Calling all Stonecoasters past and present in the New York City area—please join us on Wednesday, January 4th, 2017, for a special Stonecoast Night at the KGB Bar in Manhattan, 85 E. 4th St. from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Featured faculty readers will be Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Elizabeth Searle, and Breena Clarke. Joining in with flash readings will be students and alums Daniel Ball, Peter Behravesh, Anthony D’Aries, Jessica de Koninck, Gro Flatebo, Lissa Kiernan, Erin Roberts, and Alex Sherman. Please come to cheer and toast the New Year. We hope to see many of you there!
ALUMS
Elisabeth Tova Bailey (Creative Nonfiction, S’15) received a 2016 Jane Morrison Film Fund grant and a 2017 Fellowship in Literature from the Maine Arts Commission.
Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S’13) is thrilled her story “What the Dollhouse Said” is scheduled to air on the Pseudopod Podcast on January 13, 2017. Her zombie masters vs robot apocalypse flash fiction “We Are Still Feeling,” originally published in alumni Cynthia Kraack’s Boundaries Without: The Calumet Editions 2017 Anthology of Speculative Fiction on October 29, 2016, will be reprinted in Sockdolager magazine’s Women of War Special Issue, Winter 2017. MK Gibson’s interview Karen Bovenmyer – Drop and Give me 20! 20 Hard Questions for Hard Authors was published on November 30, 2016, revealing Karen’s biggest failure, greatest shame and what Frankenstein, a bunch of grapes, and a broken closet door have to do with it. She also goes on and on about how wonderful you all are in the Stonecoast program. Another interview promoting her forthcoming fantasy novella “The Beaded Slipper” in Crimson Edge Press’s Maidens and Magic anthology went live on December 11. In her role as nonfiction editor for Mothership Zeta Magazine, Karen is assisting alumna Mur Lafferty in preparing the January issue (#6), which will include an awesome story from alumna Jennifer Castello and a Story Doctor article from faculty member James Patrick Kelly.
Amy Burroughs (Creative Nonfiction, W’16) received a Pushcart Prize nomination for her essay “Two Strangers on a Train,” published in Jabberwock Review.
Michael L Joy (Popular Fiction, S’13) has been voted to the board of the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America for 2017.
Alan King’s (Poetry, W’13) book Point Blank was named among the “Ten Best Poetry Books of 2016” by Beltway Poetry. He also just finished a new trailer for the book, which you can watch here.
Joe M. McDermott‘s (Popular Fiction, S’11) new novel, The Fortress at the End of Time, about clones on a military listening station in deep space, comes out on January 17 from Tor.com.
Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, W ’06) is delighted to share the cover of her third novel, Kinship Of Clover. She will be signing copies at the Red Hen Press booth at AWP and reading at Politics & Prose on February 10, 6:00 p.m.
Harlequin has picked up all three books in The Magick Trilogy by Laura Navarre (Popular Fiction, W’11) for its paranormal romance DTC program. Midsummer Magick, a sexy Tudor fallen angel romance about the son of Lucifer and a secret Tudor princess, is a January 2017 release.
Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) full length play The King of France has won this year’s Meetinghouse Theatre Lab’s play competition and will receive a staged reading in Winter Harbor on January 21 at 7:00 p.m. at Hammond Hall, 427 Main Street, Winter Harbor, ME 04693. The event is free and open to the public and will feature a talk back with the playwright and actors following the performance. The play set in the fictional town of Hopton Maine in Aroostock County examines both the deep pull of that region on its inhabitants and its serious limitations for young people, as well as the devastating effects of isolation and abuse. For information please call 207-963-2569 or contact Schoodic Arts for All at info@schoodicartsforall.org.
Karen Pullen‘s (Popular Fiction, S’08) second mystery novel, Cold Heart, will be released by Five Star Cengage on January 18. The series features an undercover drug agent who is pulled into a homicide investigation. In November, her story “No Falling Ribbons” was included in an anthology, Stuck in the Middle (Main Street Rag).
STUDENTS
Brenda Cooper‘s (Fiction) novel, Edge of Dark , won the 2016 Endeavour Award, which was presented ay Orycon in November, 2016. The Endeavour award is “…for a distinguished Science Fiction or Fantasy Book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.” Edge of Dark, edited by Rene Sears, was published by Prometheus Books in 2015. The award includes a $1,000 cash award and a glass trophy.
FACULTY
Jim Kelly’s (Popular Fiction) story “One Sister, Two Sisters, Three” published in October in Clarkesworld (read and/or listen to it online here). has been selected for The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. This will be Jim’s sixteenth appearance in this anthology series.
In addition to the January 4th KGB reading in New York City, Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) will read from her new novel We Got Him at the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA, on Jan. 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Elizabeth’s show Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera completed its six-week run in Chicago, fully produced by Underscore Theater. The show was listed as one of the Top Five Musicals of 2016 by New City, which had written in its review: “The play radiates like strobe light hitting a disco ball. Tonya and Nancy’ relates a cautionary tale of ambition, manipulation, competition and the appalling way men and women treat girls.” For quotes, pictures, and film clips from Chicago, see: www.tonyaandnancytherockopera.com
Sheila Boneham (Creative Nonfiction/Cross Genre, S’13) is pleased to announce the release of Shepherd’s Crook, her fourth Animals in Focus mystery from Midnight Ink. Her essay “A Question of Corvids” will also appear this month in the 2015 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology edited by Rebecca Skloot, and her poem “Spin” will be appear in 27 Views of Wilmington, also being released in October by Eno Publishers. Sheila will be giving a reading with several other North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship recipients in Wilmington on October 4th, and as part of a “release slam” for 27 Views on October 24.
Eric M. Bosarge‘s (Popular Fiction, W’12) short story “Taking My Time” appeared in The New Haven Review.
Karen Bovenmyer’s (Popular Fiction, S’13) short story “What the Dollhouse Said” will be in a forthcoming episode of Pseudopod! She’s so excited! She’s been an avid listener for four years and has every episode on Podisc. Her micro fiction “So Normal and Unwritten” will be reprinted in a forthcoming edition of Bosley Gravel’s Cavalcade of Terror. Her story “The Scarlet Cloak,” from her Stonecoast thesis, will be reprinted in the December 1 issue of Luna Station Quarterly, a speculative fiction magazine featuring stories by emerging women authors. She is using skills she learned writing Stonecoast homework to create book reviews and editorials for the magazine Mothership Zeta, which debuts October 15 with its first issue (she is the nonfiction editor, alumna Mur Lafferty is the editor-in-chief). Issue 0, featuring book reviews from Stonecoast faculty Liz Hand and short story reviews from alum Bonnie Stufflebeam is already available for free download at http://mothershipzeta.org/. Issue 1 will feature a short story by Bonnie and a “Story Doctor” analysis of why her story works so brilliantly by faculty James Patrick Kelly, as well as a “Favorite 2014-2015 Graphic Novels” review by alum Adam Gallardo. Karen is thrilled to be working with so many talented people!!!!
