It was late, after ten at night. I’d just won my first Scrabble game in months, and my friends and I were all relaxing after a typical cutthroat contest. We’d been on the go since early morning that Saturday: graduation at the school where my husband teaches, then making the rounds of student parties. At the end of the day, my husband and I landed at our friend’s house to chat about the new grads as we faced off across the game board, which we do nearly every week. But the competition was over; we were relaxing, finishing up the wine, sorting out our summer plans. And then it hit me: I hadn’t written a word all day. I sprung from my chair with the realization. “We have to go,” I said. “I have to write.”
Cal Armistead‘s (Fiction, W’07) debut young adult novel, Being Henry David, will be released by Albert Whitman & Co. on March 1, 2013. Cal’s novel has already received a starred Kirkus review! For more, see www.calarmistead.com.
Eric’s Hysterics is proud to present Love Hurts, an anthology edited by Eric M. Bosarge (Popular Fiction, W’12) that includes 21 humorous stories about falling in love, falling out, and everything in between. Featuring Stonecoast alumni Payne Ratner and faculty member Mike Kimball, the collection is sure to delight. The anthology will be available February 7th. For more information, visit the website.
Julie Day‘s (Popular Fiction, S’12) “China Island” came out in the Winter 2013 edition of The Colored Lens (an eMagazine available on Amazon.com and, amazingly, free to Amazon Prime members). As always, you can find Julie on Facebook and on her blog.
Tamie Marie Fields (Creative Nonfiction, S’12) had her first-ever publication in Cirque (page 87!). The essay is titled “Silvers.” She has an upcoming essay titled “Hook and Sway” in the March issue of Terrain.
Jeff Foltz (Fiction, S’04) will be on a signing tour in the Midwest for his new novel, Two Men Ten Suns, and his first novel, Birkebeiner, A Story of Motherhood and War (his Stonecoast thesis). Here are the dates:
Friday, February 15 — Marquette, MI — Book World, 136 W. Washington Street — 3:00-8:00 p.m. Saturday, February 16 — Iron Mountain, MI — Book World, 1104 S. Stephenson Highway — reading and Q&A from 12:00-1:00 p.m., signing to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, February 17 — Escanaba, MI — Book World, 301 Lincoln Road, Suite 29 — 1:00-3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 21, and Friday, February 22 — American Birkebeiner Expo, Hayward, WI Middle School — signing Saturday, February 23 — Cable, WI — Redbery Books — 4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 27 — Long Lake, MN — Gear West Ski Shop, 1786 W. Wayzata Blvd. #B — signing and Q&A Friday, March 1 — Rhinelander, WI — Book World, 58 Brown Street — 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 2 — Minocqua, WI — Book World, 522 Oneida Street — 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 3 — Eagle River, WI — Book World — 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Mike Langworthy (Creative Nonfiction, W’11) continues to write his biweekly column for The Forecaster, a weekly newspaper covering the southern and central Maine coast. He is also executive producer and co-creator of Rock Island, a syndicated children’s television show in development, in association with a number of Portland-area nonprofits and media companies. He is also a consultant and story editor on Spun Out, a multi-camera situation comedy pilot for Canadian network CTV, starring Dave Foley (Newsradio, The Kids in the Hall) and shot in Toronto on January 18, 2013.
Sandra McDonald (Popular Fiction, W’05) sold her short story “Fleet” to the speculative fiction anthology We See A Different Frontier. She also sold her ninth book, a thriller about gay veterans in Philadelphia.
Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, W’06) has a short story titled “Her Flammable Sister” in the February 2013 issue of Dove Tales (Writing for Peace). Her essay with Rosellen Brown and Tracy Daugherty, “Balancing Craft & Commitment: Writing Political Fiction,” will be in the March/April 2013 issue of The Writers Chronicle.
Rebecca Hotaling Nix‘s (Fiction, W’12) short story “Someplace Else” was published in ninepatch: A Creative Journal for Women and Gender Studies at Eastern Kentucky University and can be read here. Also, her screenplay “Exes” is being made into a movie; filming will being in April. (She was approached by a composer from Barcelona, Spain, who’s interested in writing the soundtrack.) She hopes to screen the movie during a future Stonecoast residency, maybe Winter or Summer 2014. For updates, check out the Facebook page.
Mihku Paul (Fiction, S’10) will read from her poetry collection, 20th Century PowWow Playland, on Friday, February 8th, at “Hear The Women” in the Nick Sapiel Building on Indian Island (Maine). The line-up includes Cheryl Savageau (an Abenaki poet) and Yvette Nolan (an Algonquin playwright). On Saturday, February 9th, Mihku will co-teach a writing workshop, “HERstory,” for Waponahki women. This event is co-sponsored by the Penobscot Nation and Gedakina, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening Waponahki communities through the preservation of cultural heritage.
Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction, S’08) has joined the faculty of The Writers Circle, teaching nonfiction and leading all-genre workshops at three locations in northern New Jersey. Her narrative essay, “Old Men Who Write,” will appear in Under the Sun‘s first online issue (Spring 2013). Lisa is also editing essays and short stories for the newly revived Brain, Child magazine, and was recently interviewed on WTBQ radio (Orange County, NY) on their Creative Vision program, offering tips for writers.
Catherine Schmitt‘s (Creative Nonfiction, W’12) story, “The Snowy Owls of Acadia,” appears in the Winter issue of Friends of Acadia Journal.
