ANNOUNCEMENTS

SleuthFest 2022

The 2022 SleuthFest mystery writing conference is sponsored by The Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and is back in person this year from July 7-10. Registration opened February 1st, 2022, and the early registration price ends on April 30th. Panelists and presenters will be eligible for the discounted registration rate of $200 (the sooner panelists fill out the application, the better chance they have of getting on a panel. Go sign up now to qualify for a discount code.

• Guest of Honor: MWA Grand Master Jeffery Deaver
• Award winning writing and forensic faculty: Tracy Clark, Tori Eldridge, & Royce Wilson
• Agent and editor strategy and pitch sessions
• Freddie’s Noir at the Bar on Thursday
• Guest of Honor Gala on Friday
• Fla-Mingle Cocktail Party on Saturday
• Sharks vs Flamingos on Sunday
• And over 30 workshops, presentations, and panels from Friday to Sunday.

SleuthFest will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Deerfield Beach – Boca Raton Florida with a block rate of $119. 

Questions? Check the SleuthFest FAQ or email conference co-chair Michael L. Joy (Popular Fiction, S’13) at info@SleuthFest.com.

Literary Mama

Via Andrea Lani (Fiction, W’14): Are you looking for an opportunity to develop your editorial skills, gain experience with a literary journal, and give back to the literary community? Literary Mama, an online journal dedicated to sharing stories of the many faces of motherhood, is seeking several staff members to join our editorial team:

• Managing Editor
• Blog Editor
• Profiles Editor
• Photo Editor
• Editorial Assistants

Literary Mama is run by an amazing and creative volunteer staff. Learn more about the positions here.

ALUMS 

Linda Buckmaster (Creative Nonfiction, S’11) will be attending a residency in Scotland at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre. Her travel will continue to the Hebrides and the Shetlands promoting her upcoming hybrid book, Elemental. A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press), and working toward the next installment of her multi-prong project on the North Atlantic Rim. Two of her flash stories from the book, “The Smell of Him” and “The Headland,” will be published in the Spring issue of Northwords Now, a literary journal with a circulation of 10,000 in Scotland. Editor Kenny Taylor says of the stories: “There’s a certain affinity between [Maine and Newfoundland] and the western and northern edges of Scotland. I relish the grittiness of your prose in conveying a sense of place, people, and more.” Linda has also launched her newsletter related to the project. You can subscribe by emailing her lsbuck1@gmail.com.

Jess Flarity (Popular Fiction, S’18) has published his first professional film review of Free Guy at SFRA Review. He will also be presenting at this year’s NeMLA convention in Baltimore on masculinity theory, as well as on James Stoddard’s revision of the classic science fantasy novel, The Night Land. A related interview is available on YouTube.

Elizabeth Garber (Creative Nonfiction, W’10) has two successes to share. The essay “Mentor Emerita” was published in the Johns Hopkins Magazine. And she was thrilled to join three other Belfast, Maine, Poets Laureate for a live reading of love stories & poems on stage and streaming from the Camden Opera House for “Love, Belfast” Valentine’s poetry reading on Sunday February 13th. The reading can be seen on YouTube (Elizabeth’s creative nonfiction story “Love Story with Daughters” begins at 30 min.).

Natalie Harris-Spencer (Fiction, S’21) has had two personal essays accepted in Hobart (forthcoming) and Allegory Ridge (Issue 06, Summer 2022). She also placed as a finalist in the psychological realism category for the 2nd Annual TDS Creative Awards.

Andrea Lani (Fiction, W’14) is thrilled to announce that her book, Uphill Both Ways: Hiking toward Happiness on the Colorado Trail, was released March 1, 2022. Catherine Newman, author of Catastrophic Happiness, writes of the book: “If you put Terry Tempest Williams and Cheryl Strayed and Kelly Corrigan in a room together, this is the book they would write. I loved it”; and Stonecoast’s own Aaron Hamburger writes, “In language both witty and lush, [Lani] vividly portrays this remarkable terrain while also sharing a personal story of self-examination and persistence. Uphill Both Ways gripped me from its hopeful start to its jubilant finish.” The book launch party will be held March 5th at Sheepscot General in Whitefield, Maine, and there will be a virtual book event with Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado, on March 9th, in conversation with Jim Davidson, author of The Next Everest. For more book updates and event information, visit www.andrealani.com.

