ANNOUNCEMENTS
It’s Boston Poetry Marathon time again! This year’s Boston Poetry Marathon is Friday-Sunday, August 16, 17, and 18, and …WE HAVE REALLY EXCITING NEWS! *We will be in a NEW LOCATION this year!* We are having this year’s Marathon at The Community Church of Boston at 565 Boylston St in Copley Square. This year’s event times are Friday, August 16th, from 6:00-10:30 p.m., Saturday, August 17th, from 12:00-10:30 p.m. (with a dinner break around 5:30, starting up again at 7:00 p.m.), and Sunday, August 18th, from 12:00-6:00 p.m. As always: every reader gets eight minutes each. For the third year running, Bridget Eileen (Poetry, W’09) is an organizer of this 20+ year-old Boston-area poetry festival tradition. This year’s lineup is TBD, but past years’ Stonecoast participants include alums Florine Melnyk, Carol Berg, Christine Tierney, and Vanesa Pacheco, and faculty Richard Hoffman and D. Nurkse. Admission is free but donations are welcome and appreciated. We are collecting donations ahead of time to help us with this year’s event at the new location. Learn more here. Event details are can be found here.
FACULTY
Candor Arts, in collaboration with Illinois Humanities and their #IllinoisTurns200, produced a risograph broadside of Tara Betts‘ (Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Social Change) Illinois Bicentennial poem. The broadside also features illustrations by Kiki Dupont. Betts’ poem nods at the sesquicentennial Gwendolyn Brooks wrote in ’68 to mark 150 years of statehood. Betts’ broadside will be given to the winners of the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards (#GWBYPA19) on August 10th, 2019.
John Florio (Creative Nonfiction, Popular Fiction, Writing for Social Change) has agreed to a two-book deal with Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. His first young-adult book, War in the Ring: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, and the Fight between America and Hitler, was released in June. In its review, Booklist calls the book “a knockout.” School Library Journal says it “reads as smoothly as a novel” and recommends it for “all public and school libraries.” Last week, John and his writing partner (and wife), Ouisie Shapiro, discussed the book’s themes on ESPN radio; you can hear the interview here.
Aaron Hamburger (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) was interviewed by novelist Kris Jansma for Electric Literature, which called his novel Nirvana Is Here “a pure joy to read on every page.” The Rupture also published a glowing review of Nirvana, calling it “an expertly written, bold, funny, serious novel.” DC fans, take note: on July 3rd, Aaron will be on a panel at the legendary Ask Rayceen Show doors opening at 6:00 p.m. He’ll also be teaching Publishing 101 at the Writer’s Center on July 10th, 7:00-9:00 p.m., as well as a special class on the novel Landfall by Thomas Mallon at Politics and Prose on July 14th, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) will accept the Grand Master Award, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 32 AB. There will be an autograph session afterwards with a panel of tie-in writers in the Sails Pavilion. Here is the press release from the association:
Not many women get to play in over ten different universes, let alone create several of their own. Yet that is exactly what Nancy Holder makes look so very—and deceptively—easy to her myriad and devoted fans.
Every year, the International Association of Media Tie-In writers selects a grandmaster of tie-in writing to receive the Faust, IAMTW’s lifetime achievement award. For 2019, it is the IAMTW’s great pleasure to present the Faust to Nancy Holder. Her tie-in work runs the gamut from Firefly to Saving Grace. She’s written Angel in the Buffyverse, and Zorro in the seventeenth century. She novelized the Wonder Woman, Crimson Peak, and Ghostbusters movies, and wrote about a Feline Felon, and a pup in Wishbone. Above and beyond her media work, she’s co-created the YA series Wicked and Crusade.
Of the Bram Stoker award-winning and NYT bestselling author, IAMTW president Jonathan Maberry says, “Nancy is not only a superb writer and a smart businesswoman, but also a kind and compassionate member of the writing community.”
The IAMTW congratulates Grandmaster Nancy Holder on receiving the 2019 Faust Award.
More film news for Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Playwriting, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting): her screenplay A Four-Sided Bed won Best Dramatic Screenplay at Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival in June, as well as Best First Time Feature Screenplay at Festivious Film Festival-LA, and was a Finalist at the Filmatic Drama Screenplay Awards. Over a dozen contests and festivals have given award recognition to Elizabeth’s script this year. The script will be featured in a full Staged Reading performance at the 15th Annual ReelHeART International Film and Screenplay Festival on July 5th in Toronto; Elizabeth will attend the film festival and do a Q/A after the staged reading. Later in July, Elizabeth’s script will be featured in a Best Scenes short read at the festival LGBT Toronto. Please see the updated website: http://www.afoursidedbedfilm.com
ALUMS
Jillian Abbott (Popular Fiction, S’04) has been invited to participate on a panel on the Ethics of Storytelling at Mix Digital, an international conference of digital writing at Bath Spa University in the UK on Monday, July 1, 2019; she also received a grant from the PSC_CUNY to attend the conference. The panel is moderated by writer Nikesh Shukla, described by Foreign Affairs Magazine as one of the top 100 thinkers in the world and by The Bookseller as one of the 100 most influential people in publishing. Also on the panel is Digital Curator from the British Museum, Stella Wisdom, and British novelist Rosie Garland. More details can be found here.
The short-film adaptation of Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) memoir, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, has three launches in July. The film’s Australian launch is at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival July 4-17. Two New England launches follow at the Maine International Film Festival at Railroad Square (July 12-21) and then the Woods Hole Film Festival (July 27-August 3). Bailey wrote and directed the film. For more details see wildsnailfilm.org. Also, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating has just been published in Spain in both Catalan (Més Libres) and Spanish (Capitán Swing) and the Spanish edition will have distribution in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina.