Co-editors Hannah Strom-Martin (Popular Fiction, W’09) and Erin Underwood (Popular Fiction, S’09) announce the publication of Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction from Underwords Press on February 12, 2013. Futuredaze includes 33 original short science fiction stories and poems that spark the imagination, twist the heart, and make us yearn for the possibilities of a world yet to come. Contributing authors include faculty member Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) and alumna Sandra McDonald (Popular Fiction, W’05). Futuredaze will be available in print and as an eBook, and it will be distributed in bookstores and online venues in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Below is the book video that Underwoods Press created for the anthology.
Robert E. Stutts‘s (Popular Fiction, S’10) short story “Hungry” (one of his Stonecoast stories) will appear on Daily Science Fiction the week of February 11th.
Gina Troisi‘s (Creative Nonfiction, W’09) essay, “Wrapped Up in Skin, Hidden Behind Eyes,” was published in Gettysburg Review, Spring 2013 issue. Her essay, “The Angle of Flickering Light,” was a finalist for the 2012 Bellevue Literary Review Prize in Nonfiction. ginatroisi@yahoo.com
Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S’11) took second place in the Charlotte Writers Club Creative Nonfiction competition with the essay “Wildflowers.” The same piece has been accepted for publication in ENO, a new journal of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
STUDENT NEWS
Linda Kobert‘s (Creative Nonfiction) travel essay “The Eye of God” appears in the latest print version—the India Issue—of the literary and arts journal Annalemma. The piece documents part of her Fall 2010 around-the-world voyage on Semester at Sea, during which she taught—what else?—writing.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam‘s (Popular Fiction) short story “The Wanderers” will be published in the February 2013 issue of Clarkesworld.
Genevieve Williams‘s (Popular Fiction) short story, “Kip, Running,” which originally appeared in Strange Horizons, is now available in the Future Games anthology from Prime Books, alongside stories by Cory Doctorow, James Morrow, George R.R. Martin, and Kate Wilhelm.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Northern Writes Festival. Submissions are open year round for plays—especially full-length works—that are set in the greater Bangor area, as part of Penobscot Theatre Company‘s Northern Writes Project. The geographic area may be interpreted liberally, but the plays must be fully based in Maine. There is no reading fee as this is not part of our annual new play festival contest (submissions for that closed January 31). This year’s Northern Writes Festival will take place in Bangor April 19-21, 2013. Details can be found here. Scripts should be mailed to
Bruce Pratt Northern Writes Coordinator
Penobscot Theatre Company
115 Main Street 4th Floor
Bangor ME 04401
All plays must be in standard playwriting form and bound with at least a binder clip. Include SASE for reply and, if you wish, postcard for acknowledgement of receipt.
Adam Kreutz Gallardo (Popular Fiction, S’12) is happy to announce that he has signed with Ann Collette of the Reese Literary Agency. She plans to shop his debut novel, Zomburbia, to publishers as soon as early December.
Sandra McDonald (Popular Fiction, W’05) has three stories currently in print: “Searching for Slave Leia” in Lightspeed, “The Black Feminist’s Guide to Science Fiction Film Editing” in Asimov’s, and “Your Final Apocalypse” in Clarkesworld. Her young adult sci-fi adventure for girls, “Annie Wu Saves the Future,” is available at Amazon. Visit Sandra’s website for more information.
Alexandra Oliver (Poetry, W’12) and Pino Coluccio will soon launch The Rotary Dial, Canada’s first all-formalist online journal (welcoming international talent, as well). They also plan to run classes on formal poetics and host readings in Toronto.
STUDENT NEWS
Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction) was recorded reading two poems, “Cadaver Feet” and “The Sweet Spot,” as part of Third Stanza Poets’ 11 Days of Global Unity at Café Diem, Ames, Iowa, on September 18th. A community radio station, KHOI 89.1 FM, broadcast the reading on October 30th and November 4th, 2012.
Linda Kobert’s (Creative Nonfiction) essay “Pecky” appears in the Fall 2012 issue of Hospital Drive, the online literary and humanities journal of the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
FACULTY NEWS
Elizabeth Searle was featured in the October 2012 issue of Imagine Magazine, which covers the film community in New England, in an article about the ongoing film development of her novel A Four-Sided Bed. Bravo Sierra Pictures has a produced a three-minute “sizzler reel” for the film directed by Stonecoast alum Matthew Quinn Martin. Elizabeth also had a short essay about Virginia Woolf published in the fall 2012 issue of New Ohio Review. A Song Showcase of Elizabeth’s Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera will be performed in New York City on January 21st, co-produced by Harborside Films (details forthcoming).
Newly elected U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren personally greeted and thanked Elizabeth Searle at a victory celebration held November 6th at Boston’s Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. The Stonecoast Elizabeth was the driving force behind Writers for Warren, a night of readings and music held in September in Somerville, Massachusetts, to benefit the campaign of the candidate Elizabeth. Emceed by Steve Almond, the event included readings by Anita Diamont, Anita Shreve, Stephen McCauley, Tom Perrotta, and Suzanne Strempek Shea. A photo of Elizabeth, Suzanne, and Enza Vescera at the event, seen below, was featured in the print version of an October 4th Boston Globe story about political fundraisers featuring the creative community. Another photo in the piece (print and digital) featured political activist William Hodgkinson, Elizabeth Searle’s 14-year-old son, standing next to Elizabeth Warren at a March rally.
Suzanne Strempek Shea recently joined her husband, Tommy Shea, and their friend, Michele P. Barker, in celebrating the release of 140 Years of Providential Caring: The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Massachusetts, a book telling the stories of the women religious behind the creation and continuation of the order, and of some of their many programs, services and facilities established between Western Massachusetts and Chile. Copies may be obtained by sending a check for $25, made payable to the Sisters of Providence, to Nancy Arnold, Providence Place, 5 Gamelin St., Holyoke, MA 01040.
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