ALUMS

Shannon Bowring (Fiction, W’22) is delighted (and still in a fair amount of shock) that her debut novel, The Road to Dalton, has been selected by NPR for their list of 381 Books We Love in 2023. She is also excited to share that the novel is now available as an audiobook, released by Tantor Media, a division of Recorded Books. You can download the audiobook from Libro.fm (which benefits indie booksellers!), cloudLibrary, Google Play, Apple, Audible, audiobooks.com, Barnes & Noble, and more. Shannon will be talking all things Dalton, and selling/signing copies of the book, at the Bangor Authors’ Book Fair & Literary Festival on Saturday, December 9th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the Bangor Public Library. Swing by if you can!

J Brooke (Poetry, S’19) became Aaron Hamburger’s biggest fan after discovering the audio version of his most recent book, Hotel Cuba, (along with Paxlovid) was capable of curing a lousy bout of Covid… Once healed, J didn’t suffer brain fog but rather lingering questions surrounding the novel’s treatment of sexuality and gender that they needed Aaron to answer. The interview which ensued was published last month in the “Just In” section of Streetlight Magazine (look for the image of the retro tape recorder… nice touch from this terrific journal). J will be a 2023/24 guest faculty at Stonecoast.

Linda Buckmaster (Creative Nonfiction, S’11) will be one of 99 authors at the Bangor Authors Book Fair and Literary Festival on Saturday, December 9, at the Bangor Public Library. She will be featuring her hybrid Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands. Her poem, “Nine Ways to Get to Bangor,” is included in the Festival’s launch of the anthology Rivers of Ink: Reflections on the Penobscot (Willows Press). Two of her flash pieces are appearing in Migrations and Home: The Elements of Place (Writing the Land Press).

Aimee Degroat‘s (Fiction, S’21, publishing under AJ Newsom) short story “Time for a Cut” received its second honorable mention from the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. Her short story “Big Big Love” was published in the fall edition of the Raleigh Review.

Terri Glass’s (Poetry/Creative Nonfiction, S’13) poems of endangered species are appearing monthly in EcoNews, the Northcoast Environmental Center’s newsletter. She will also have two poems published in The Power of the Feminine I poetry anthology.

Penny Guisinger‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’13) second memoir, Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions, will be released by University of Nebraska Press on March 1, 2024. The book explores Penny’s changing identify as she exits her straight marriage to a man directly into a relationship, which ultimately becomes her second marriage, with a woman. Along the way, Shift reaches for understanding of how one’s identity can change so dramatically while leaving one’s true sense of self the same through metaphors involving quantum physics, food, music, planetary alignment, and more. Mark Doty called the book “a terrific contribution to queer literature and a wonderfully fresh, irresistible delight.” Shift is available for pre-order now.

Lexa Hillyer (Poetry, S’10) is launching A Lantern In The Dark, her 12-week group coaching program for book-writing on January 22, 2024. This is not a normal writing class but a healing journey to help you connect, or reconnect, to your true voice and to the big, daunting book you’ve been wanting to begin for a long time. Let this be the year you finally do it! 

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S’17) sold an article on the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” to the 2024 Harris’ Farmer’s Almanac, on newsstands now. 

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) just had craft piece published on the Brevity Blog. You can check out “A Collaboration of Bodies: How Publishing in an Anthology Can Expand Your Literary Community” here. As the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio, she is also excited to share that applications are now accepted for the inaugural, FREE, one-week solo writer’s retreat in June 2024. This is a chance to spend a week in a gloriously converted barn in Brunswick, Maine, for a deep-dive into your project. Check out the details here. Also, for last month’s news, Nina was a little too fast on the keyboard and shared the flier for the December Literary Salon & Open Mic in Brunswick, featuring special guest and Stonecoast alum Clif Travers, with a typo! Below is the updated flier; if you are in Maine, I hope you can join us for a lively conversation about the art of breathing life into the dead, and do bring something to share for the open mic, too!

Will Ludwigsen‘s (Popular Fiction, W’11) novella, A Scout Is Brave, will appear from Lethe Press in June 2024. Modified from his Stonecoast MFA thesis, it tells the story of a young newcomer to a small coastal town who discovers the Lovecraftian locals have sinister and far-reaching plans for his family. 