Libby Cudmore‘s (Creative Nonfiction/Popular Fiction S’10) debut novel The Big Rewind (William Morrow) received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, who called it “A mystery that will inspire more than one playlist and, hopefully, a sequel.” The book is slated for release on February 2, 2016.
A short film written by Adam Kreutz Gallardo (Popular Fiction, S’12), Monster Movie, is an official selection at this year’s McMinnville Short Film Festival on October 3rd. The film is based on his novel, Zomburbia.
Penny Guisinger’s (Creative Nonfiction, S’13) piece “Coming Out” is listed as a notable essay in the 2015 volume of Best American Essays, edited by Ariel Levy. The piece originally appeared in Fourth Genre, fall 2014.
Lexa Hillyer (Poetry, S’10) was named producer on a forthcoming TV show from WBTV based on Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman, the first book in a series she created, plotted and edited with her literary company Paper Lantern Lit. Read more here.
Joe M. McDermott (Popular Fiction, S’11) sold his short story “Snowbirds” to Analog Science Fiction and Fact.
Authors Bill Roorbach, Susan Conley, and Meredith Hall will discuss the “Joys & Challenges of Writing Fiction, Non-fiction, & Memoir,” moderated by Helen Peppe (Creative Nonfiction, ’11) on October 18, 2015, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Open to the public. Authors will have books for signing. Contact Laurie Skillings: laurie@addwithease.com for location and directions.
Karen Pullen‘s (Popular Fiction, S’08) short story “#grenadegranny” is included in the Bouchercon 2015 anthology Murder Under the Oaks, edited by Art Taylor and published by Down & Out. The anthology will be available after Bouchercon, the world’s biggest mystery fan convention, in Raleigh, NC, on October 8-11. Her second mystery novel, Cold Heart, has been accepted by Five Star Cengage for publication in August 2016.
Marian Romero‘s (Popular Fiction, S’15) story “Ruta Lato and the Ghost of the Revolution” will be appearing in Betwixtthis month.
All Our Yesterdays, a new film by Jacob Strunk (Fiction, W ’07), begins its festival run with an October 18th premiere at HorrorQuest Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, just in time for Halloween.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s (Popular fiction, S’13) “Sleeping With Spirits” is due to appear in Motherzhip Zeta, the new magazine edited by fellow Stonecoasters Mur Lafferty and Karen Bovenmyer, on October 15; this story was written for a Stonecoast humor workshop with James Patrick Kelly and Aaron Hamburger. Her roundup of the best short fiction of 2014 was in their Issue 0, available for free download at http://mothershipzeta.org/. Her dark fantasy story “A Careful Fire” will appear in Beneath Ceaseless Skies this month. Her poem “The Werewolf” has been reprinted in Tony Barnstone and Michelle Mitchell-Foust’s Monster Verseanthology.
Lisa C. Taylor‘s (Poetry, S’04) first collection of short fiction launched in Ireland on September 3rd (Pearse Street Library in Dublin) and September 5th (Charlie Byrne’s Book Shop in Galway). Ted and Annie Deppe were among the attendees at the Galway reading. It will launch in the United States on November 14, 2015, at the Mansfield Center Library in Mansfield, CT. See www.lisactaylor.com for details of her upcoming readings. Here is a link to one of the early reviews of the book (even though it says it was released in January, this is incorrect; the book was published in Ireland in August). This collection should be widely available by mid-November. Lisa looks forward to reading in Maine, perhaps in December or January.
FACULTY
Jeanne Marie Beaumont’s (Poetry) poem “Bride” appears in the new anthology Monster Verse: Human and Inhuman Poems, edited by Tony Barnstone and Michelle Mitchell-Foust.
Ted Deppe (Poetry, Coordinator of Stonecoast in Ireland) will give a reading for Old Dominion University’s 38th Annual Literary Festival at 12:30 p.m. on 8 October at the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center, Virginia Beach, VA.
Martín Espada‘s (Poetry, Writing for Social Change) new collection of poems, Vivas to Those Who Have Failed, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in January.
Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) has a new book out on October 15: the official novelization for the new Guillermo del Toro movie, Crimson Peak. She was approved by del Toro and attended a private screening at Legendary Pictures with some VIPs from Universal Studios. Both the movie and book will come out in mid-October. “In Arkham Town Where I was Bound,” a Lovecraftian story narrated by Edgar Allan Poe received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror of the Year Volume 7. Nancy read the story last winter at Stonecoast.
October 14-25, Mike Kimball‘s (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) play Best Enemies will be staged at the Studio Theater at Portland Stage, 25A Forest Ave, Portland ME. Two cowboys, lone survivors of a sabotaged rodeo cruise, are marooned together on a tiny desert island. To preserve their sanity, they’ve invented imaginary geography and instituted a system of laws, but ultimately they go to war over their shared cowboy hat. The Portland Phoenix called the Best Enemies “A sly, haunting, and remarkably fun new existential comedy . . . nimble, irreverent, and immensely entertaining,” and The Portsmouth Herald described it as “Smart, funny, poignant and creepy.” Tickets available for purchase here.
David Mura (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Writing for Social Change) published his essay, “Asian Americans: The Front & Back of the Bus” in the anthology A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry & Race. He was guest blogger for the Gulf Coast Literary Journal (his own blog is blog.davidmura.com). He’s just completed a book of essays on creative writing and is finishing up his book of essays on race. His conversations on race and the arts with Minnesota artists can be found on youtube and his conversation with Stonecoast faculty member Alexs Pate is also on the Minnesota Public Radio website.
Stonecoast in Ireland will host its 20th residency in January 2016. Information and applications are available from Ted Deppe at theodore.deppe@maine.edu. The deadline for applying is 14 May 2015.
Alumni
Sheila Boneham (Creative Nonfiction/Cross Genre, S’13) is honored to have learned that guest editor Rebecca Skloot has selected Sheila’s essay “A Question of Corvids” for inclusion in the 2015 Best Science and Nature Writing anthology, to be published this fall by Houghton Mifflin. The essay, an earlier version of which was Sheila’s graduation reading, won the 2014 Prime Number Magazine Award for Creative Nonfiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Award.
Meg Elison, Rod Duncan, Emmi Itäranta, and Jennifer Marie Brissett (l-r)
Julie C. Day‘s (Popular Fiction, S’12) story “Raising Babies”—inspired by memories of southern Indiana,”The Yellow Wallpaper,” and spring—is now available in issue 145 of Crack the Spine.
Sarah R. Flynn (Popular Fiction, W’15) has a piece forthcoming in the July issue of The Writer magazine. The feature article outlines how to create a writing workshop for adult literacy students and was influenced by her third semester project and graduate presentation. This is her first professional sale.
