ALUMNI

Sheila Boneham (Creative Nonfiction/Cross Genre, S’13) has had a busy September. During the first two weeks, she was the spotlighted author on DogRead, an online book discussion group with some 7,000 followers, in conjunction with the launch of her new novel, The Money Bird. On September 25th, she read from the book and spoke about animals in fiction in the New Hanover Public Library’s author series. The following evening she was part of a three-person panel on “The View from Across the Desk: How to Get Your Manuscript Out of the Slush Pile” sponsored by the Lower Cape Fear chapter of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. She wrapped up the month (and Banned Books Week) with a reading of poetry and prose as part of a local 100 Thousand Poets for Change event in Wilmington, NC, on September 28th.

Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S’13) is excited to announce her post-apocalyptic horror short story “Like a Soul” will be published in the inaugural issue of Stonecoast Review, which will be published mid-October.

Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s (Popular Fiction, S’11) story “Secrets of the Sea” is on the long list for the 2012 storySouth Million Writers Award.

Libby Cudmore‘s (Popular Fiction, S’10) story “The Hand of God” was selected as a finalist for the New Rivers Press American Fiction Prize and will be included in the anthology American Fiction Vol. 13. Additionally, she has two short stories in publication: “Late Night on Route 17” in Big Click and “Angelmaker” in Big Lucks.

Lexa Hillyer (Poetry, S’10) just got a two-book deal for her first young adult novel, Proof of Forever, from HarperCollins for publication in Summer 2015.

Matthew Quinn Martin‘s (Popular Fiction, S’10) debut novel Nightlife will be released October 21 by PocketStar/Simon & Schuster. He is currently hard at work on the sequel, Nightlife: As the Worm Turns, which is due out in the spring of 2014.

Laura Navarre‘s (Popular Fiction, W’11) alter ego, sexy spy romance author Nikki Navarre, is featured on the cover of the November issue of Romantic Times. An article titled “Ex-Diplomat Goes Under the Covers” features her October release The Russian Temptation, which was workshopped at Stonecoast with Mike Kimball before it sold. The Russian Temptation is Book Two in Nikki’s Foreign Affairs series.

“Glazed blind cushion not mercy,” one section of Janet Passehl‘s (Poetry, S’10) extended prose poem written in response to Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons,” will be published in Caliban Online, issue #13, coming out in mid-October. “Glazed blind cushion not mercy” was inspired by the “Mutton” section of Stein’s text.

Julie L. Scharf‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’10) nonfiction essays titled “Pranked” and “Teaching with Tolerance” are now featured in the Autumn 2013 issue of Mused: The Bella Online Literary Review.

Three poems by Lissa Kiernan (Poetry, S’11) appear in issue 3 of Poecology.

Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) studied commonalities of Southern fiction while at Stonecoast. One result is her essay “The Chifforobe: An Overlooked Ingredient in Southern Writing” in the Fall 2013 issue of storySouth, a literary journal at the MFA program at UNC-Greensboro. Also, Tamra was a writer-in-residence at Weymouth Center for the Arts in Southern Pines, NC, at the end of September.

STUDENTS

Marian Romero‘s (Popular Fiction) short story “Child of the Underworld” will be featured in the paranormal anthology Shades and Shadows from Xchyler Publishing this Halloween.

FACULTY

Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Fiction) has written an introduction to the 19th-century autobiographical slave narrative Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup. The movie based on his heroic story will be released this month. The e-book version published by Simon & Schuster and featuring her introduction is only 99 cents on Amazon, iTunes, or BN.com.

Barbara Hurd‘s (Creative Nonfiction) Stepping into the Same River Twice is a just-published collaborative book of prose and paintings that explores one of Maryland’s most treasured resources, the Savage River. A shameless promoter, she notes that all proceeds benefit the local watershed and that books can be purchased through Main Street Books in Frostburg, MD (301.698.5605 or mainstreetbooks@comcast.net). Her next collection of essays, titled Putting an Ear to the Ground, is forthcoming from University of Georgia Press.

Mike Kimball (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) is directing the play Red, which will run three weekends, November 1-17, at The Actors Studio of Newburyport, MA. Red, by playwright/screenwriter/director John Logan is the story of abstract-expressionist Mark Rothko, holed up in his New York Studio in 1958-9, painting a group of murals for the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant. He gives orders to his assistant, Ken, as he mixes the paints, makes the frames, and paints the canvases. Ken, however, brashly questions Rothko’s theories of art and his acceding to work on such a commercial project. In 2010 the play won six Tony awards, including Best Play. The Actors Studio is located in The Tannery, 50 Water Street, Mill #1, Suite 5, Newburyport, MA. For reservations, call 978.465.1299 or visit the website.

Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) is included in Talk Show: On the Couch with Contemporary Writers, a new anthology edited by Jaime Clarke of talk-show style interviews with writers, just out from PFP Press. The interview with Elizabeth was originally published in Fanzine.

Suzanne Strempek Shea (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction) has just signed contracts for two books to be published by PFP Press. She thanks Stonecoasters who’ve wished her well over the 3 1/2 years she’s worked on This Is Paradise, the story of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in Malawi, which will be published in April. She’s also grateful for the encouragement as she finished the novel Make a Wish But Not for Money, about a palm reader in a dead mall, to be published next October. Suzanne is in great company as PFP also publishes Elizabeth Searle and former Stonecoast faculty member Roland Merullo.

Suzanne also sends out an alert to Stonecoast Ireland alums who loved meeting and hearing Irish short-story writer and poet Nuala Ni Chonchuir at a residency can see her again, stateside, October 26th at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, MA. Nuala will be talking about the short story during the day of lectures that will include Allan Hunter (on the memoir and finishing that project), Jim Brosnan (on the personal essay), and public relations experts Janice Beetle and Judith Kelliher (on promoting your work). Registration is necessary—please visit the website.