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) spent the entire month of November writing 50,000 plus words for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and can announce she can join the thousands of winners who participated in this yearly event. December begins with two of her essays, “The Story of the Family Samovar” and “Family History” plus writer’s notes, appearing in Sugar Sugar Salt, an online magazine that re-issues CNF essays worthy of a “second publication.” Her story titled “Winter Solstice” was selected for publication later this month in Atlantic Northeast Review, and her poem “Turkey or Potato Pancakes?” will appear in the “Coold Turkey” Winter Issue of Instant Noodles Literary Magazine.

Laura Navarre (Popular Fiction, W’11) published Gemini Wild, Book 3 in her Amazon bestselling dark witch adult academy why-choose romance series with Ascendant Press, on November 14. Her first-in-series Gemini Queen won the 2023 Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion for Best Book by a Virginia Author and the 2023 New England Readers’ Choice Award for best erotic romance. 

John Christopher Nelson‘s (Fiction, S’15) CNF piece, “Sprinkler Rainbows,” will be published in the upcoming issue of Euphemism.

Autumn Newman‘s (Poetry, S’09) villanelle “Reclamation” is online at Cider Press Review. You can stay up to date with her publications, and forthcoming chapbook, by following her on Instagram. 

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) enjoyed participating in the Virtual International Conference of the Fantastic Arts as an invited creative guest in November! She read from her collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, and attended other panels and events. As 2023 comes to a close, she is happy to share that she’s published 25 stories and 60 poems this year! To wrap up 2023, she will be reading with Christa Carmen for the Stonecoast Alumni Reading Series on December 7. Looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces!

Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) story “A Star Near Orion” will be included in the forthcoming anthology Maine Character Energy from Rogue Owl Press. Proceeds will benefit those affected by the Lewiston shootings.

Tamie Parker Song (Creative Nonfiction, S’12) read her essay “Avenging Angels” at the Archestratus Bookstore in Brooklyn on November 19! She felt very famous to be reading in Brooklyn. The essay appears in the new chapbook/anthology Eating Alone: Essays & Reflections, which can be purchased at Archestratus Bookstore or by emailing clotheslines@mailbox.org.

At the culmination of a recent experience as Artist-in-Residence in Idaho, sidney woods (Fiction, W’19) presented on Incubating a New Novel through reading a series of poems. As prompted by former faculty Breena Clarke during a Stonecoast-in-Ireland residency, these poems represented Witness and Resistance, yes, and also the value of humble laughter when tugging on humanity’s many tangled and stoutly rooted pickles. Read more from author sid sibo at www.siboMountain.net.

FACULTY

John Florio (Popular Fiction, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction Faculty | Fiction/Popular Fiction, S’07) and Ouisie Shapiro’s YA book DOOMED: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the End of the American Dream was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by School Library Journal. (You can read the SLJ review of DOOMED here.) Their next YA book, MARKED MAN: Frank Serpico’s Inside Battle Against Police Corruption, is scheduled for release on March 19, 2024. 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.

If you missed any of Aaron Hamburger‘s (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) in-person events for his novel Hotel Cuba, never fear. Two virtual events await you. 

• Aaron is presenting Hotel Cuba in a free online event with Beth El Book Club of Harrisburg, PA, December 5. Register here.
• Also, attention, all Mainers! On December 6, the Hadassah x MJM Book club at the Southern Maine Jewish Community Alliance is hosting a virtual AND in-person event inspired by Hotel Cuba! The event will kick off at 4:00 p.m. with a Mojito cookie bake (inspired by the torticas de Morón—Cuban shortbread cookies—that Pearl craves in the book). While the cookies bake, we will enjoy Cuban food and drinks and listen to Aaron’s virtual talk at 7:00 p.m. Come join at any time, for part or all of the event. Please register by December 4th to receive the Zoom link for the talk. In-person ($9) and virtual (free) registration options available.
• Finally, the audio version of Hotel Cuba is now available on Spotify!

Elizabeth Searle’s (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) short film Four-Sided—based on her longer feature script for A FourSided Bed—has now screened at 17 festivals, including several this year. The 11-minute short has won 2023 awards at Sensei International Film Festival (Tokyo), MAGMA in Madrid and at FilmHaus Festival (Germany); the film is an Official Selection at the upcoming Cannes World Art Festival (2024). Rain Valdez (Emmy nominee for Razor Tongue) stars in the short film and is also attached as star and co-producer in the feature-film version of A Four-Sided Bed, which is in development with two additional producers. Elizabeth’s film/TV scripts are now represented by Tammy Hunt, Manager, Producer, and Co-founder of the talent management company Sandstone Artists. For film updates, see: www.afoursidedbedfilm.com

Photo caption: Actresses Rain Valdez and Mara Reltien in the award-winning short film Four-Sided