Cynthia Kraack‘s (Fiction, W’10) first literary novel, The High Cost of Flowers, is one of three finalists in two categories of the 25th Anniversary Midwest Book Awards: Literary Fiction and Contemporary Fiction. The competition, sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishing Association, is judged by experts from all aspects of the book world. They select winners and finalists from a 12-state region based on overall excellence. Cynthia’s first speculative fiction novel, Minnesota Cold, won the 2009 Northeastern Book Award for Fiction.
Mur Lafferty (Popular Fiction, W’14) will be the editor-in-chief and Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S’13) will be non-fiction editor of Escape Artists’ new speculative fiction e-zine this fall. Issue zero is slated for an August release. Escape Artists are best known for the Escape Pod, Pod Castle, and PseudoPod podcasts.
Matthew Quinn Martin’s (Popular Fiction, S’10) novella Nightlife: Hazardous Material will be released by Pocket Star/Simon & Schuster on May 11. T.L. Costa, critically acclaimed author of Playing Tyler, has called the book “A taut, mesmerizing tale of horror, madness and video games. It’s as if Stephen King penned Ready Player One. Readers will devour this in one sitting.”
Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, W’06) has a new essay, “Crossing Borders in Fiction,” in The Cleaver magazine, here.
For the second year in a row, Roxanne Ocasio (Popular Fiction, W’15) and Kristabelle Munson (Fiction, current) have been accepted into the prestigious VONA/Voices writers’ workshop in Miami. Co-founded by Junot Diaz, VONA is the only writers’ conference in the country with a multi-genre focus on writers of color as students and teachers.
Alexandra Oliver (Poetry, W’11) has had her latest manuscript, Lost Property Hotline,accepted for April 2016 publication by Biblioasis. Her poem “Margaret Rose” (previously published in The Walrus) will be appearing in Best Canadian Poetry 2015. This has been a busy time for Alexandra, who is also celebrating the release of Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters (Random House/Everyman), co-edited with Annie Finch. Here she is in action earlier this month, reading at the Tree Series in Ottawa:
Janet Passehl’s (Poetry, S’10) poems “Dear Colum,” and “his rented left brother and bottle of yellow music” are published in Calibanonline 19.
Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) poem “Think of Sophia Loren” will appear in the 2015 edition of Stolen Island Review. He recently played the principal role in the short film Harvey’s Dream adapted from the Stephen King story of the same name that appeared in The New Yorker several years ago. In addition to playing Harvey, he consulted with the writer-director, Ryan Shelley, on the script. A fall premier is to be scheduled at the University of Maine.
“Side Effects,” a short story by Karen Pullen (Popular Fiction, S’08), will appear in Reed Magazine, Issue 68, in May. In January, Karen’s story “Brown Jersey Cow” was published online by Every Day Fiction, the once-a-day flash fiction magazine.
Michaela Roessner-Herman‘s (Popular Fiction, S’08) short story “Flattened” has been picked for inclusion in the Western Weird anthology, the Speculative Fiction edition of the Manifest West literary anthology series.
Beth Slattery‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’10) essay, “Hello to All That,” which explores Joan Didion’s writing, was published in the Spring 2015 issue of Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Study.
J.G. Strauss (Fiction, S’14) will read from her novel-in-progress, The Three Lives of Gráinne Ó Mháille as part of Cape Whale at SEA Space in Provincetown, MA, on May 1st, 2015.
Ashley Warren‘s (Fiction, S’12) short story “Cataphile” has been selected as an honorable mention for Volume 27 of Allegory.
Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) has retired from the Catawba County (NC) Library System. Her 9-year library newspaper column has converted to a more general one titled “Fork in the Road.” Her essays are also posted on her website.
Students
Elisabeth Tova Bailey‘s (Creative Nonfiction) book, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, was published by Algonquin Books in 2010. Now the digital audiobook has just been released by audible.com. The CD edition of the audiobook will launch from Brilliance in July with narration by Renee Raudman. The Chicago Tribune audiobook review is here.
Kristabelle Munson (Fiction) has been invited to give a presentation at Queers & Comics, the first university conference for queer cartoonists and comics writers with keynote speakers Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse. Kristabelle will show pages of a graphic novella written at Stonecoast.
Jaed Coffin (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Writing for Social Change) has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor in the English department at the University of New Hampshire, beginning in fall 2015. He’ll be teaching both in the MFA and undergraduate creative writing programs.
Ted and Annie Deppe (Poetry, Coordinator of Stonecoast in Ireland) will be giving a poetry reading at the Connemara Mussel Festival, Mweelrea Hotel, Tully Cross, Ireland, at 6:00 p.m. on 2 May 2015. They will also be reading on the Aran Islands on 21 May for Old Dominion University. Ted’s next U.S. reading has been confirmed for Old Dominion University in Virginia on 8 October 2015.
Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) has a new book out: Beauty and the Beast: Some Gave All, based on the Beauty and the Beast reboot on the CW. She and Stonecoast alumna Erin Underwood (Popular Fiction, S’09) have a new column titled “Writing Reading Guides” in the Science Fiction Writers of America Bulletin.
When astronauts overcorrect a negative turtle jacket on their high-tail thruster, initiating precautionary self-destruct protocol, they have only one recourse: radio Mission Control. Unfortunately, Mission Control has been privatized.Mike Kimball‘s (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) 10-minute play Houston will be staged at the Boston Theatre Marathon—50 ten-minute plays, written by 50 playwrights, produced by 50 theatre companies in one day: Sunday, May 10, starting at 12:00 p.m. at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston. Houston will also be staged in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Playwrights’ Festival—seven short plays by Maine playwrights May 13-16 at the St. Lawrence Arts Center.
Elizabeth Searle‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) rock opera—Tonya & Nancy: the Rock Opera—will be produced in New York City this summer as an official full-production show at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) with multiple performances in July, dates TBA. Elizabeth will be in NYC with the show during the residency but she hopes to see some Stonecoasters at “ringside” at the show. Check out the coverage in Theater Mania. For info and updates on performances and tickets, visit www.tonyaandnancytherockopera.com
Poster from previous Boston production; NYC dates TBD.
Erin Lyn Bodin (Fiction S’14) published the title essay of her thesis, “Art of Being Light,” in Kindred Magazine‘s Fall 2014 Issue: Gather. Erin is also thrilled to announce that she’s been granted a 2015 A Room of Her Own Foundation Fellowship and will attend the Waves Discussion Series/2015 Retreat: Writing Against the Current. The week long residency will be at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico in August and is facilitated by Fellow of Distinction Maxine Hong Kingston. Inspired by the Retreat’s history of bringing together “a tapestry of women who, together, create a world of possibility for each other,” Erin’s fellowship proposal consisted of her research while at Stonecoast and her graduate presentation: How to Write a Narrative in the Feminine.
Eric M. Bosarge‘s (Popular Fiction, W’12) short story “Aberrant” was published in Spinetingler Magazine.
