ALUMS 

A film Jillian Abbott (Popular Fiction, S’04) worked on, Cost of Living, about the impact of gentrification on the lives of ordinary families in New York City, is premiering at The Flushing Town Hall next week. Jillian is excited; it’s her first formal film credit outside pf screenwriting.

Frank Ard (Popular Fiction, S’14) is excited to announce the upcoming release of Horrors of the Deep, an anthology of sea-themed horror and suspense stories, launching October 12th. The anthology features original seafaring tales by fifteen Stonecoast MFA alumni. Together, they explore deep into the mysterious aquatic realm, bringing back to the surface tales of terror, intrigue, and adventure. Please visit this link to purchase your copy in ebook, paperback, or hardcover at your favorite online bookstore. You may also purchase at the Rogue Owl Press store.

Maria Popova of The Marginalian (used to be Brain Pickings) has reviewed Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) natural history memoir The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Meanwhile, in Germany, after a decade in print there, the book has transferred to its new publisher, Piper, and gone back into hardcover, including the U.S. illustrations, the first time they’ve appeared in a European edition. The book has also happily transferred in the UK to its new publisher, Bloomsbury.

Shannon Bowring (Fiction, W’22) is thrilled to announce that she has sold her second novel, Where the Forest Meets the River, to Europa Editions. The book, which is a sequel to her debut The Road to Dalton, takes places 5 years after the events of the first novel and reunites readers with the characters and Northern Maine town they have come to know (and hopefully love). Shannon is also pleased to share that The Road to Dalton is featured in the IndieBound Fall 2023 Reading Group Indie Next List under the category of Dazzling Debuts. And finally, she is very excited to say that The Road to Dalton will be available as an audiobook as of November 28, 2023, thanks to Tantor Media, a division of Recorded Books. 

The Opening of Linda Buckmaster‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’11) “Of Cod and Communities” will be at the Belfast (Maine) Free Library on Friday, October 6 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. The traveling literary exhibit consists of eight 3′ x 5’ soft fabric banners reflecting the inter-relationships over the centuries between the codfish and humans. The project is adapted from her book Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. The Belfast exhibit will hang through the month of October and will travel to six other coastal Maine libraries throughout the year. It is partially funded by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport is a Co-sponsor. The image below is the first banner, pen-and-ink codfish by Leslie Moore, “New chart of Nantucket Shoals with adjacent coast,” 1813.

Libby Cudmore‘s (Popular Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, S’10) story “Charlie’s Medicine” won the 2022 Shamus Award for Best Short Story from the Private Eye Writers. The story was part of the Anthony-nominated anthology Lawyers, Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon (co-edited with Art Taylor), which also included a story by Matthew Quinn Martin (Popular Fiction, S’10). 

Jen Dupree (Fiction, W’15) is pleased to announce that the audio version of her novel, The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach, is now available! You can find it on Librofm, Scribd, Google Play, and many other retailers. Jen also has a few FREE promo codes to listen on Spotify. If you’d like one and would be willing to leave a review, please email Jen at JDupree675@yahoo.com.

Jaq Evans‘ (Popular Fiction, S’20) debut horror novel, What Grows In the Dark, is now available for pre-order from Mira / HarperCollins! On sale March 5, 2024: “The Babadook meets The Blair Witch Project in this chilling contemporary horror novel about confronting trauma. When fake spiritualist Brigit returns home to investigate the disappearance of two teenagers, the case eerily echoes her own sister’s death sixteen years earlier.” 

Hank Garfield (Fiction, S’04), author of Moondog and Room 13, has a nonfiction story titled “The Last Waltz” in the September/October issue of Points East magazine. You can pick up a free copy of Points East at marinas, boatyards, and boat-related businesses all along the New England coast. Or you can sign up to read it on-line. Hank’s piece begins on page 19.

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S17) had a chapter of her Stonecoast thesis accepted as a short story in Military Experiences and the Arts, which will be published November 11. Her Christmas novella, The Bookstore Window, is available now on Amazon. 

