ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Boston Poetry Marathon is back again for 2021, though remaining online for another year. The 3-day summertime poetry reading festival takes place from August 5-7, on Thursday and Friday night starting at 6:00 p.m. and all day Saturday starting at noon. 

Bridget Eileen (Poetry, W’09) returns as artistic director for the 5th year in a row. Many other former Stonecoasters are participating, as well: Vanesa Pacheco, Jessica de Koninck, Christine Tierney, and Florine Melnyk for alums, and Dennis Nurkse and Richard Hoffman for faculty. 

Over 100 poets will be participating, including Eileen Myles, January Gill, Lloyd Schwartz, Amy King, Stephanie Burt, and UMaine’s Ben Friedlander, among many other notable participants. 

All those who wish to watch the Boston Poetry Marathon can do so over one of three of the BPM social media channels: YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter/Periscope. “Admission” is free and open to the public, with a suggested donation of $10+ to the fundraiser for local social justice organizations: the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, SISTA Fire RI, and the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. 

Full details at https://bostonpoetrymarathon.com/.

ALUMS 

Jillian Abbott (Popular Fiction, S’04) was profiled in article on the York College website.

Kirkus Reviews featured L.C. Barlow‘s (Popular Fiction, W’19) first novel of her Jack Harper Trilogy, Pivot, in its July 1st, 2021 issue. You can access the issue here. 

Peter Adrian Behravesh (Popular Fiction, W’18) is a finalist for the British Fantasy Award for Best Audio for his work as the audio producer of the fantasy fiction podcast PodCastle, alongside co-editors C.L. Clark and Jen R. Albert, assistant editor/host Summer Fletcher, and all of PodCastle‘s fabulous associate editors. PodCastle was previously nominated for the BFA in 2019 and won in 2020, and is currently also nominated for the Hugo, Ignyte, and Aurora Awards.

KT Bryski (Popular Fiction, W’16) is honoured to have her story “Tiger’s Feast” included in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021; it was originally published in Nightmare Magazine. In addition to being selected as a BASFF Notable Story, her story “The Bone-Stag Walks” is a finalist for the Eugie Foster Memorial Award.

Anthony D’Aries (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) recently had a piece published in McSweeney’s, “Assistant Professor Travis Bickle’s Final Email to His Intro to Fiction Students.” Anthony’s short story “Burning Boxes” will appear in the next issue of Bridge Eight.

Lauren M. Davis (Poetry, S’15) will be teaching poetry workshops at Redemption House and The Garden in August and September. 

Natalie Harris-Spencer (Fiction, S’21) is flabbergasted, honored, and overwhelmed to announce that she has been picked as the winner of Pulp Literature‘s 2021 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize. Her winning story, “The Art of Ironing,” will be published in the Winter issue. She was also chosen as a semi-finalist in Ember Chasm Review‘s Flash Fiction Contest.

David A. Hewitt (Popular Fiction, S’09) is series translator for the simulcast anime The Detective Is Already Dead, Season One, now streaming on Funimation with one new episode being released weekly. 

In the recently published essay “Make Your Own Gravlaks,” Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) finally shared her gravlaks recipe with the world in Tablet Magazine, where she also tells the story of her fishy childhood in Norway. 

Alison McMahan (Popular Fiction, W’10) will teach a workshop on “Telling and Time” for the Broward County Public Library on August 21, 2021. Free, registration required. Alison will also teach her popular workshop on POV for the Florida Author’s Academy, September 11, 2021. $25. Course descriptions are here (scroll down). 

This September, Jenny O’Connell (Creative Nonfiction, S’17) is guiding a 7-day writing and backpacking adventure in the 100 Mile Wilderness for writers looking to find new depths and adventurers looking to take their backcountry skills to the next level. There are still a few spots left—join the expedition, or sign up with a partner to get 10% off. Jenny’s recent magazine pieces include “The Click That Says Yes,” a profile on the grit and intuition of Rockland artist Kathleen Florance in Decor Maine, and “Telling What Matters” (Maine Magazine), a look at the youth poetry anthology A New Land and the world these poets seek to build with their words. The Telling Room is a literary arts organization co-founded by faculty mentor Susan Conley, where Jenny teaches alongside Stonecoast alum Meghan Vigeant (Creative Nonfiction, S’20)—and they’re hiring!

Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17) will be in Poetic License, an exhibition of the Arts Society of Kingston, NY, done in collaboration with The Poetry Barn. One of the artists selected her poem “That One Apple” to interpret visually. The exhibition will run at the gallery of the Arts Society August 7-29, 2021.

Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) short story “Breaking and Entering” will appear in between the covers: An Adult Romance Anthology from Red Penguin Books.