Libby Cudmore (Popular Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, S’10) is thrilled to announce that her debut novel, tentatively titled No Awkward Goodbyes, has been acquired by Chelsey Emmelhainz at William Morrow for publication in Winter 2016. Additionally, her story “The Redemption of Oren Barry” was named as an Honorable Mention in the Stoneslide Story Contest, and her flash fiction piece “How To Murder Your Friends” took the top prize in the Stoneslide Snap contest.
Julie C. Day‘s (Popular Fiction, S’12) story “Ghost Bubbles” is now available in the October issue of the online magazine Bartleby Snopes. It started out as a flash piece written for the 2014 Art & Words Show, curated annually by Stonecoast’s own Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam. If you feel so inclined, you can cast a vote to make it their Story of the Month. Voting is open through the first few days of November.
Erin Enberg‘s (Fiction, W’11) short film Arabel, which she wrote and directed, was an official selection at the New Hampshire Film Festival in October. It is also one of four shorts chosen to open the Cape Ann Film Festival October 30th in Gloucester, MA. Arabel is the screen version of “The Stalag, 1944,” a flash fiction piece set in WWII that was part of her thesis and was published in Stonecoast Lines, Winter 2011.
Scene from Arabel
At the New Hampshire Film Festival: Jayson Lobozzo, producer & DP; Erika Wilson, actress; and Erin Enberg, writer & director
Andrea Lani (Fiction, W14) was pleased to see two nonfiction pieces appear in print last month. Her essay “Here Be Dragons,” about raising a rock ‘n’ roll son, came out as part of the Motherlode: Essays on Parenting anthology published by KY Story, and her essay/article about hiking with children, “Skinny Big Hill Hard Mountain,” appeared in Issue 18 of TrailGroove magazine.
Matthew Quinn Martin‘s (Popular Fiction, S’10) short story “Hazardous Material” (originally published in Aphelion) is set to be re-released this May by Simon & Schuster/PocketStar as an eBook single. Expanded to novella length and retitled Nightlife: Hazardous Material, this new version has been extensively revised to fit in fully with Martin’s “nightlife universe.” It contains new and previously unpublished material, including an ending that is very different from the original (which will remain available here).
Alexandra Oliver (Poetry, W’12) recently gave an interview with Canadian poet and critic Rob McLennan about her work as co-editor of The Rotary Dial. Check it out at here. While you’re at it, come and visit The Rotary Dial at home—go to http://therotarydial.ca for more details.
The short story “Have You Seen Her?” by Karen Pullen (Popular Fiction, S’08) was published in the fiction gallery Phantasmacore.
Geek Theater: 15 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stage Plays, edited by Erin Underwood (Popular Fiction, S’09) andJen Gunnels and featuring a play by James Patrick Kelly (faculty), will be published by Underwords Press on November 4, 2014.
FACULTY
Sarah Braunstein’s (Fiction, Writing for Social Change) essay “Billy” was recently published on The Nervous Breakdown. She will be on this year’s National Selection Panel for the YoungArts Foundation. On November 12, she will perform a new piece, “Night of the Moose”—in collaboration with William Giraldi—at the Double Take Reading Series (Apexart, New York City).
David Anthony Durham (Fiction, Popular Fiction) has closed another movie option deal for one of his books. They apparently have him gagged and bound, though, as he’s unable to disclose any details.
In conjunction with DC Reads and the George Washington University, Aaron Hamburger (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Popular Fiction) is leading a discussion of Dinaw Mengestu’s novel The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears on November 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library.
Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) took part in the NAMT (National Alliance for Musical Theater) festival and conference in New York City Oct. 23-26. Elizabeth’s work has previously been a finalist at NAMT; she attended this year’s festival as a member of the Creative Team of Broadway Consortium, which has been a producer on such Broadway hits as Matilda and Master Class and which directed a 2013 staged reading of Elizabeth’s rock opera. Watch for news of upcoming performances of Elizabeth’s rock opera at www.tonyaandnancytherockopera.com
Karen Bovenmyer‘s (Popular Fiction, S’13) poem “NeverNever Holes” was published April 10 on ZingaraPoet.
Bunny Goodjohn (Poetry, W’07) has creative nonfiction in the latest issue of Pithead Chapel. She has also wrangled a place on the Jessie duPont three-week summer-seminar series entitled “Constructing Childhood: Words and Pictures.”
Sandra McDonald (Popular Fiction, W’05) sold the story “End of the World Community College,” a tongue-in-cheek story of apocalypse and hope, to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for publication later this year. Visit her at www.sandramcdonald.com.
Carolina Crimes: 19 Tales of Lust, Love, and Longing, published by Wildside Press, features stories by Sisters in Crime mystery writers from the Carolinas. A book trailer can be seen here. Karen Pullen (Popular Fiction, S’08) edited the stories, which includes her own “The Fourth Girl” about a recently fired teacher who inherits her aunt’s estate and finds that it comes with an unusual small business.
In April, Steve Rhodes‘ (Poetry, W’11) second poetry collection was published by Wind. Of What Might Not Be Steve says, “This collection is a sequel to The Time I Didn’t Know What to Do Next. I’m trying to ponder those moments and places where the possible rubs up against the unlikely, where the boundary between ‘is’ and ‘might or might not be’ becomes blurred. I very much appreciate what Ted Deppe says about this collection: ‘These poems wonder at our being here at all.'”
Michaela Roessner-Herman (Popular Fiction, S’08) has been asked to contribute to an upcoming Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Cookbook—the third that SFWA has produced, this time as part of SFWA’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2015. Michaela has previously provided recipes for two other genre-related cookbooks, both of which where fundraisers for the Tiptree Award: Her Smoke Rose Up from Supper and The Bakery Men Don’t See.
Lisa Romeo‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’08) flash essay “Coffee Regular,” an excerpt from her memoir-in-essays manuscript, appeared in the March issue of Gravel Magazine. Lisa was interviewed recently for The Writer’s Hot Seat section of the Barnstorm Journal blog. She would like to remind all in the Stonecoast community that she extends an open invitation to feature your guest post at her blog to help support your book or other creative project.
Lisa C. Taylor (Poetry, ’04) will be presenting a workshop on “Going into Dark Places: Taboos in Writing” at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem on May 3, 2014, at the Hawthorne Hotel. A recent interview with Lisa is in the online edition of The Worcester Review; her poem “Cathedral of Shadows” was published there in March. Also, she has new fiction appearing in Bartleby Snopes online and Mulberry Fork Review online.
Adrienne S. Wallner (Poetry, W’09) has accepted a position as a Wilderness Instructor with New Vision Wilderness, a wilderness immersion therapy and education program in northern Wisconsin. Some writing-specific work she will be doing with clients includes therapeutic journaling, poetry, ekphrasis, and nature writing. She is very excited to start her new position in September. (Those of you who spoke with her at AWP—yes, this is the job she was talking about!).
Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) is thrilled to see her story “The Cozy Corner” in volume three of The New Guard. The story, excerpted from her Stonecoast creative thesis, was a finalist for the Machigonne Fiction Contest.