At the 2023 8 & Halfilm Awards, Alan King‘s (Poetry, W’13) documentary Sing the Heart of the Magic: A Jennifer L. Nelson Story earned two esteemed honors: “Best Arthouse Documentary” and “Best American Director.” This documentary also garnered recognition at the North Beach American Film Festival, where it was listed among the top three notable films. Additionally, Alan’s documentary achieved finalist status in the “Best Documentary Short” category, as selected by 4theatre selection. You can watch here. The synopsis: This inspiring documentary traces the remarkable journey of Jennifer L. Nelson, a multifaceted artist whose profound influence on the Washington, D.C. theater scene is still felt today. From her early aspirations and transformative work at Living Stage Theatre Company to her pioneering role in hip-hop theater and her commitment to social activism, Jennifer’s story is one of resilience and empowerment. The film also highlights her impact on emerging artists, her dedication to amplifying marginalized voices on stage, and her legacy as an educator. Jennifer’s enduring passion and artistic contributions are beautifully encapsulated in her own words as she reads her poem, “I Choose to Be an Artist,” bringing her inspiring narrative to a moving close.

Fiona Lehn‘s (Popular Fiction, W’15) short horror story “The Shabah” has been published by Flametree Publishing in the gothic fantasy anthology Spirits & Ghouls, which was released September 26 in North America and is available from Amazon and others.

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) has lots of good news to share. Her story titled “Maggie’s Gift” was selected for publication later this fall after being longlisted in The Sunlight Press Summer Flash Fiction Contest, and two of her poems—“Fall Garden” and “Gardener’s Call Them Volunteers”—are in the Casserole print issue of Meat for Tea: Apple Valley Journal. You can read or listen to her brief CNF essay “Surprise Me” in the “It Should Always Be Fall in the Cemetery” October online issue of Instant Noodles Literary Magazine. (Nadja will be CNF Guest Editor for the winter “Coold Turkey” issue and there is still time left before 10/15, through Duosuma, to send in your under-500 word submission.) One of Nadja’s fairytale poems,  “Beauty Spins New Threads,” will be published this fall by online Opendoor Magazine and, finally, “Lorena’s Dilemma,” a chapter from her in-progress novel, has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of Barbar Literary Magazine.

Bonnie Naradzay’s (Poetry, W’08) poetry manuscript will be published by Slant Books next year.

Autumn Newman‘s (Poetry, S’09) poem “Reclamation” is published in the current issue of Cider Press Review.

Jonathan Pessant (Poetry, W’21) has three poems forthcoming: “An 8-year-old Astronaut Explodes Every 73 Seconds” will appear in Issue 145 of Space and Time Magazine. “Uncle Sam” will appear in an anthology by Milltown Press called GI Days: An Anthology of Military Life. “Stomp n Drag” will be published in Military Experience and the Arts‘ “As You Were” journal.

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) is pleased to share that she had two poems nominated for the Best of the Net! “domestic flight” in Nocturne Magazine and “The Art of Betraying Others for Food” in Coffin Bell. She’s also over the moon to say that her favorite story so far, “Wingless, Weeping / Featherless, Floating” was published in the October 2nd issue of Strange Horizons. 

Bruce Pratt (Fiction, S’04) has two pieces forthcoming in Portland Magazine, ashort story, “Fogbound,” and an extended interview with Grammy Award-winning and Maine-based musician, songwriter, and instrumentalist Dave Gutter.

Stonecoast Fiction (W’16) alum Darlene R. Taylor exhibited her multidisciplinary storytelling works during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, September 21-23rd. HEIRLOOMS from Behind Her Gaze included visual arts representing her prose-poetry in “Blood on a Blackberry” and new works that continue to explore re-membering fractured histories of Black girlhood and womanhood. The exhibition was curated by Melanee Harvey and Elka Stevens, Associate Professors of Fine Arts, and Kelis George, Curatorial Assistant, Howard University Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.

