ANNOUNCEMENTS

As we approach the start of the summer 2024 residency (June 22 – June 29, 2024), we wanted to take a moment to share some updates about your program.

This summer Stonecoast will meet on USM’s Portland campus. This move gives our students and faculty access to university resources (including the Osher Map Library, the new McGoldrick Center, and the Portland Commons dormitory) and to the city itself.

We’ll have some special guests this summer, including Gretchen Legler, Nick Fuller Googins, and Cleo Qian. Sarah Braunstein will be teaching her first workshop at Stonecoast in more than six years. Our evening readings, on the top floor of the Glickman Family Library, will overlook Portland’s Back Cove. We’ve included a list of evening events in this email in hopes that you might join us. Link here.

If you only have time to come to one event this summer, we’d love to see you on Wednesday, June 26th, when we’ll be at Mechanics’ Hall in downtown Portland for an event we’re calling “Transformative Writing, Reading, and Engagement.” Lily King, Morgan Talty (Fiction, W’19), and Arisa White will read from their work and talk about the power that writing has to transform the writer and the reader. This special event is part of Stonecoast’s WISE (Writing for Inclusivity and Social Equity) initiative. 

Robin and Justin want to thank all of you for your support. As you know, earlier this year we invited alumni to submit presentation ideas for the summer residency. We were overwhelmed by the range and strength of your responses. We simply didn’t have room to feature all of the exciting work that the community members proposed. We are grateful to you all for the guidance and inspiration you bring to Stonecoast. We will be reaching out again when we start to look toward January’s residency.

We hope to see you soon!

ALUMS 

Ryan Brod‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’17) essay “Good Blood” is featured in the Spring 2024 issue of Rustica. Visit www.rusticajournal.com to buy a copy. 

The Maine Review just published J Brooke’s (Poetry, S’19, and 2023-24 Stonecoast guest faculty) writing  (again—shout out to AJ Bermudez and Chelsea Jackson) with “The Name Dropper” in their Spring/Summer Issue. And J’s 2023 essay “Denny and Me,” originally published in Passengers Journal, was reprinted in Tina Carson’s “Gender Defiant” Substack.

KT Bryski (Popular Fiction, W’16) is pleased to announce that their debut novella Lovely Creatures releases this month from Psychopomp. Bryony’s been searching for her big sister for ten years and change, and the trail finally leads her to Mr. Once-Upon-a-Time’s traveling show, rolling through the wasteland in a giant wooden whale—but Bryony’s not the only one on the hunt. Available June 11, learn more here. 

Kendall Giles (Popular Fiction, W’13) is happy to share that his article “Review of Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values by Bernadette Longo” has just been published in the April 2024 edition of Technology and Culture by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Terri Glass’s (Poetry/Creative Nonfiction, S’13) poetry wall art of endangered species is currently showing at the Del Norte County Airport in Crescent City, CA, until July 17, 2024.  Her year-long project, Plea for Wildlife, has been funded in part by the California Arts Council through the Upstate California Creative Corps program. Her poetry wall art circulated around various venues throughout the year reaching local businesses and educational facilities in Del Norte County. Visit www.terriglass.com.

The Lady of the Cliffs: The Bury Down Chronicles, Book Two, by Rebecca Kightlinger (Fiction, W’14), won the 2023 CIBA Chaucer Award for Dark Age, Medieval, and Renaissance fiction.

David A. Hewitt‘s (Popular Fiction, S’09) irredeemably silly story “Donald Q. Haute, Gentleman Inquisitator, and the Peril of the Pythogator” appears (as a reprint) in the Spring 2024 issue of Dragon Gems magazine, available in trade paperback, hardcover, and digital formats. 

Andrea Lani (Fiction, W’14) is thrilled to announce that her story “The Rest of the Story” tied for third place in the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance’s CrimeFlash Fiction Contest for the 2024 Maine Crime Wave conference. The winner and other finalists will be reading their stories during the opening evening of the conference, An Evening of Crime (Writing)! This part of the event, to be held on June 14th starting at 5:00 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) invites the Stonecoast Community to join her in Brunswick on the evening of June 19th for Maine Writers Studio‘s ongoing Literary Salon & Open Mic. Click here for more info about the literary guest, times, and place. She is also excited to be newly certified as a Narrative 4 story-exchange facilitator. Check out the amazing work N4 does in their work to build empathy and community, and give Nina a holler if you think a story-exchange event could be something to bring to your school/community/work-place.     

Nadja Maril (Fiction, W’20) is pleased to share that her creative-nonfiction essay “March of the Brigadier General” will appear in an upcoming issue of  the online magazine The Manifest Station,and her flash fiction piece “Three Secrets” will appear early this month in Bright Flash Literary Review.Also coming out in print is her piece of microfiction “The First is Always the Best” in the June issue (theme: Addicted to Love) of Blink-Ink. 

Catharine H. Murray (Creative Nonfiction, S’17) has returned to Maine after a winter out west where she was a writer in residence at Ucross, Centrum and Vashon Artists Residency. Thursday, June 6th at 6:00 p.m., invited by Friends With Forks, she will be speaking at their first summer Sip ‘n’ Nosh in Scarborough. Guests will enjoy an evening of wine, food and conversation in a private home. Catharine will read from her memoir and share her story of healing through writing and how she applies lessons learned from grief to the work of living well today. For tickets, click here. Also in June, Catharine will continue teaching her online classes on memoir and hybrid work. A few spots will be opening up in June in Little Frankensteins, a genre-bending online workshop where a new constraint each week jump-starts exciting creativity in students’ short form pieces of poetry and prose. Click here for more information and to register. And this summer, Catharine will open her memoir classes to new students for the first time in almost two years. To learn more, contact her here. 

Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17) is curating the 2024 Freedom (Maine) Summer Reading Series. The first featured reader is Clif Travers (Pop Fiction, S’17) reading from his short story collection The Stones of Riverton.

Anne Britting Oleson‘s (Poetry, W’05) latest Aventurine Morrow thriller, Aventurine on the Border, will be published by Encircle Publications on June 12th. The third in the series, this instalment has Aventurine following a trail of clues hinting at information about her brother-in-law’s mysterious disappearance, taking her from Hay-on-Wye to London to Whitby. This book, as well as the previous two in the series, Aventurine and the Reckoning and Aventurine on the Bailgate, are available from your favorite bookseller.

Jonathan Pessant (Poetry, W’21) has a poem—“Stomp n Drag”—in Volume 20 of As You Were: A Military Review. 

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) is happy to share that three of her poems nominated for the 2024 Rhysling Award have been named finalists! “The Goth Girls’ Gun Gang,” “A Prayer for the Surviving,” and “As the witch burns” will all appear in the 2024 Rhysling Anthology this summer, along with Theodora Goss‘ poem “The Witch Makes Her To-Do List.” Marisca will also be a virtual panelist at the online Nebula Conference at the beginning of June!

Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) poems “Gunmetal Gray” and “Alone” will appear in the next issue of Maine Arts Journal. His poems “Catherine Blake’s Lament” and “Adams’ First Question” are in the current issue of The Cafe Review. His short article on the upcoming Opera Maine production of Aida will appear in Portland Magazine.

Weiser Books has acquired Starlore Arcana by Nitasia Roland (Popular Fiction, W’19), in stores September 2024 and currently available to pre-order on Amazon: “The stars and constellations have long been regarded as gods, sacred ancestors, and powerful entities. Starlore Arcana is the mythology and folklore of sixty-three constellations, including the zodiac written by Nitasia Roland of Urania Press. By including stellar insight and associations with the minor arcana, the author invites a playful exploration between the tarot, the fixed stars, the zodiac, and playing card cartomancy promoting transformation and poignant connection with the guidance of spirit, the wisdom of the stars, the ancients, and the seen and unseen worlds.”

Jacob Strunk‘s (Fiction, W’06) new short-short looks at the Maine tourist season and wonders… what could possibly go wrong? Crack open a Geary’s and tuck into “The Savior of Battery Island” in the latest 7th Circle Pyrite.

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam‘s (Popular Fiction, S’13) debut horror novel, Grim Root, releases from Dark Matter Ink on June 3.

Darlene R. Taylor (Fiction, W’17) exhibited Heirlooms at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. Heirlooms will be on exhibition through July 14, 2024.

Rhiannon J. Taylor/R. J. Howell’s (Popular Fiction, S’19) fantasy short story “On the Road to Lemenfort” was published in Issue 8 of Gwyllion. It is available in e-book and very limited print.

Adrienne S. Wallner‘s (Poetry, Winter’09) interactive installation Seeds of Inspiration, Words for Contemplation was on display at Unwind in Woodruff through the month of May. On June 22, she will perform her poetry with Madison singer songwriter Kelly Hepper at the Unwind Community Celebration at the same location. A series of Adrienne’s poems addressing the issue of marine debris in the Great Lakes will be included in the NOAA-sponsored Support Superior art installation at Isle Royale National Park, beginning June 1st. Elements of the exhibit will be on display in the Houghton Visitor Center, Rock Harbor Auditorium, Ozaagaateng Visitor Center, and aboard the Ranger III.       

On the third birthday of The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine, and the second anniversary of its winning two Maine Literary Awards, Robin Clifford Wood (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) is excited to announce the launch of the audiobook version, recorded in her own voice with the help of genius audio production guy, Kevin Kline. Find it at audible.com, iTunes, or Amazon. Also, Robin will be doing a book event, Breaking the Block, with Robert Klose in Belfast on June 4th from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Belfast Library, where we will discuss the joys and pitfalls of the writing life. Come join us!

FACULTY  

Pride Month is here, and Aaron Hamburger (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction) will be participating in Lavender Con, a weekend festival in Washington, DC, celebrating LGBTQIA+ authors, June 29-30, 2024, at the National Press Club. See https://lavendercon.com for the full schedule. Also, Aaron will be appearing in DC at an Uptown Pride Reading on June 15 at 4:00 p.m. at Second Wind Crossfit, 5509 14th Street NW. Finally, Aaron’s novel Nirvana Is Here was listed on CLMP’s Reading List for Jewish American Heritage Month 2024. 

Elizabeth Searle has film news. I’ll Show You Mine (the Duplass Brothers feature film that Elizabeth co-wrote, which was released last summer) is now available on several additional streaming platforms, along with Amazon Prime, including: Peacock, Plex, XumoPlay and Gravitas Ventures. Also: Four-Sided (a short film based on Elizabeth’s feature script) has been accepted at its 21rst film festival, Moonlight International Film Festival 2024, which will screen the film in October. The film screened last month at New Bedford Film Festival where Elizabeth taught an Intro to Screenwriting workshop and did a Q/A on the film. Four-Sided stars Rain Valdez (Transparent, Lopez) who is also attached as a star and a co-producer on the ongoing project of developing A Four-Sided Bed as a feature film. See: www.elizabethsearle.net