FACULTY NEWS
Boman Desai‘s (Fiction) novel The Lesbian Man was shortlisted for the Dana Award for novels. The first chapter of the same novel won first place in a competition of first chapters late last year.
Aaron Hamburger‘s (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Popular Fiction) short story “Honeymoon for One” (which he read at the last residency) is in the new issue of Subtropics.
Elizabeth Hand‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction) essay “Saved by Obamacare,” about her experience with the Affordable Care Act, appeared in Salon.
Three new appearances in print this month for Jim Kelly (Popular Fiction): “The Pope of the Chimps” in The Book of Silverberg, edited by Gardner Dozois and William Schafer published on May 1; “Bernardo’s House,” a stand-alone e-book in English and Italian from Roman publisher Future Fiction; and “The Promise of Space” in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight, edited by Jonathan Strahan, due on May 18. His super-hero story “The Biggest,” originally commissioned by Stonecoast alumna Mur Lafferty, has been recorded for the podcast Starship Sofa Episode 334. Jim has adapted “The Promise of Space” for the stage and it will appear this fall in the anthology Geek Theater: 12 Plays by Science Fiction and Fantasy Masters, edited by Jen Gunnels and Stonecoast alumna Erin Underwood.
Mike Kimball‘s (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) monologues “Nightmare Girl” and “Career Day” took first prize in the Maine Playwrights Festival’s Monologathon. His full-length play Duck and Cover was voted Audience Favorite in Dezart Performs Play Reading Series (Palm Springs, CA), and the play will be fully staged in January 2015. The Players’ Ring (Portsmouth, NH) has announced that Mike’s Edgar-nominated play “Ghosts of Ocean House” will run for three weeks in October 2014.
Debra Marquart‘s (Creative Nonfiction, Poetry) essay “Not All There” appeared in Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland. Her poem “Kablooey Is the Sound You’ll Hear” was published in The Normal School: A Literary Magazine. Also, Debra traveled inside the North Dakota oil boom under a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council during November of 2013. She taught writing workshops in thirteen communities impacted by the oil boom for a research project. Read about her first impressions of this fast-moving environmental story inside the Bakken oil boom here.
A Month Inside the Oil Boom: the North Dakota highway leading into the Badlands (photo provided by Debra Marquart).
Alexandra Oliver‘s (Poetry, ’12) book Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway has been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, given for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman published during the previous year. The winner of this award will be announced in June. An interview with Rob McLennan on the subject of this nomination can be found here. In addition to this, Alexandra is this month’s Guest Contributor for the BANG section of The New Guard Review.
Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) has a new short story, “The Quiet Car,” just published in Solstice literary magazine. For fellow fans of train-writing: this story takes place on an Amtrak “Quiet Car.”
Suzanne Strempek Shea‘s (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction) Portland, ME, reading from her newly released book This Is Paradise has been rescheduled to Thursday, May 22. She thanks those who first marked their calendars for May 8, then May 9. She promises this will be the last date change. The reading will be held at 6:00 p.m. at The Gallery at Harmon’s and Barton’s, 584 Congress Street. This Is Paradise is the story of the Irish woman Mags Riordan and the medical clinic she founded in the remote Malawian village where her son died while on holiday. A TV interview with Mags Riordan and Suzanne is here. A story on the book, from The Republican of Springfield, MA, is here. Suzanne will also be reading May 31 at 11:00 a.m. at Toadstool Books in Peterborough, NH, and on the same at the Toadstool store in Keene, NH, at 2:00 p.m. The books was launched April 23 at Broadside Bookshop in Northampton, MA, and Suzanne thanks all the Stonecoasters who attended. Two days later, Suzanne served as emcee for Bay Path College’s 19th annual Women’s Leadership Conference in Springfield, MA. Bearing the theme “Own Your Story,” the event featured television legend Barbara Walters, New York Times columnist Bruce Feiler and Syria Deeply founder Lara Setrakian, and was attended by a crowd of more than 2,000.
Author’s-eye view of Broadside Bookshop launch of This Is Paradise. Stonecoaster scan starts with Lisa Taylor in front row and former faculty member Lesléa Newman in second row.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Call for Submissions for an Anthology Celebrating the Life and Work of Bill Morrissey
This book will be edited by Bill friends and New England writers Bruce Pratt and Suzanne Strempek Shea.
Singer, songwriter, novelist, outdoorsman, raconteur, family member, friend—Bill Morrissey was many things to the many, many, many people he touched in his life. We’d like to know just who he was to you. Submit your essay to be considered for a proposed anthology that will illustrate the innumerable sides of a man who left us far too soon, and left us with so much. Whether you know him from high school, or the high stool, whether you are a friend who shared a stage with him or a fan who shared his love of small towns on the river, tell us your Bill story.
Nonfiction submissions (essays, stories, lyrics, poems, appreciations) of up to 5,000 words should be sent in Word format by August 1 to bp.manuscripts (at) gmaildot.com. Include a cover letter with full contact information and a brief description of your connection to Bill. Contract will follow acceptance.
Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels and five works of nonfiction, including the newly released This Is Paradise: An Irish Mother’s Grief, an African Vllage’s Plight and the Medical Clinic that Brought Fresh Hope to Both. Her friendship with Bill sprang from their shared Polish heritage and their love of small towns on the river. Suzanne has been featured on NBC’s Today, National Public Radio and Voice of America, and in USA Today and The Washington Post. Her freelance work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ESPN the Magazine, Yankee and Bark. Suzanne teaches at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program and is director of the creative writing program and writer in residence at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, MA.
Bruce Pratt is the author of the novel The Serpents of Blissfull from Mountain State Press and the poetry collection Boreal from Antrim House Books. He has won prizes and awards for his drama, short fiction, poetry, and songwriting, and his work has been published in dozens of journal and reviews in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. For twenty years he plied his trade as a singer/songwriter and for fifteen of those years traveled extensively with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. He was a long time friend and admirer of Bill, with whom he performed on many occasions. Pratt is the editor of the Annual American Fiction Anthology from New Rivers Press. Retired from performing, Pratt teaches Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Maine and to private students.
Sheila Boneham (Creative Nonfiction/Cross Genre, S’13) answered author Sherman Alexie’s challenge to fellow writers to support local bookstores by playing “bookseller for a day.” She spent Small Business Saturday (the independent business response to Black Friday) by volunteering at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, NC. Sheila recommends the experience highly—you don’t have to wait until November! Here‘s Sherman’s letter to us book nerds.
Kathy Briccetti(Creative Nonfiction, W’07) has accepted an adjunct instructor position teaching a Transitional English class (e.g. English 95) at The Art Institute of California in San Francisco. Before launching into each day’s discussions, grammar practice, and writing instruction, she reads a poem and offers a five-minute free-writing period. The students now know that poems do not have to rhyme or declare romantic love. Visit her website here.
Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s (Popular Fiction, S’11) story “Secrets of the Sea” is a finalist for the 2013 storySouth Million Writers Award.
Nancy Brown‘s (Fiction, S’08) short story “Hay Day” appears in Summer Stories, published in November. The book features a series of paintings by Maine artist Leslie Anderson along with a dozen short stories by ten Maine writers. The stories, which were inspired by the paintings, were selected by Maine author Ron Currie, Jr., as part of a contest sponsored by Shanti Arts Publishing and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.
Michael L. Joy (Popular Fiction, S’13) will reprise his graduate presentation “Applying a Romantic Subplot for Non-Romance Writers” at the Estero Library as part of the 2014 Southwest Florida Reading Festival on Thursday, March 20th.
Bruce Pratt‘s (Fiction, S’04) villanelle “According to a Spokesman” has been selected for the upcoming anthology Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Abuse and Oppression of Women. His short story “Marble” will appear in the December issue of Solstice.
“Make Me Beautiful,” a short story by Karen Pullen (Popular Fiction, S’08), was published in the December 2013 issue of bosque (the magazine).
Patricia Smith (Poetry, S’08, and former Stonecoast faculty) was awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize ($25,000) from the Academy of American Poets for Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, chosen as the most outstanding book of poetry published in United States last year.
Bonnie Stufflebeam‘s (Popular Fiction, S’13) poem “Strange Monster” appeared in the most recent issue of Mythic Delirium. Her short story “Mrs. Stiltskin” appeared in the first issue of Lakeside Circus. She is also thrilled to have taken part in the successful Kickstarter campaign for the anthology Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, which should be released in the next couple of months.
Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) captured first place in the 10th annual literary competition sponsored by Arts Council of York County, SC. The winning piece, “The Crazy House,” was an excerpt from her Stonecoast creative thesis.
STUDENTS
Alexis Paige‘s (Creative Nonfiction) latest essay, “Arrivals, an Autobiography,” appears in the November issue of Pithead Chapel. She also won the New Millennium Nonfiction prize for her essay “The Geography of Consolation,” which “examines the unique challenges of a writer’s life, the long fallout of an emotional affair, and the inevitable realization that no matter how far or how often we roam, the internal journal still lies before us.” She’ll receive $1,000, and the essay will be published online and in print in the 2104 issue.
FACULTY
Jeanne Marie Beaumont‘s (Poetry) ekphrastic persona poem “In Preparation,” which she read at the summer residency flash reading, is featured on the American Arts Quarterly site along with the Gustav Courbet painting that inspired it.
Aaron Hamburger (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Popular Fiction) sold his short story “Honeymoon for One” to Subtropics magazine; it will appear early next year. (Thanks to Suzanne Strempek Shea for editorial guidance and moral support!)
Jim Kelly‘s (Popular Fiction) story “The Promise of Space” from the September issue of Clarkesworld has been selected for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Solaris Books). His 2000 Hugo Award-winning novelette “10^16 to 1” will be reprinted in an upcoming issue of Clarkesworld. His novelette “The Chimp of the Popes,” first sold in 2009 (!), is finally scheduled for publication in The Book of Silverberg, edited by Gardner Dozois (Subterranean Press) in the summer of 2014.
Alexandra Oliver‘s (Poetry, ’12) Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway is the first poetry book in Biblioasis’ history to have received a full review from critic Michael Lista in The National Post (one of Canada’s two national papers). You can read the review here.
On December 4th,Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) reads from the new anthology Knitting Yarns (which is out from Norton and which includes Suzanne Strempek Shea) in Pawtucket, RI, at Slater Mill. Knitting Yarns received a four-star review in People and was a recommended book in Vanity Fair. Elizabeth is also reading on December 9th at 4:30 p.m. at the New England Institute of Art bookstore in Brookline, MA, along with fellow Iowa Short Fiction Prize winner Kate Milliken. Elizabeth will read from her own Iowa Prize collection My Body to You, which was re-released in a new paperback version in 2011. On December 20th, at the Armory Center for the Arts in Somerville, MA, a Stonecoast event will be presented by alum Richard Cambridge as part of his series Poet’s Theater. A Night at the Theater will combine theater and performance-style readings. Elizabeth’s short play Stolen Girl Song, which premiered at the Northern Writes New Play Festival in Maine in 2012, will be performed by actress Norah Bird and directed by Bruce Pratt. The event will also feature readings/performances by Bruce, Richard, and Stonecoasters Alexis Paige, Enza Vescera, Barbara Greenbaum, Anthony D’Aries, Amy M. Alvarez, and Mikhu Paul.
Knitting Yarns contributors Marianne Leone, Elizabeth Searle, and Suzanne Strempek Shea at the Knitting Yarns book launch at Newtonville Books on Nov. 9th; photo by Stonecoast alum Helen Peppe
The first issue of Stonecoast Review, Stonecoast MFA’s new literary publication, has just been released. You can read the issue here or purchase the issue here. About Stonecoast Review:
The Stonecoast Review is an online literary journal edited by students in the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing. We are inspired by the Stonecoast program’s goals: excellence of craft, independence of voice and an acknowledgement of literature’s responsibility in shaping society. Publishing works of Creative Non-Fiction, Fiction, Poetry, and Popular Fiction, we are especially interested in quality writing that embodies our core values of social and environmental justice, cultural awareness, and international perspectives. We seek submissions from a diversity of writers—both published and emerging. If you would like to contact us with any questions or comments, please direct emails to editor@stonecoastreview.com.
ALUMNI
Sheila Boneham (Creative Nonfiction/Cross Genre, S’13) will be teaching a workshop and giving a reading at the North Carolina Writers’ Network annual conference in Wrightsville Beach, NC, November 15-17.
Anthony D’Aries‘s (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) essay “Heart of the City” is a finalist for the Diana Woods Memorial Creative Nonfiction Award. His essay will appear in Antioch MFA program’s literary journal, Lunch Ticket. Below is a video of Anthony reading the essay at Literary Fields, a reading series at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, MA:
Kendall Giles’ (Popular Fiction, W’13) macabre short story “Rebel Yell” is in the anthology Surreal South ’13, edited by Josh Woods and published in Press 53. For more information, please visit Kendall’s blog. His flash fiction story “Here to Help” has been selected to be displayed as a part of the ThinkSmall7 art exhibition at the artspace Gallery @ Plant Zero, Richmond, VA, October-December 2013. ThinkSmall is a biennial international miniature invitational exhibition that challenges artists to produce small-scale work with a maximum dimension of 3″ x 3″, and ThinkSmall7 is in the 7th installment in the series. For more information, please read this blog post.
Bunny Goodjohn (Poetry, W’07) has three poems in the current issue of Prime Number Magazine: “To My Husband on the One-Year Anniversary of Our Separation,” “Conversation at Tastee Freeze: Stage Five,” and “Hard to Believe.”