The poem, “Dear Night” by J. Stephen (Steve) Rhodes (Poetry, W’11), will appear in a forthcoming issue of Evening Street Review. The poem begins, “Dear Night, I hear you’re somewhere / over El Paso moving fast / toward Phoenix. They say / your tilt-a-whirl broke down / near Austin, a lever gone bad.”  

Erin Roberts (Popular Fiction, W’18) is joining the University of Texas at Austin’s English Department as a Provost’s Early Career Fellow, one of a cohort of 26 fellows in departments across the university receiving multi-year funding, support, and mentorship to advance their careers.

This coming fall, Kathleen Saville‘s (Creative Nonfiction, W’12) article “Flash Archiving the Writing Center: Perspectives from Lebanon and Egypt,”which was co-authored with Emma Moughabghab and Ira Allen, will be published by the peer-reviewed publication Writing Center Journal. WCJ is considered one of the top publications in the field of writing center studies. Emma, Ira, and Kathleen began their collaboration between their universities, American University in Cairo and American University in Beirut, way back in 2016. It’s exciting to see their work that has survived the ongoing political machinations in both countries and this past year’s C19 pandemic finally being published!

Tamie (Harkins) Parker Song (Creative Nonfiction, S‘12) has been emailing weekly dispatches for almost a year now. Each dispatch is a mini essay, written on whatever springs to mind that week. If you would like to be added to her email list let her know at tamieparkersong@gmail.com

Kevin St. Jarre‘s (Popular Fiction, S’10) essay about ployes and his late mother, Cecile (Thibodeau) St. Jarre, will appear in Breaking Bread: Maine Writers on Food, Cravings, and Life, an anthology conceived of and edited by Debra Spark and Deborah Joy Corey. Beacon Press has scheduled the hardcover release for late May 2022, and in paperback the following year. The book will benefit Blue Angel of Castine, committed to ending hunger in their community. It features a long list of Maine writers including Jenny Boylan, Sarah Braunstein, Susan Conley, Ron Currie, Richard Ford, Reza Jalali, Lily King, Lewis Robinson, Richard Russo, Phuc Tran, and others.

The folks at VoyageLA Magazine interviewed Jacob Strunk (Fiction, W’06) early this year for their new Shoutout series, ostensibly about balancing life and work in the arts. But 2020 was quite a year, and the piece became something of a meditation on mentorship, inspiration, the nature of creative identity, and nurturing all that without being a complete asshat. Listen, he’s trying. Read the recently dropped interview (with myriad Stonecoast nods) at ShoutoutLA here. 

Gina Troisi‘s (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) short story “Where He Still Lives” was recently published in Eclectica Magazine.

Erin Underwood (Popular Fiction S’09) is happy to announce that her short screenplay The Funeral has won 1st place in this year’s screenplay contest held by Women in Film & Video, New England. 

Adrienne S. Wallner (Poetry, W’ 09) will be one of several Stonecoast alumni being featured as guest writers at the Western Connecticut State University MFA in Creative and Professional Writing Summer Residency, July 31-August 5. Other Stonecoast alumni include Gina Troisi (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) and Matthew Quinn Martin (Popular Fiction, S’10); Stonecoast faculty, Baron Wormser. Anthony D’Aries (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) is the director of the program. Adrienne will also participate in a dual author reading with Michigan fiction author Stephanie Carpenter on August 19, 2021, at the Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock, MI. Adrienne & Stephanie designed and printed letterpress posters in the art center’s letterpress studio to advertise their event. The authors will be signing a select number of posters and offering them to anyone who purchases a book at the event.

FACULTY

It was a busy July for Faith Adiele (Creative Nonfiction), who spent the entire month as the artist-in-residence at Surel’s Place in Boise, Idaho. As part of her residency, she taught her first in-person workshop in 16 months, was featured in two public events, and was interviewed on two radio shows, The Lovely Afro on Radio Boise and Morning Edition – NPR Idaho. Her profile on hotelier Damon Lawrence and his hospitality brand focused on Black culture and history, Stay Homage, was published in Here Magazine. And finally, A World of Calm, the HBO series that she wrote two stories for, was recently nominated for (though did not win) a Critic’s Choice Real TV Award 2021 in the Best Structured Series category.

JJ Amaworo Wilson‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction) short play The Guitar received its premiere in Gaza, Palestine, on July 30. The performance was organized by The Hands Up Project. 

Tom Coash (Scriptwriting) will be teaching his popular workshop “From Blank Page to Stage,” focusing on writing and producing short plays and screenplays, in-person at the beautiful Pyramid Lake Fall Writerfest, September 12-16, 2021, organized by Stonecoast alumna Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17). Registration open now. Very reasonable price! Come join us!