Peter Adrian Behravesh (Popular Fiction, W’18) narrated Derek Lubangakene’s story “Origami Angels” for the June 13th episode of Escape Pod. You can listen to it here.
Julie C. Day (Popular Fiction, S’12) is thrilled that her novella, The Rampant, now has both a cover and release date! The Rampant will be released by Aqueduct Press on October 1st, 2019, in both an ebook and paperback edition as part of their Conversation Pieces series.
It’s ten years since the hordes of old-world Sumerian gods arrived in Southern Indiana to kick off the end of the world, but things have not gone to plan. A principal player decided not to show. Now humanity is stuck in a seemingly never-ending apocalypse. Sixteen-year-old Emelia Bareilles and Gillian Halkey are determined to travel into the lands of the dead and force a change.
“I loved the epic journey of our two teenaged lesbian heroes, Gillian and Emelia, through the sprawling horrors of the Sumerian afterworld. The clash of their modern feminist sensibilities with the cruel and rigid theocracy of the very oldest gods out-weirds much of the New Weird. In The Rampant, Julie Day calls us to visit a fantastical landscape in a voice that is hers alone.” ~James Patrick Kelly, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards
“The Rampant was so much fun to read! Is that the right way to blurb a horror novel? I don’t know, but it’s the truth. Julie Day’s novel is smart, playful, sly and, yes, horrifying too. A short gem of a book.” ~Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling. Winner of the World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, and British Fantasy awards.
“The girl-powered post-apocalyptic Sumerian underworld quest I didn’t know I needed.” ~Sarah Pinsker, winner of the Nebula and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
“The Rampant is one of the most original Apocalypse tales I’ve read in ages. Julie C. Day avoids cliché and gives the reader the end-times by way of Sumerian myth—except this particular end-of-the-world stalls when one of its principal players decides not to show up. What unfolds is a journey into the underworld filled with joy and horror, hope and loss. It’s a wise and lovely story—exactly what I’ve come to expect from Day.” ~Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award; shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards.
Terri Glass’s (Poetry/Creative Nonfiction, S’13) poem “Waiting for the Lazuli Bunting” was published in the Spring 2019 issue of Birdland Journal, and her poem “Spirit Bear” will be published in the upcoming Marin Poetry Center Anthology. Terri also taught a workshop on the history of haiku for the summer residency of the MFA program at Dominican University in June 2019.
Lissa Kiernan (Poetry, S’11) is pleased to announce Catskill Lit: Words & Music Revival, a generative writing retreat.
Alan King (Poetry, W’13) started his production company, Alan W. King Productions, which specializes in audio, video, literary services, marketing and content management. For authors, his services include book trailers, social media banner designs to help promote your book, and media outreach for reviews. Alan marketed his second book, Point Blank, which was named among the “Ten Best Poetry Books for 2016” by Beltway Poetry Journal. It was also listed among “The Best Poetry Books of the New Year 2017” by Washington Independent Review of Books and was reviewed in publications such as the Washington City Paper and the Best American Poetry blog. Learn more here.
Kristin Leonard (Fiction, S’18) received the 2019 Maine Literary Award for Drama.
Jeanette Lynes‘ (Poetry/Fiction, S’05) second novel, The Small Things that End the World, won the Muslims for Peace and Justice Fiction Award at the 2019 Saskatchewan Book Awards, Canada.
John Christopher Nelson‘s (Fiction, S’15) flash-fiction piece, “A Miracle Shy of Martyrdom,” is forthcoming in Necessary Fiction. John is currently in residency as a Teaching Apprentice at Stonecoast.
Ellie O’Leary (Poetry, W’17) is organizing the first annual Fall Writerfest at the Pyramid Life Center in Paradox, NY, Sunday, September 22nd, through Friday September 27th, 2019. Fee is $300 inclusive of lodging, all meals, workshops, and seminars. Stonecoaster Clif Travers (Popular Fiction, S’17) will be teaching fiction, Ellie will be teaching a multi-genre workshop, and there will also be workshops in poetry and CNF along with seminars on publishing, Tai Chi, writing through grief, and more to be added.
Erin Roberts (Popular Fiction, W’18) is thrilled to have been recently awarded a 2019 Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and plans to use the grant to spend more time writing. She’s also deeply proud to have her story “Sour Milk Girls,” which was previously selected to be in The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Vol. 4, also selected to be in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2019. Finally, her 2018 short story “The Grays of Cestus V,” originally in Asimov’s, is now available free to the masses through its inclusion in the short story podcast Tales from A Black Universe—links here (Spotify) and here (Apple).
Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S ’08), will lead a one-day workshop, “Dialogue and Scene for Prose Writers,” with Cedar Ridge Writers Series, in Bedminster, NJ, on Saturday, July 20th. Details here.
Tamie (Harkins) Parker Song (Creative Nonfiction, S’12) invites writers of all stripes who are looking for a good editor to contact her. For the last five years she has worked as a developmental editor on a number of wonderful books that have been published by the University of California Press, focusing mostly on race and gender studies. She’s also edited half a dozen creative nonfiction books, a couple YA novels, and poetry. Authors she’s worked with include Michael Kimmel, Khaled Beydoun, Deepak Singh, Julie Bettie, Barbara Owen, and Robert Wyrod. She works on a generous sliding scale, and is especially interested in working with artists who are isolated socially or geographically, and with intellectuals whose work centers on social justice. She is happy to work with clients for just an hour or two, or for a year, or on an as-needed basis. Please contact her at tamieparkersong@gmail.com.
Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) won a $500 Merit Scholarship to attend Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop held recently at Hollins University. The award was based on an excerpt from a novel in progress.