Penny Guisinger‘s (Creative Nonfiction, S’13) essay “Coming Out” (which was a finalist in the 2013 Essay Contest at Fourth Genre) has now formally been accepted for publication at Fourth Genre and will appear in 2014. Also, she will participate in an online reading for the lit mag Under the Gum Tree on November 15th at 9:00 p.m. EST. The event is physically located in Sacramento, CA, but the broadcast will be streamed live for anyone who wants to watch. For more information, visit her website.
Jeff Kass (Fiction, S’09) recently had his poem “Elegy for a Sweathog” accepted by The Museum of Americana and his poem “I told the dentist” accepted by Union Station. In addition, Jeff’s Literary Arts Program, The VOLUME Youth Poetry Project, will host the 15th annual Poetry Night in Ann Arbor this November featuring Aaron Samuels and Kim Addonizio. Finally, Jeff’s youth-run Red Beard Press has released Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living, what the press is calling the ultimate collection of contemporary poems for classroom use. It features over 200 poems from 92 poets, including Stonecoast alums Adrienne Wallner, Kaarrie Waarala, and Teresa Scollon, as well as current and past Stonecoast instructors Tim Seibles, Patricia Smith, David Mura, and Lesléa Newman. Information about how to purchase the book and other Red Beard Press titles can be found here.
In October, Mike Langworthy (Creative Nonfiction, W’11) was hired as a creative consultant and writer on the web series The Day Crew, co-created by Jamie Widdoes and Tim O’Donnell. The Day Crew is the sequel to The 4 to 9ers, an original production of Hulu that was the service’s most-watched original programming last year. The Day Crew is the story of four “millennials” dealing with their first years out of college and living on their own.
Ellen Meeropol‘s (Fiction, W’06) second novel, Hurricane Island, has been sold to Red Hen Press for publication in Spring 2015.
Laura Navarre (Popular Fiction, W’11) signed a deal to co-author her first screenplay with writing partner Steven Denlinger. A dark historical adventure set in medieval France with paranormal and romantic elements, this film adaptation of The Execution by Sharon Cramer goes into pre-production in February. Laura and Steven were also contracted to develop at TV pilot for the series. Laura’s sinister twin, diplomat and playgirl Nikki Navarre, is celebrating the print release this month of her sexy spy romance The Russian Temptation with a Facebook Event on November 20. This “Passport to Suspense” party features six award-winning romantic suspense authors who write in exotic settings. Stop by, comment, and help spread the word for more chances to win a new Kindle Paperwhite and other fun prizes!
Three Rooms Press just published Lisa Panepinto‘s (Poetry, W’13) debut poetry collection, On This Borrowed Bike, available here and here.
“Bleat and Sigh, Night,” the second section of Janet Passehl‘s (Poetry, S’10) extended prose poem written in response to Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons,” will be published in Caliban Online, issue 14, coming out in mid-November. “Bleat and Sigh, Night” was inspired by the “Mutton” section of “Tender Buttons.” (The previous section, “Glazed, blind cushion not mercy,” published in Caliban Online #13, which Janet erroneously attributed to “Mutton,” was actually inspired by Stein’s “Roast Beef.”) Janet will be reading poetry with Basil and Martha King at Infinite Well, 123 Court Street, New Haven, CT, on Wednesday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m.
Bruce Pratt (Fiction ’04) will host Rich Kimball on Downtown, a sports entertainment show on 92.9 FM The Ticket for a regular segment called “Sports Lit 101” where he will discuss literary works, novels, stories and story collections, poems and poetry collections that in some way reference sports. For the next few weeks, the segment will be heard at 4:45 Wednesday afternoons. The program is heard on a network of stations across Maine and may be streamed at www.929theticket.com.
Karen Pullen (Popular Fiction, S’08) entered a story in Sixfold‘s writer-judged competition. “Something to Tell Henry” made it through three elimination rounds and was published in their Fall 2013 Fiction issue. She recommends Sixfold—the feedback is honest and extensive from each round of writer-judges. Also, she’s grateful to Stonecoasters Lisa Romeo and Linda Sienkiewicz for recently inviting her onto their blogs.
An essay by Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S’08), “Not a Shore Thing,” about her reaction to the destruction of the New Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy last fall and her circuitous relationship with the region, appears in bioStories. Lisa recently taught a series of Writing Your Life Stories interactive seminars at several senior living centers in southern New Jersey.
Adrienne S. Wallner‘s (Poetry, W’09) poem “Letter to Lake Michigan” was featured in the Wisconsin DNR Great Lakes Calendar 2013-2014. “Cheers” and “Morning” will be published in the forthcoming edition of Puff Poetry Prose and a Play, and “Never Fell” has been chosen for inclusion in Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living by Red Beard Press.
“Fit to Kill,” a story by Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11), appears in the Fall issue of The Main Street Rag.
STUDENTS
Erin Lyn Bodin (Fiction) is thrilled to share that her creative nonfiction essay “Waking Up in the City of Joy” has been selected by guest judge Dan Raffel as an Honorable Mention in Tiferet Journal‘s 2013 Writing Contest. Erin is also honored to have her poem, “Heavy,” selected by guest editor Laila Halaby for the most recent volume of Magnolia: A Journal of Women’s Socially Engaged Literature.
Genevieve Williams’ (Popular Fiction) short story “The Girl Whose Name Means Girl” is in the new anthology Beyond the Pillars from Bibliotheca Alexandria. The book is available in print and e-book format.
FACULTY
Tony Barnstone (Poetry, Translation) has won first place in the CZP/Rannu Fund for Writers of Speculative Poetry Prize. He will publish four books in the next year and a half: a new book of poems titles Beast in the Apartment (Sheep Meadows Press, 2014); a selected poems in Spanish translation titled Buda en llamas (Ediciones El Tucan de Virginia, 2014), translated by Mariano Zaro; Dead and Undead Poems (Everyman, 2014) and Human and Inhuman Monsters Poems (Everyman, 2015), both edited with Michelle Mitchell-Faust.
Jeanne Marie Beaumont‘s (Poetry) poem “A Stein’s Sestina” appears in the new anthology The Incredible Sestina Anthology, edited by Daniel Nestor, and she answers questions about her poem in a short interview on the website. She also has a poem in the latest issue of Harvard Review and appears in the new issue of Warwick Review (UK) in their feature on new poetry from the U.S.
Boman Desai (Fiction) has two bits of news: The first chapter from his novel The Lesbian Man was a joint winner in a competition for First Chapters. You may read it online until December 1st here. Second, he published Dancing About Architecture: A Songwriter’s Guide to the Lennon-McCartney Catalog, which runs through the 162 songs by Lennon and McCartney, tracing the song fingerprints of each songwriter. Most interesting, perhaps, is the origin of “Yesterday,” the only song for which Paul requested sole credit, saying it had blossomed full-blown when he woke from a night’s sleep and no one had anything to do with it but himself. Yoko Ono denied the request, but for the wrong reason. John’s influence on the song is undeniable, the book makes it clear, but Yoko doesn’t know what it is, and Paul McCartney himself may just be amazed. boman@core.com
Elizabeth Hand (Fiction, Popular Fiction) will be speaking at the Maine College of Art in Portland at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, in Osher Hall. Topic: Outsider Artists and the Strange Case of Richard Dadd. On Tuesday, November 12, she’ll speak at the Belfast Free Library, Belfast, Maine, at 6:30 p.m. Topic: Guided by Voices: Reading Aloud and Characterization.
Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) is appearing at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England, through November 3rd. She’s teaching “Romancing YA” for the Romance Writers of America University, November 4-8. She’ll appear at YALLFest in Charleston, SC, on November 9th and at Atomacon on November 10th. She’ll be doing a reading with James P. Blaylock at Whittier College on November 19, courtesy of fellow Stonecoast faculty member Tony Barnstone (poetry), and she’s tentatively scheduled for Long Beach Comic & Horror Con November 23-24.
Barbara Hurd‘s (Creative Nonfiction) essay “Keys” is one of thirteen essays now short-listed for a major award in Great Britain: the William Hazlitt Prize, which honors “the best essay in the English language, published or unpublished, on any subject.” She was also first runner-up for the Prairie Schooner Creative Nonfiction Contest and a finalist for the 2013 Annie Dillard Award. Those essays will be published in Prairie Schooner and in the Bellingham Review in the spring. All three essays are part of her forthcoming collection Putting an Ear to the Ground.
Jim Kelly (Popular Fiction) has had two new stories published. The first, titled “The Promise of Space,” was in the September issue of Clarkesworld. In addition to the print version, there is an audio version which features Jim and Clarkesworld‘s Podcast Director Kate Baker doing the readings. “The Promise of Space” is a story told entirely in dialog; a theatrical version will debut in March 2014 as part of the New Hampshire Theatre Project’s Intelligent Theatre Festival in Portsmouth, NH. The second story, “Sing, Pilgrim,” is a flash piece in the November/December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The first draft of this story was written at a Stonecoast residency, during one of Jim’s (infamous) flash fiction challenges. Jim has also sold a new story to the online magazine Lightspeed; “Miss Nobody Never Was” will be published in the December issue. Also, Jim will be reading with Mercurio D. Rivera on November 20th at 7:00 p.m. at the KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street just off 2nd Avenue, upstairs) in New York City. The reading will be the latest in the “Fantastic Fiction at KGB” monthly reading series, which began in the late ’90s. Fantastic Fiction is held on the third Wednesday of every month at the famous KGB Bar. Admission is free.
Mike Kimball (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) is directing the play Red, which will run three weekends, November 1-17, at The Actors Studio of Newburyport, MA. Red, by playwright/screenwriter/director John Logan is the story of abstract-expressionist Mark Rothko, holed up in his New York Studio in 1958-9, painting a group of murals for the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant. He gives orders to his assistant, Ken, as he mixes the paints, makes the frames, and paints the canvases. Ken, however, brashly questions Rothko’s theories of art and his acceding to work on such a commercial project. In 2010 the play won six Tony awards, including Best Play. The Actors Studio is located in The Tannery, 50 Water Street, Mill #1, Suite 5, Newburyport, MA. For reservations, call 978.465.1299 or visit the website.
Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) has a personal essay in a new anthology from Norton: Knitting Yarns, edited by former Stonecoast faculty Ann Hood and featuring fellow faculty Suzanne Strempek Shea along with writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Anita Shreve, Andre Dubus III, Elinor Lipman, Ann Patchett, and Jane Smiley. Elizabeth and Suzanne will read from the anthology along with Ann Hood and others at Newtonville Books on November 14; Elizabeth will read from the anthology with others in Wellesley, MA, on November 21 at Wellesley Books. Elizabeth will also be reading “bedtime stories” from her fiction along with Suzanne at a “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Pajama Party” event sponsored by the Republican Newspaper in Springfield, MA, on November 15 at Delaney House. The event is featured in an article in The Republican and on Mass.Live. Elizabeth is also reading and partying on November 2nd at the Stonecoast Northeast event Lost Lit presents Stonecoast MFA in NYC, hosted by Stonecoast student Kristabelle Munson and featuring Stonecoast students and alumni. The reading is 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Grumpy Bert, 82 Bond Street in Brooklyn. Seating is limited, so RSVP for this event with lynne@lostlit.com.
Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S’13) is thrilled her story “What the Dollhouse Said” is scheduled to air on the Pseudopod Podcast on January 13, 2017. Her zombie masters vs robot apocalypse flash fiction “We Are Still Feeling,” originally published in alumni Cynthia Kraack’s Boundaries Without: The Calumet Editions 2017 Anthology of Speculative Fiction on October 29, 2016, will be reprinted in Sockdolager magazine’s Women of War Special Issue, Winter 2017. MK Gibson’s interview Karen Bovenmyer – Drop and Give me 20! 20 Hard Questions for Hard Authors was published on November 30, 2016, revealing Karen’s biggest failure, greatest shame and what Frankenstein, a bunch of grapes, and a broken closet door have to do with it. She also goes on and on about how wonderful you all are in the Stonecoast program. Another interview promoting her forthcoming fantasy novella “The Beaded Slipper” in Crimson Edge Press’s Maidens and Magic anthology went live on December 11. In her role as nonfiction editor for Mothership Zeta Magazine, Karen is assisting alumna Mur Lafferty in preparing the January issue (#6), which will include an awesome story from alumna Jennifer Castello and a Story Doctor article from faculty member James Patrick Kelly.
Harlequin has picked up all three books in The Magick Trilogy by Laura Navarre (Popular Fiction, W’11) for its paranormal romance DTC program. Midsummer Magick, a sexy Tudor fallen angel romance about the son of Lucifer and a secret Tudor princess, is a January 2017 release.
Karen Pullen‘s (Popular Fiction, S’08) second mystery novel, Cold Heart, will be released by Five Star Cengage on January 18. The series features an undercover drug agent who is pulled into a homicide investigation. In November, her story “No Falling Ribbons” was included in an anthology, Stuck in the Middle (Main Street Rag).
distinguished Science Fiction or Fantasy Book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.” Edge of Dark, edited by Rene Sears, was published by Prometheus Books in 2015. The award includes a $1,000 cash award and a glass trophy.
In addition to the January 4th KGB reading in New York City, Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) will read from her new novel We Got Him at the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA, on Jan. 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Elizabeth’s show Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera completed its six-week run in Chicago, fully produced by Underscore Theater. The show was listed as one of the Top Five Musicals of 2016 by New City, which had written in its review: “The play radiates like strobe light hitting a disco ball. Tonya and Nancy’ relates a cautionary tale of ambition, manipulation, competition and the appalling way men and women treat girls.” For quotes, pictures, and film clips from Chicago, see: www.tonyaandnancytherockopera.com
Geek Theater: 15 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stage Plays
