ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Stonecoast Writers’ Conference

We are now accepting application to the 2023 Stonecoast Writers’ Conference, which will run from the morning of Tuesday, June 20 through noon on Sunday, June 25. Stonecoast faculty members Debra Marquart and Ron Currie, Jr., will be teaching the nonfiction and fiction workshops, respectively. Because the conference runs concurrently with the MFA’s Summer Residency, you’ll have exclusive access to the faculty and programming—that means, in addition to your workshop class, participants will learn from Stonecoast faculty seminars and readings, visiting scholars, and all the attendant programming. We’ll also have special events just for conferencegoers. 

ALUMS 

Shannon Bowring (Fiction, W’22) has a busy summer ahead on her debut novel book tour. See her website for a full list of author events at bookstores and libraries around Maine. The launch for The Road to Dalton will be held Tuesday, June 6th, at 7:00 p.m. EST at PRINT: A Bookstore in Portland, where Shannon will discuss the book with none other than Richard Russo. She hopes to see some familiar Stonecoast faces in the crowd!

Linda Buckmaster‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’11) hybrid of essay, poetry, and fiction, Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, was one of three Finalists in the Maine Literary Awards from  Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance in the category of “Excellence in Publishing.” It is the first part of her North Atlantic Rim Project, and Linda has been reading from the book at venues around the state. With designer Lori Harley, she is developing the next phase of the project, which will be a traveling Installation based on text and imagery from the book to be exhibited in libraries along the coast.

J.R. Dawson‘s (Popular Fiction, S’16) debut novel, The First Bright Thing, releases on June 13. She will visit Stonecoast on June 19 and 20 for a reading and presentation during her national book tour. The First Bright Thing is about a magical circus attempting to change the world for the better, one performance at a time. It has been highly anticipated by Goodreads, Polygon, Paste, Men’s Health, NPR, and Barnes & Noble, and it received a starred review from Library Journal.

Aimee Degroat (publishing under AJ Newsom; Fiction, S’21) had her poem “Paper Cranes” published in the BarBar Literary Magazine, Volume 1: Dreams of ‘23. Her short story “Silver Bullet” was a finalist for the 2023 Maine Literary Award for Short Fiction.

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S’17) sold a short story to Woman’s World, which will hit checkout stands on June 23. Her new romance ebook, The Voice on the Radio, launched in May and is available on Amazon.

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) is thrilled to share that her essay “When Your Flow is a Religious Affair” is included in Stained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation being released into the world this Sunday. Pre-orders opened on Sunday, May 28th, which corresponds to Menstrual Hygiene Day, at Bookshop and Amazon. (Look for #stainedanthology) By supporting this project, you will not only honor all the girls and women in your life (or, yourself) who will, do, or have menstruated, but also support a worthy cause: 25% of the proceeds of the sale of Stained will be donated to Days for Girls, which works to end period poverty and ensure menstruators have protection products so they can attend school, work, and manage their menstrual health. Also, Nina’s essay “My Two Moms: The Very Different Lessons I Learned from My Mother and Mother-in-Law” was published in Tablet Magazine on Mother’s Day.

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) is pleased to announce that her short prose piece “Reboot” will be published in the upcoming edition of the literary magazine Instant Noodles. Theme focus for the online magazine’s quarterly edition is rebirth and renewal.

Laura Navarre (Popular Fiction, W’11)deployed her secret voice-acting superpowers by narrating and releasing her bestselling witchy why-choose romance Gemini Queen in audiobook. This queer steamy poly dark witch academy series launch also recently won the 2022 New England Readers’ Choice Award in the erotic romance category. 

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) participated in the Nebula Conference this May for the second year in a row, panelling on Inventing Language. She is also pleased to share that her poem “golem” was nominated for a Dwarf Stars Award! 

“Gunocracy,” a new poem by J. Stephen (Steve) Rhodes (Poetry, W’11), will soon appear in Hospitality, a newspaper published by The Open Door Community (Baltimore), “a Prophetic Discipleship Community Honoring The Black Jesus, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Kelly Shetron (Creative Nonfiction, S’21) published a personal essay in LitHub: “Skeletons in the Closet: On Mad Men and White America’s Willful Amnesia.”

Linda K. Sienkiewicz (Fiction, S’09) is happy to announce her poem “Like Learning a New Language” was awarded Third Place in the Springfed Arts Poetry and Prose Contest. 

Jacob Strunk‘s (Fiction, W’06) collection Screaming in Tongues was birthed wet and shrieking May 30th via Alien Buddha Press. He kicked off the launch as part of the Stonecoast Alumni Reading Series alongside Lauren M. Davis (Poetry, S’15), Linda K. Sienkiewicz (Fiction, S’09), and Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17). Jacob will be writer in residence with Stonecoast founding faculty member Joan Connor in Vermont this summer, and will read from the book July 19th at the Mount Holly Library. You can pick up the book here and follow Jacob on the socials @sevenmileswest.

The publisher of the literary journal Orca and 55 Fathoms Publishing, Joe Ponepinto, has reached out to W’19 Fiction alum sidney woods (writing as sid sibo) for permission to use excerpts from a previously published flash fiction piece in his upcoming craft book. The excerpts will be used to demonstrate the art of subtext (how fun is that?).

FACULTY  

David Anthony Durham (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) is thrilled about the newly revealed cover for the second book in his Shadow Prince middle grade fantasy series: The Longest Night in Egypt. Pub date is September 26, 2023!

Here’s a cover-reveal from John Florio (Popular Fiction, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction Faculty | Fiction/Popular Fiction, S’07) and Ouisie Shapiro. Their new YA book, MARKED MAN: Frank Serpico’s Inside Battle Against Police Corruption, is scheduled for publication in March 2024. This past January saw the release of DOOMED: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the End of the American Dream. John is also working on a new novel in conjunction with his research into the role of communism in 1950s American literature as part of his doctoral studies with the University of Glasgow.

Aaron Hamburger‘s new novel Hotel Cuba was released last month. It was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and selected as an NPR Book of the Day. Hadassah Magazine raves, “The award-winning novelist richly captures the atmosphere of Cuba in pre-Castro times as well as the sisters’ distinctive sensibilities and their emotional journeys. It’s a story of displacement, creativity and hope.” The book was also featured in Electric Literature (interviewed by our own Morgan Talty!), Literary Hub, Chicago Review of Books, and many others. Aaron also celebrated the book at events online and in person Boston, NYC, DC, as well as a special event hosted by Stonecoast alum Nadja Maril in Annapolis! And Stonecoasters showed up each and every occasion. Thank you! Don’t you want to join in the fun this June? Drop by in person at RJ Julia Booksellers June 2 at 5:00 p.m. ET where Aaron will be on an LGBTQ Pride Panel. You can also catch Aaron at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, June 16 at 7:00 p.m. ET, at the Stonecoast Summer Residency (of course!), and at Longfellow Books in Portland, ME June 27 at 6:00 p.m. ET, with the illustrious Stonecoast alums Shannon Bowring and Jennifer Dupree. Is online more your flavor? Sign up for free to hear Aaron in conversation with novelist Dave King, sponsored by the Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome, June 6, at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Alexander Jennings’ (Popular Fiction) debut novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves, has won the Compton Crook Award for first novel. The Baltimore SF Society brought him to Balticon as guest of honor where he received the award, presented by the previous two winners, P. Djèlí Clark and Micaiah Johnson. He will be returning to Balticon as guest of honor next year and present the Compton Crook Award to the next winner.

Robert Levy’s (Popular Fiction) debut story collection No One Dies from Love: Dark Tales of Loss and Longing was released on May 30 by Word Horde.