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) had another piece, “Oslo’s Jewish Sewing Circle,” published by Tablet Magazine about a small group of women in Norway who are keeping tradition alive by sewing traditional shrouds for the dead. This is the sixth piece for the publication since she graduated from Stonecoast. Her editor at Tablet tells her she is now a professional journalist which makes her smile. This comes in handy as a writer has to make a living….

John Christopher Nelson‘s (Fiction, S’15) historical flash fiction about a retired President Eisenhower, “Before An Interview,” will be published in Designed Writing, a print book (edited by Mary Rose Primosch) that will be available in Philadelphia and elsewhere around the east coast in the coming months. Also, John and his partner are wrapping up reviews of submissions for the first issue of their new literary journal, con(text) quarterly, which will be released in late spring. They will be taking submissions for their second issue shortly thereafter.

Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17) will be one of two featured Irish American poets on March 10 as a part of the reading series sponsored by the Emma L. Andrews Library in Newburyport, MA. Email EmmaAndrewsLibrary@gmail.com for the Zoom link. 

Janet Passehl‘s (Poetry, S’10) essay “Of Ice and Humans” is included in the book Glacier Elegies (Terra Nova Press, 2022), about the performance art of Jaanika Peerna. More information about the book, and a quote from Janet’s essay can be found here. 

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21)has a new poem free to read and listen to online! “Nobyl,” published in the January issue of Solarpunk Magazine, is now available. In March, Marisca is looking forward to several publications, including her flash story, “A Fate Worse,” in Alternative Stories‘ audio fiction anthology, Ghostlore.

Three poems by J. Stephen (Steve) Rhodes (Poetry, W’11)—“On Learning How to Fly,” “Alive,” and “Saints”—will appear in the forthcoming issue of The MacGuffin.

Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S’08) is serving as editor for a book of essays by the 2021 cohort of the Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF). This is the third time Lisa has worked on their annual book-length project, Conversational Insights, showcasing essays by executives from major corporations who participate in their year-long Executive Academy. ITSMF invests in positioning executives of color for career and leadership success. The essays describe pivotal moments in the execs’ personal life, career, or technology journeys. 

Patricia Smith‘s (Poetry, S’08) poem “The Sun, Mad Envious, Just Wants the Moon” was the February 25th Poem-of-the-Day from the Academy of American Poets. Of this poem, Patricia wrote, “Wow—this is how you know the diva named ‘depression.’ How you dance with it to keep it at bay. Virus variants, blustering supremacists, a country’s collapsing democracy, a dying mother—all of it combines to bring me back to just me and what seeks to defeat me. But, hallelujah! Whatever my pen can name, my pen can defeat. So, you just recall the story; you rewind it, simply; you let it sit there and do its necessary work. I wrote this in darkness. I emerged from a little less darkness.”

Adrienne S. Wallner (Poetry, W’09) will host a Virtual Journal Circle via Zoom every Wednesday in March from 6:00-7:00 p.m. CST. For more info and to register, visit Adrienne’s new studio site.

Follow the link here to a description of the context around sidney woods‘ (Fiction, W’19) Environmental Justice flash-fiction piece “Restoring Bears Ears,” recently published by Fourth River, and to the story itself at their online Tributaries. sidney writes as sid sibo.

FACULTY  

John Florio (Creative Nonfiction, Popular Fiction Faculty | Fiction/Popular Fiction, S’07) is in the middle of a two-book YA deal with Macmillan. Doomed: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the End of the American Dream revisits the tragic tale of two Italian immigrants wrongfully convicted of murder—and executed—during America’s first Red Scare. The book is now available for pre-order and will be released in October. Marked Man: Frank Serpico and the Price of Being an Honest Cop is slated for 2023.

Aaron Hamburger‘s (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) short story “Simple Past, Present Perfect” is coming out this month in The Massachusetts Review.