ANNOUNCEMENTS

We are thrilled to announce that Stonecoast is now accepting presentation submissions for the Summer 2024 residency. If you are interested in teaching a 60-minute presentation from 8:15 am to 9:15 am, please provide a detailed description of your class or panel to Robin Talbot (robin.talbot@maine.edu) no later than Monday, February 26, 2024. Your presentation or panel description should be between 150-175 words and include a “Suggested Reading” section. Alums who are not local will teach via Zoom. Alums will be paid a modest stipend.

Below is a list of presentations, panels, and topics proposed in the past. The list below is only a suggested list. We welcome any topics that alums are passionate about teaching and sharing with MFA students. 

• Craft, Editing
• Scriptwriting
• World Poetry 
• Author Profiles
• Pedagogy 
• Interviewing and Profiling
• Writing monologues/performative writing
• Lyric Essay
• Sensory details
• Publishing 
• Worldbuilding 
• Antiracism Workshops 
• Eco-poetics at the core social justice   
• Hybrid forms/deconstructs genre/write out of your genre
•  Line-editing and copy-editing/crash course
• Reading the Other/Writing the Other
• Historical fiction/CNF/Pop/Poetry
• Revision
• Social Justice 
• Collaborations
• Space opera
• Writing about trauma. How do you interview someone who has experienced trauma (e.g. first responders, people on the front lines of civil rights, gay rights movements.)

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

ALUMS 

J Brooke (Poetry, S’19) had a blast interviewing the talented Andrés Ordorica (among The Observer’s 10 Best 2024 Debut Novelists) about his debut novel How We Named the Stars (released by Tin House January 31st) for The Massachusetts Review. Read the interview here but more significantly read this unusual book! J’s new short film Roommates (co-written/co-directed with their film partner and spouse, Beatrice Alda, and winner of Best Documentary at Raindance NYC) plays this month at Spokane International Film Festival. 

Linda Buckmaster‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’11) traveling banners exhibit, “Of Cod and Communities,” is finishing its month-long residency at the Northeast Harbor (Maine) Library and is moving to the Rockport Public Library for February. The exhibit is an adaptation of Linda’s hybrid Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands and consists of eight 3′ by 5′ soft fabric banners. In Rockport, she will be offering an Artist Talk and Reading on February 3, at 1:00 p.m., and on the 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., she will lead her workshop “Writing Place: Landscape, People and Story.” Later in the year, the banners will travel to libraries in Cape Elizabeth, Hope, Camden, and Bangor. She is taking bookings for 2025.

Renee S. DeCamillis (Popular Fiction, W’14)is excited to announce the re-release of her debut book, the psychological thriller novella The Bone Cutters, which is now published through Encyclopocalypse Publications. This re-release is in preparation for the publication of the sequel, Chisel the Bone, which is coming out on July 23, 2024, and will be Renee’s debut full-length novel. In short fiction news, Renee’s metal music themed horror story “Faceless” was published on January 9, 2024, in the anthology Dethfest Confessions: The Devil’s Playlist.

Teri Elam (Poetry, S’19) is grateful that her TV Pilot (Dramedy), Andi Lake Has Things to Do, based on becoming her mother’s caretaker during her memory-care journey, is a current Semifinalist in the Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition and a 2024 Cinestory TV Contest quarterfinalist and was an Austin Film Festival Second Rounder. Her poems “A Dance with My Niece at the High Museum” will be published in the March 2024 issue of Beyond Words Literary Magazine, and “My Niece Is an Uprising” will be published in Beyond Queer Words Literary Magazine. And Teri is excited that her previously published poem, “On Being Called the N-Word in 2016: A Southern Ghazal,” was requested by Kwame Alexander for his anthology This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, released in January 2024.

Natalie Harris-Spencer (Fiction, S’21) was selected as the Class Representative for the 2024 Crime Fiction Workshop with Laura Lippman, at the 20th Annual Writers in Paradise Conference. She also has a short story forthcoming in Pleiades.

