CURRENT STUDENTS

Shannon L. Bowring’s (Fiction, 4th semester) short hybrid piece “Avian Elegies,” originally published in the December 2020 edition of Waterwheel Review, can now also be found in the print anthology The Best Small Fictions 2021. Shannon is looking forward to two new pieces being published in January, in Permafrost Magazine and Burningword Literary Journal.

ALUMS 

Darcie Abbene (Fiction/Nonfiction, S’21) recently published an essay she is particularly proud of, “Don’t Feed the Bears,” in Green Briar Review. The essay is a spin off inspired by her third-semester project, “Stories of Bear: Finding Voice in the Wild” which she worked on with Rick Bass. Tupelo Quarterly published another essay inspired by work at Stonecoast—specifically, in a Cara Hoffman workshop—“The Center” which was chosen as an editor’s selection and given an introduction by Kristina Marie Darling. Darcie recently joined Shannon Bowring (Fiction, W’22) and Natalie Harris-Spencer (Fiction, S’21) in Aspiring Author, a new website offering advice for writers.

Last month, Kathy Briccetti (Creative Nonfiction, W’07), who has been at work on a novel manuscript for many, many years, received a Hall of Fame-worthy rejection, just in time for the holidays! She is now past the initial gobsmacked emotion and has moved through despair and defensive raging and into acceptance of cranky critics having a bad day/year/life. She has not quite reached the finding humor stage but hopes someday she will look back and laugh loudly at these words, which, contrary to what some might expect, did NOT cause her to put down her pen, crawl under the covers and never write another word. So, in the spirit of sharing the bad news with the good, here is an excerpt from a university press reader’s comments: “…shallow characterization; relentlessly issues-based dialogue; a predictable, unsatisfying plot; and stale themes spoon-fed to the reader.” And on that note, Happy New Year and Happy Writing! 

J Brooke (Poetry, S’19) published the essay “Buy/Don’t Buy My House” in The East Hampton Star weekly newspaper about their house being for sale but not selling. J was recently shocked and pleased to receive news they’d had a previously published essay, “Finding Barbie’s Shoes,” included within an anthology of works that ran in 2020 within Street Light Magazine; having not been told about this incredibly handsome volume, J discovered it unfortunately includes the bio they used prior to giving up on full Spivak pronouns…. Finally, J received a copy of the international annual anthology Beyond Queer Words 2021, where their poem “Bumper Cars” now lives—an oversized beautiful publication that J recommends getting a copy for the artwork alone. 

“A Brief History of Dowsing,” a fable written by Jaq Evans (Popular Fiction, S’20) about the slow violence of misogyny and climate change, will appear in Issue 9 of Orca Literary Magazine in January. Jaq’s “Flood Tide,” which deals with abortion rights and sea monsters, will appear in the Malarkey Books anthology It Came from the Swamps this spring.

Clifford Royal Johns‘ (Popular Fiction, W’18) short story “All That is Left and All That is Found” is available online in the Winter issue of The Summerset Review.

Analog Science Fiction & Fact has published Joe M. McDermott’s (Popular Fiction, S’11) novelette “Wind Gets Her Own Place” in their January/February issue.

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) is pleased to share the news of several publishing acceptances as 2021 came to a close. Her creative nonfiction piece “Family History” has been accepted for publication in The Compressed Journal of the Creative Arts coming out February 7th 2022. Gastropoda Literary Magazine will publish Nadja’s flash piece “Natural Disaster” in February or March 2022; another flash CNF piece entitled “Menudo” will appear in the Featured Creators section of the Full House literary magazine website in January. Her short story “Uncle Max’s Gift” was published in the online magazine CafeLit on December 28th.

Anne Britting Oleson‘s (Poetry, W’05) fifth novel, Aventurine and the Reckoning, will be published by Encircle Publications on January 26, 2022.  She joins fellow Stonecoaster Kevin St. Jarre in the Encircle family. Happy New Year!

Alexis Paige‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’14) second book, Work Hard, Not Smart: How to Make a Messy Literary Life, will be published by Vine Leaves Press in February 2022. Part craft memoir and part ode to Adult ADHD, the book is available for pre-order now here.

Kathleen Sullivan (Poetry, ’06) would like to invite Stonecoast grads to read her weekly substack blog, “Code Red, Rethinking Everything.” In weekly essays that appear early Sunday mornings, Kathleen examines her process of waking up to a world where all life forms are threatened with extinction. She believes we need new stories of how to live responsibly on this planet and offers this blog as a record of her attempt to do just that. Sign up for free at kathleensullivan.substack.com.

Lisa C. Taylor (Poetry, S’04) has been awarded a 2022 “Colorado Creates Creative Corps ARP Grant” sponsored by the Colorado Creative Industries and the National Endowment for the Arts. She will pilot a program she’s calling W4R (Writing for Resilience) for teens in her community. This program will include pairing youth with artists from the town’s creative district to create poetry broadsides. There will also be poetry readings and a final poetry gala. Lisa will also be teaching a four-week class called “Death Riding Shotgun: How Awareness of Our Mortality Impacts Our Poetry” for writers.com (online only) in mid-winter 2022.

Eugenio Volpe‘s (Fiction, W’05) essay “Jesus Kicks His Oedipus Complex,” originally published in The Massachusetts Review, was cited as a notable in Best American Essays 2021. 

On January 8, 2022, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Cargo Coffee East in Madison, Wisconsin, Adrienne S. Wallner (Poetry, W’09) and musician Kelly Hepper will perform poetry and music including “Long Distance Postmark”from Adrienne’s poetry collection To the 4 a.m. Light and “Patterns,” a song inspired by Gina Troisi’s (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) memoir The Angle of the Flickering Light. (If you attend Adrienne & Gina’s Virtal Book Launch “Gather Around the Light”, Kelly composed and performed these songs as part of our book launch!) View a trailer for Adrienne & Kelly’s creative collaboration here. Adrienne will also be teaching a series of journaling classes beginning January 12 at Unwind in Woodruff, WI.  

FACULTY  

From Faith Adiele (Creative Nonfiction), Hyperallergic features a book review that dips into current popular interest in tarot card reading with “A BIPOC Tarot Deck for Navigating Trying Times.” Also, “There She Goes,” the popular podcast about women that travel, and on which Faith was featured and partnered with to illuminate several of her writing students, made the year-end Forbes list “Escape the Winter with One of These Travel Podcasts.”

A BIPOC Tarot Deck for Navigating Trying Times

Elizabeth Hand’s (Popular Fiction, Fiction) recent reviews include Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone for The Washington Post. Her novel Wylding Hall has been optioned as a movie by UK company Catalyst Global Media.

Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) is happy to be featured in an interview by wonderful alum Natalie Harris-Spencer (Fiction, S’21) on her Aspiring Author site. Also, she has new fiction, “The Drama Room,” out this month in Solstice literary magazine. The feature film that Elizabeth co-wrote—I’ll Show You Mine, forthcoming in 2022 from Duplass Brothers Productions—received coverage in December in SportsGrindEntertainment and in Latestly/Hollywood.

Morgan Talty’s (Fiction Faculty | Fiction, W’19) short story “The [Unintelligible]” appears in the winter issue of The Georgia Review and can be read here. Morgan also has a story forthcoming from Granta in January.