ANNOUNCEMENTS

QUEER SHIVERS

Wyrd Oldner (current Poetry student) invites Stonecoasters to submit to Queer Shivers, s horror/thriller anthology. Proceeds from this anthology go towards a queer and disabled danmei author in China who is threatened with incarceration they cannot survive due to the level of their disabilities. More information on what’s happening to danmei authors in a “queer literature crackdown” taking place in China is available on the website to submit: savingqueerjoyanthology.carrd.co as well as through the campaign’s Instagram page, @savedanmeiauthors. Submitters do not need to be queer themselves to submit, but must submit stories with queer characters. 

SUBMIT:

• 4,000 words of Prose (exceptions may be made for genres)
• 2.5 pages of Poetry
• 2 Black & White Illustrations/art/photography
• DEADLINE IS MARCH 15TH.

For any questions, people can contact danmeiauthorscampaign@gmail.com where the team of the anthology campaign has access to.

ALUMS 

J Brooke’s (Poetry, S’19) debut poetry collection I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side had its cover reveal and an interview about the design on Debutiful. You can pre-order the collection from Diftwood Press now at this subtle hyperlink Brooke created…  Buy J’s Book Here. In their continued role as Editor of Prose Reviews for The Rumpus, Jwould like to remind writers who have an interest in reviewing a book that they can contact them at J.Brooke@therumpus.net. If you’re attending AWP in Baltimore, please come to J’s Trans Youth Emergency Project fundraiser reading/discussion:

Sandy Collier (Fiction, W’20) will have her short story “Louis and the Letter O” published April 1, 2026, by the Wilderness House Literary Review.

Julie C. Day (Popular Fiction, S’12) is thrilled to announce Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, released from her own Essential Dreams Press, is on the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2025 and is also a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in the category Superior Achievement in an Anthology. Storyteller is a celebration of Tanith Lee’s legacy—and an object lesson in the breadth of authors she influenced. Authors include Mike Allen, C.S.E. Cooney, Maya Deane, Andy Duncan, Rocío Rincón Fernández, Theodora Goss, CL Hellisen, Getty Hesse, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Starlene Justice, Amelia Mangan, Michael Yuya Montroy, Marisca Pichette, Nisi Shawl, KT Wagner, and Martha Wells, with an Afterword by Ann VanderMeer and a Foreword by Tanith’s widower, John Kaiine. Editor-in-chief Julie C. Day with coeditors Carina Bissett and Craig Laurance Gidney and assistant editor Julia DeRidder.

The book launch for Slow Motion: A Memoir of Friendship, Advocacy, and Disability by Jen Dupree (Fiction, W’15) will be at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, on Thursday, March 5th at 6:00 p.m. She hopes to see many Maine friends there!

Jillian Hanson (Poetry, W’22) is thrilled to announce the publication of her debut poetry collection, To Begin Again, published by Blue Sky Press and available for order here.

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) is pleased to share that her prose poem “Connections,” also read by Nadja, will be published in the March edition of Pause for Paws Poetry Journal.

Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, W06) is thrilled that her new novel, Sometimes an Island, received a starred review from Booklist, calling it “gorgeous and immersive.” More events and details here. Twenty years since graduating from the program, Elli is deeply grateful for the education received and the many friends made in the program. Thank you so much, Stonecoast!

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21)is looking forward to her fifth ICFA in mid-March. Stonecoast is once again well-represented, with presentations and readings from Jim Kelly, Dora Goss, Liz Levin, and more. Marisca is also thrilled to share that her poem “The Fin Stitch,” published in Angry Gable Press’ anthology This Exquisite Topology, is a Rhysling Award nominee! 

Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S’08) is so pleased for her former client Nikki Mammano on the January publication of her memoir, Breaking Good (Regalo Press/Simon & Shuster), a story of addiction, recovery, and the criminal underworld of Waikiki. Over several years, Lisa worked with the New Jersey author on early manuscript drafts, book proposal, submission strategy, and PR planning. Another former developmental editing client, Marc Cappelletti, now a Maine resident, is releasing chapters and audio material from his memoir-in-progress, The Great Sea Ahead—a charming, funny, and poignant look at learning from elder adventurers while working as cruise director on small ships—on his new substack.

Kathleen Saville (Creative Nonfiction, W’13) is excited to report that the new Arthur Beale podcast The Art of Adventure will feature an interview with her about her book Rowing for my Life: Two Oceans, Two Lives, One Journey (Skyhorse Publishing/Simon Schuster, 2017) and her adventures on their March 4, 2026, podcast. Recorded between their studios in the UK and Kathleen’s home university the American University in Cairo (Egypt) where she is chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Composition, she loved discussing great maritime adventures with sailor Hugh Taylor who hosts the new podcast.

Linda Sienkiewicz (Fiction, S’09) is thrilled to share the cover of her forthcoming novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments. In the story, an anxious overthinker’s fixation on a stranger pulls her straight into chaos, heartbreak, and the inconvenient unraveling of her carefully constructed life. Her second novel was shaped in many ways by her time in the Stonecoast MFA Program, and she is grateful for the community that helped her find her voice. The book is now available for preorder, which makes an enormous difference in helping it reach readers. Learn more and preorder here. 

FACULTY  

Raina León (Poetry) is the next poet laureate of Philadelphia from 2026-2028. Read more here.

Elizabeth Searle will be at AWP in Baltimore; she and David Shields are presenting a seminar—Script Curious: How Fiction Writers Can Beat Their Own Path into Scriptwriting—on March 6th at 3:20 p.m. Elizabeth and David were co-writers, along with Tiffany Louquet, on the feature film I’ll Show You Mine (Duplass Brothers Production) and they will discuss the experience of writing that film and of learning to write scripts after years of writing fiction. Elizabeth will be at the Solstice Magazine table 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. on the 6th and will also be at the Pierian Springs Press booth. She hopes to see fellow Stonecoasters at the conference!