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S’17) explores behind-the-scenes at a writers’ retreat and the quest for fame and love in her mainstream novel, Your 15 Minutes, now available on Kindle.

Emily (Swartz) Knowles aka Emma Wilde (Popular Fiction, W’14) was awarded First Place in the Romance category of the 11th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards for her debut novella, Everything In Between. The announcement will be in the May/June issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine. 

Andrea Lani (Fiction, W ’14) is thrilled that her essay “Fledging Season” appears in Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology, released by Small Harbor Publishing on January 26th. Andrea and several other contributors will read short excerpts from their work at a launch event on February 1st at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time via Facebook live. 

Kristin LaTour (Poetry, S’07) is proud to introduce the Aurora Writers Workshop, a weekend-long writer’s retreat in Aurora, IL, June 7-9th, 2024. Faculty include Donna Vorreyer, Ananda Lima, and Greg Stolze, who will cover aspects of poetry and fiction in small classes capped at 12 participants. Events will include a keynote from Meg Cass, a faculty reading, and a student open-mic, along with social events around downtown Aurora, about 35 miles west of Chicago, accessible by Metra train. Visit aurorawritersworkshop.com.

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) would love to see some Stonecoasters share her love of stories & words & community on Wednesday, February 14, at 6:30 p.m. when Maine Writers Studio hosts its bi-monthly Literary Salon & Open Mic at OneSixtyFive: The Inn on Park Row in Brunswick. Literary guest is Sandell Morse who will talk about her book The Spiral Shell: A French Village Reveals Its Secrets of Jewish Resistance in World War II (Schaffner Press, 2020). Bring something to share for open mic, and enjoy drinks & food available for purchase at the venue. Nina also had an essay published in The Manifest Station, titled Twenty-Three Loads of Laundry. 

Nylah Lyman‘s (Poetry, S’10) poem “Bread Making for Beginners,” which appeared in the minnesota review Issue 101, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize XLIX. Nylah is currently working on her next collection of poetry. 

Alison McMahan‘s (Popular Fiction, W’10) essay “Sisters-in-Arms,” about how the depiction of female agency has changed from early film and modernist literature to the movie Barbie, will appear in the Sisters-in-Arms issue of Thrill Ride Magazine. Her short story “Vroom-Vroom-Boom,” about a sentient race car, will appear in the Gadgets issue. Thrill Ride is a quarterly themed magazine dedicated to finding the best in action-adventure and thriller short fiction. The best way to read it is to participate in the Kickstarter drive in the first two weeks of February. 

Nadja Maril’s (Fiction, W’20) speculative Flash piece, “They Say The Moment Before You Take Your Final Breath,” was recently published in Commuter Lit magazine. And her story  “Maggie’s Gift,” longlisted for The Sunlight Press 2023 Flash Fiction Contest, is now live on The Sunlight Press website. Also appearing this month in the Frost and Firelight issue of OpenDoor Magazine is her flash prose titled “Winter Fire.”

Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, W’06) is looking forward to returning to in-person AWP in Kansas City and hoping to meet up with other Stonecoast alums. Elli will be on a panel Thursday morning, signing books at the Red Hen Press booth Friday afternoon, and doing a lightning reading at the Writer-to-Writer event Saturday afternoon. Come say hi.

Autumn Newman‘s (Poetry, S’09) poem, “Shame” is online at River Heron Review; “The Last Cottonwood Tree” is online at The Tiger Moth Review; and “Rooting” is online at Braided Way. Her poem “Brigid Heals Me” was one of only 28 poems chosen to be included in Brigid’s Book, a collection of short poems, verse, dialogue and writings on the subject of Brigid as a manifestation of every woman who has been forgotten and every young girl who dreams of greatness. Autumn also took part in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 challenge in January and wrote the final group cento, which you can read here. You can connect with Autumn, and her poetry, on Instagram @autumnnewman36.

Jonathan Pessant‘s (Poetry, W ’21) poem “Distrust That Particular Flavor” appears in the anthology Read to Me Some Poems: 20 Years of Longfellow Days Poems. Another poem, “The War Chip,” will appear in Middle West Press’s Giant Robot Poems anthology, spring 2024.

