by Richmond and by contributors from Richmond, or people who have spiritual connections to Richmond, or are expatriates.” Indeed, though Blossom moved to Washington state in 2022, he was involved with some of Richmond’s more interesting cultural happenings during his 18 years here. Not only did Blossom work at Chop Suey Books and video rental store Video Fan, but he tried to save the latter before it ultimately closed in 2017\. He co-founded Movie Club, an organization that hosted monthly movie screenings, co-created the “Twin Peaks” festival “The Great Southern,” and helped bring director John Waters to the Byrd Theatre in 2022. As Makeout Creek’s editorial board moved farther apart from each other over the years, the journal became a reason for its editors and contributors to stay in touch. Maas, who worked at VCU’s Qatar campus after finishing grad school, says the journal kept her connected to Richmond. “For me, personally, it was a great way to stay in touch with my friends and keep working on something that was based in the states,” said Maas. “Andy is the engine and the heart and soul of this project.” The journal’s eighth and final issue took years to pull together. “We really went all out,” said Koehler, who holds an MFA in poetry and now lives in San Antonio. “We printed in color. We got everybody that we had wanted to be in the magazine who hadn’t been in the magazine yet. We had kids do drawings, nephews and all of that, and put together this big extravaganza issue.” The process of reaching out to people for the final issue ultimately inspired the anthology, which is available for purchase online and at World of Mirth. “It was really this extensive process of reconnecting with people and revisiting all these phases of our lives,” Blossom said. “It came together in this really lovely collection that’s also very giant.” “Everything’s Coming Up Makeout” — another “Simpsons” reference — weighs in at a whopping 580 pages; its dedication is “for Milhouse, who pointed the way.” The collection features cover art by Steve Keene, the artist who created work for music acts like Silver Jews, Pavement, The Apples in Stereo and Dave Matthews Band. Contributors include Silver Jews’ David Berman, novelist Brian Castleberry, writer Clay McLeod Chapman, novelist and retired VCU creative writing professor Tom De Haven, and poet Tarfia Faizullah, among many others. One of Blossom’s favorite pieces in the anthology is “Dorchester Diary” by Muki Mahan. “It’s a diary of living in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and going to all its dive bars and all the people he encountered there,” Blossom said. “It’s very bleak and funny and tough at times.” Another is Keith Montesano’s “The Author As Student Who Has a Crush on Tina and Watches Outside Her Window As She’s Murdered by Freddy in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’” which depicts exactly what the title makes it sound like. “It’s an invented character that Keith created who is not someone who is actually onscreen in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ but is of the world of the movie,” Blossom explained. “Keith builds this sense of loss for the character, but also this whole imagined world, and, particularly, a world of sorrow, that is so incredibly and concisely expressed.” There’s also a journal that was donated among other books to Chop Suey circa 2010\. Longtime Chop Suey owner Ward Tefft found the diary and gave it to Blossom after realizing they couldn’t track down its owner. Makeout Creek published the entire diary in both its fifth issue and in the anthology. “It’s the diary of a kid who graduates from high school in Rhode Island in 1975, but then he goes to work on Block Island for the summer,” Blossom said. “He’s working in vacation bars and he’s feeling all the big feelings of being a teenager and feeling things for certain girls.” In the book’s intro, Lotze writes that few of them realized that “Makeout Creek” would evolve “from sweaty readings at Chop Suey Books and a thousand vegan Caesar salads at Ipanema” into a sort of yearbook for those involved. “This magazine loves cats and checking in on friends,” writes Lotze, a former St. Catherine’s School teacher who now lives in Minneapolis. “This magazine adores a dive bar. This magazine quit smoking and started saying ‘I love you’ at the end of phone calls. This magazine has had so many mailing addresses but always kept its headquarters in creator Andrew Blossom’s steadfast (also tender) heart. “Here are these words, these people, this place, this time, this collective incantation whose meaning will be revealed only in the end, whenever that may be. Not soon, reader.” *Readings from “Everything’s Coming Up Makeout” will take place Sunday, Sept. 27, at Brave Captain, 729 W. Cary St. For more information visit* [*makeoutcreek.com*](https://makeoutcreek.com/)*.*