History-mapping Through Heirlooms HEIRLOOMS from Behind Her Gaze affirms the power of touch to hold memories of ancestors who made a way. Darlene R. Taylor assembles vintage linens, laces, cottons, and buttons in narratives that archive generations of Black women. Her prose, poetry, and collage connect family lore with public records to reclaim Black women’s lives in close-to-home settings that reveal a humanity long obscured in public history. Taylor is a multidisciplinary artist, solo exhibition artist fellow at the Academy Art Museum, and the inaugural Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Writer-in-Residence at the Columbus Museum of Art. Her creative work is supported through fellowships with the D.C. Commission for the Arts, the American Antiquarian Society, and literary organizations. Her literary works appear in journals and anthologies, and her visual art is in private collections and the Columbus Museum of Art. She is a contributor to How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill, an anthology of Black writers edited by Jericho Brown and released in July 2023 by HarperCollins. She serves on the faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

FACULTY  

As part of California African American Museum’s (CAAM) ongoing exhibition, Bahia Reverb: Artists and Place, which features 10 former Fellows at the Sacatar Institute in Bahia, Brazil, Faith Adiele (a Sacatar Fellow, Literature/Brazil 2002, 2010) will be facilitating a free writing workshop using the artwork to inspire participants’ investigations into place, memory, and culture to “explore the complexity of Black identities and the importance of Black travels and histories.” LA, Bahia, Africa: A Writing Workshop @ A+P takes place on October 19, 2023, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and all genres are welcome.

David Anthony Durham‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction) second Shadow Prince novel, The Longest Night in Egypt,is out now! He’s reading/speaking at Brandeis University in the Creative Writing Reading Series on November 2nd at the Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium, Waltham, MA.

Aaron Hamburger (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) is hitting the road again with Hotel Cuba, going to the JCC Fall Bookfest in Albuquerque on October 24 at 7:00 p.m. See the graphic below for details. You can also catch him at the Iota Literary Conference October 12-15. AND…a sneak peek into next month: if you happen to be in Dallas (November 3-4), Philly (November 7), Detroit (November 9), Austin (at the Texas Book Festival, November 11-12), or St. Louis (November 11), he’ll be in all of those places in November! More info to come on his website www.aaronhamburger.com or on the socials…

Elizabeth Hand’s (Popular Fiction, Fiction) forthcoming novel, A Haunting on the Hill, has received raves from the trade press, including a starred review in Booklist. The book has been named as one of Fall’s most anticipated titles by PW, Electric Literature, LitHub, Paste Magazine, The Rap Sheet, CrimeReads, Polygon, The Week, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and the Portland Press Herald, among others. In August, British multinational production giant Fremantle announced it’s developing Elizabeth’s Cass Neary novels for a returning series, to be shot in the UK. In September, she’ll be featured at the Cheltneham Literature Festival (UK) and will be doing events in Uppsala, Stockholm, and Gothenburg, Sweden, to support the UK edition of A Haunting on the Hill. 

Debra Marquart’s (Creative Nonfiction, Poetry) new poetry collection, Gratitude with Dogs Under Stars, published in August 2023 by NDSU Press, brings together under one cover the poet’s three award-winning collections—Everything’s a Verb (1995), From Sweetness (2002), and Small Buried Things (2015)—along with twenty-one new poems. Taken together, the poems offer a rare glimpse of a sweeping array of subjects and interests that captivate a writer’s imagination over the course of years. The early poems center on home and belonging, family and childhood, with a particular focus on Debra’s early life, growing up on a farm in North Dakota surrounded by an extended family of immigrants from her ethnic group, The Germans from Russia. The later poems gravitate to subjects of interest through early adulthood and into maturity—the rewards of love and the disappointments of loss. As a lifelong performing musician, Debra finds her way back to music and the art of listening, as subject matter, again and again in this collection. The more recent poems—especially those included in Small Buried Things and the “New Poems” section—take on an expanding list of subjects, including poems of the natural world, travel, history, and art. Taken together, the collection reflects the expansive curiosity of a poet in a constant state of love and wonder at the world.

Four-Sided, a short film based on Elizabeth Searle’s (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) script, won Best Narrative Short Film at the 2023 Magma International Film Festival in Madrid. The film has been selected for screening at five 2023 Festivals, as well as at multiple previous festivals. Also, Elizabeth’s new feminist thriller script, Lock Her Up, has been recognized as a Finalist in four 2023 festival competitions. In October, Elizabeth will attend two of these Festivals in the Boston area. Filmmaker Megan Griffiths, who directed feature film I’ll Show You Mine (which Elizabeth co-wrote and which is now widely available on home screens) discusses the film and more on the September 21st podcast DoubleXposure. For updates, see www.elizabethsearle.net.