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) is excited to share that her debut poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, is on the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot! Stonecoast has a solid presence there, including work by Christa Carmen (Popular Fiction, W’21), Robert Levy (Popular Fiction Faculty), and Carina Bissett (Popular Fiction, S’18). Marisca has also had three poems nominated for this year’s Rhysling Award. This month, she will be a panelist and reader at Boskone 61 from February 9-11. She looks forward to seeing many fellow Stonecoasters there! You might also catch her reading from her collection with Strong Women, Strange Worlds on February 15 at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) poems “Adam’s First Question” and “Catherine Blake’s Lament”will appear in the next edition of The Cafe Review.

Erinn Pascal at Andrews McMeel has acquired Hedgehog Whodunit by Heather (Cyr) Preusser (Fiction, S’13) and Gal Weizman, a chapter-book series about a sleepy hedgehog and tireless rat solving animal antics in City Zoo. Book one is scheduled to publish in Fall 2024. Janine Le at Janine Le Literary Agency represented the author, and Tina Doffing at Astound US represented the illustrator in the three-book deal.

Catherine Schmitt (Creative Nonfiction, W’12) has an essay, “With Poetry and Science, Revising the Language of Land,” on how and why to make the language of place more inclusive, in the Winter issue of Habitat magazine. 

Linda K Sienkiewicz (Fiction, S’09) is reading from her latest poetry chapbook, Sleepwalker, for Appleton’s Poetry Unlocked with Ria Di Peeples on February 12 at 6:30 p.m. EST via Zoom. The program includes open mic, so please join us! The Facebook event page is here, but if you aren’t on Facebook, you can register here.

Mary Snell (Poetry, S’06) gave a presentation, during the recent January 2024 Stonecoast MFA residency on “Leading Writing Workshops That Heal.” Drawing from her own work with cancer patients, Mary provided examples and gave specific suggestions on how to structure such workshops, encouraging students to go out into the community and offer their own.

Eugenio Volpe (Fiction, ’06) appeared on the podcast This Podcast Will Change Your Life in January, discussing the writing life and his debut novel. 

Christopher Watkins’s (Poetry, W’08) new book of poetry will be published by Pine Row Press on February 2nd! And he’s happy to report that it features blurbs from several Stonecoast faculty alums, including Baron Wormser, Dennis Nurkse, and Ted Deppe.

Time for the Debut Novel announcement! Bison Books, the fiction imprint at University of Nebraska Press, has signed a contract for sid sibo’s contemporary novel, The Scent of Distant Family, and it is due out in early fall of 2024. Stonecoast fiction alum sidney woods (W’19) writes as sid sibo and maintains the Acoustic Burro blog—people creating positive news for the planet—at www.siboMountain.net. 

FACULTY  

“Tender Headed”—Faith Adiele’s (Creative Nonfiction) nonfiction essay about her experiences getting braided–and de-braided–in Nigeria, Morocco, and Essaouira—appears in Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, Issue #10: Intimacy.

Theodore Deppe‘s (Poetry, Stonecoast in Ireland) new collection of poems, Impossible Blackbird, has been published by Arlen House in Ireland. Ted can be reached at teddeppe2@hotmail.com.

Aaron Hamburger‘s (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) Hotel Cuba tour continues, with a stop in Annapolis, MD (with novelist Lauren Grodstein) February 3rd, and online events in Rockland, NY, February 6th, and Denver, February 22nd. Aaron is also teaching writing workshops on Writing Your Story for Maine Media and Pitching and Querying for the Writer’s Center. 

Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) will be featured “in conversation” with iconic author Jayne Anne Phillips, discussing Phillips’ new novel Night Watch at Beacon Hill Books in Boston at 6:30 p.m. on February 7th. Reserve a seat here. In film news: Elizabeth’s script Lock Her Up is a Finalist for Best Horror/Thriller Screenplay at the longstanding 2024 Austin Revolution Film Festival; Elizabeth was also named a Finalist there for 2023 Female Writer of the Year.