ALUMS 

Peter Adrian Behravesh (Popular Fiction, W’18) narrated A.P. Hawkins’s story “Once Abandoned” for the January 2 episode of Escape Pod. You can listen to it here.

J Brooke (Poetry, S’19) in their role as Prose Book Reviews Editor at The Rumpus is pleased to announce bringing on recent Stonecoast grad Acree Graham Macam as Assistant Editor of Prose Book Reviews. This month’s reviews (which Acree already put their steady hands upon) can be found here and here. Now that the Canadian postal strike has ended, you can order J’s essay “The First Time I Consider Ending My Life I Am Four” (published in Room Magazine print edition) If you order a copy and don’t like the essay, J offers a full $20 dissatisfaction refund (note: refund not available to any of J’s former Stonecoast instructors who encouraged their talent.)

Jen Dupree (Fiction, W’15) is pleased to announce she has just signed a contract with Islandport Press for her memoir, These Things Happen. It will come out in the Spring of 2026. 

Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S’17) sold a mystery story to Woman’s World, 2/17 issue, which hits checkout stands February 1st. 

Paul Kirsch (Popular Fiction, W’11) has spent the last several years working on Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming game, Avowed, which launches on February 18th. Avowed is a role-playing adventure game in the Living Lands, a vibrant frontier full of ancient mystery and a colorful cast of characters. You can play it on Xbox, Steam, and Windows. Watch the story trailer here.

Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction, S’20) and Maine Writers Studio welcomes applications for the annual, free, one-week writing retreat in mid-June, Maine, this year for CNF and fiction writers. Deadline is February 28. For more information and application guidelines, go here. The Literary Salon & Open Mic is going strong, and had over 40 participants last month when it was held at the Brunswick Public Library. The next salon is Thursday, February 20th, also at the Brunswick library. Find out more here. Welcome! 

Nylah Lyman‘s (Poetry, S’10) ekphrastic poem “Cello Once Hit by a Train” was featured on SWWIM Every Day’s online journal on January 27. SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) publishes women and women-identifying writers by “creating a living archive of contemporary poetry, cultivating community, and connecting poets across generations.” You can read and hear an audio recording of the poem here. 

Marisca Pichette (Popular Fiction, S’21) is preparing for the publication of her novella, Every Dark Cloud, in March! She is thrilled to share this beautiful blurb from fellow Stonecoast alum Jaq Evans (Popular Fiction, S’20), author of What Grows in the Dark: “Marisca Pichette’s Every Dark Cloud is a spare, unflinching, yet wonderfully compassionate window into a future that feels all too possible—but even in the darkness of late-stage capitalism taken to its (un)natural extreme, Pichette never loses sight of human connection, both to each other and to the natural world. It’s a quick, fully realized read with its fingers planted firmly in the soil, delightfully queer sensibilities, and characters I would gladly follow far beyond these pages.”

Bruce Pratt (Fiction, S’04) has an article forthcoming in Portland Magazine regarding the sale by the King family to local business men of WKIT in Bangor, the end of WZON AM 620 after 98 years, and the future of the Downtown with Rich Kimball show heard for nearly 14 years on that signal and the now silent WKIT HD3. Bruce’s poem “Compulsory Figures” is included in the current edition of Sport Literate, and another poem, “Windy Smith Would Not Walk,” is forthcoming in the summer issue. He has poetry forthcoming in the next two issues of Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature. Heater, Southern Syntax, The Big Ballyard in the Bronx, Goliath, and Baseball Was Always Enough. Bruce’s short story “Winter Ball” will appear in the forthcoming issue of Twin Bill. His poem “Martha 1914” will appear in an upcoming issue of Gray’s Sporting Journal. And Bruce will join other contributors to the anthology North Woods at Night for a reading at the Orono Public Library from 6:00-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 27.

Several more clients that Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S’08) has worked with on manuscript development and editing, have recently seen their books move into published form, including a novel about an irascible race car driver, Win at All Costs, by Peter Wayne Resotka, and a comedic caper thriller, Just Only Slightly, by P.B. Landon. Forthcoming is a memoir about the long arm of family history, Strong Glass by Peggy (MD) Roblyer. Lisa’s client Ariella Cook-Shonkoff continues to publish essays and op-eds in the climate change and mental health space, and has a book forthcoming, Raising Anti-Doomers: How to Bring Up Resilient Kids Through Climate Change and Tumultuous Times.

Dyani Sabin (Popular Fiction, S’21) is delighted to announce that the volume she co-edited, Music Information Literacy: Inclusion and Advocacy, has been published by Library Juice Press. A book for academic music librarians, it covers new methods of librarianship to encourage the creation of inclusive, diverse catalogs and spaces for librarians and patrons alike. She and her co-editor recently appeared in a podcast on the New Books Network to discuss the book, and you can purchase it from the publisher or on Bookshop.org!

Novelist sid sibo (sidney woods, Fiction, W’19) will be featured on the podcast Voice Lessons: Uncovering and Claiming Your Unique, Creative Voice, with Jill Quist, in mid-February. Quist operates The Writer’s Refuge and offers editing, coaching and workshops alongside her podcast interviews with a variety of creatives.

Ruth Towne (Poetry, S ’18) is excited to announce the publication of her chapbook, So the Sadness Could Not Hurt (Kelsay Books, 2025), available now at KelsayBooks.com and Amazon.com. She is also looking forward to the publication of her first collection this spring, Resurrection of the Mannequins (Kelsay Books, 2025).

FACULTY  

Aaron Hamburger (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction) is teaching an online class for Politics and Prose called “Elegant Rulebreakers: W. G. Sebald and Rachel Cusk.” Want to learn how these wonderful writers break the rules without sacrificing elegance in prose? This is the class for you!