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The Spalding brief-residency MFA in Writing Program publishes a newsletter, “On Extended Wings,” for its students, faculty, and alumni about four times a year. Below are entries from the Life of a Writer column for August 2010.  Our next newsletter will be out in late September.

Life of a Writer

Alice L.A. Covington announces that her short story, “The Recital,” is included in Woman’s Work: The Short Stories, released by GirlChild Press on July 16. Go online to http://www.girlchildpress.com.

Carolyn Flynn has written a travel guide for Albuquerque, New Mexico, that was formatted for the iPhone and iPad. ABQ *Essential* Guide includes nearly 200 entries at the tap of a finger—everything from romantic restaurants, family-friendly fun, mountains and rivers and more, including slide shows, maps, and easy, one-touch websites and phone numbers. She has spent the past eighteen years being truly enchanted with the Land of Enchantment, and writing the app helped her appreciate home on the eve of going very, very far away—to Argentina for residency. Her goal was to gain the credential of writing for new media with the idea of keeping the proverbial wolf from the door, and if she’s lucky, sending her children to a college as fine as Spalding. The app, which works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, can be found in iTunes or the Apple app store.

Vanessa Gonzales placed second in graduate fiction in the Kentuckiana Metroversity 2010 Writing Competition with her short story “Love in the Corners.” (top)

Bill Goodman has written a documentary movie review for the New Southerner, a quarterly e-zine promoting self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship and support for local economies. Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country is a film produced by Jen Gilomen and Sally Rubin that raises questions about coal mining methods and the devastation to the land required to meet America’s growing energy demands. Goodman writes that the film is an education for all, even Kentuckians who believe they’ve heard it before. New Southerner can be found at http://www.newsoutherner.com. Goodman also has written the foreword to a new book featuring stories celebrating the lives and work of a number of Kentucky citizens. Steve Flairty is the author of Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things. Goodman’s foreword includes an overview of what the reader finds in this second volume of Kentucky profiles and highlights several of the people Flairty features. Flairty’s book is published by Wind Publications.

Amy Hanridge reported that her story, “Don’t Look Down on Me,” was published in the July 2010 issue of BorderSenses magazine. Find out more at http://www.bordersenses.com.

Jason Harmon‘s essay, “Looking from A to A: Altazor and the Alphabet,” appears in issue 40 of the online periodical Jacket. (top)

Cindy Lane (on hiatus this semester and looking forward to Italy!) attended the Tinker Mountain Writer’s Workshop in June—five days of intense workshops and lectures on advanced fiction topics—at Hollins University in Virginia. She came out of it with a newly polished story to shine up a little more, then maybe submit. She wore her new Spalding MFA T-shirt, creating a lot of interest and questions, which naturally, she answered with gushing enthusiasm.

Kelly Lynn reports that her creative nonfiction essay, “Sick Sisters,” has been accepted for publication in Somebody’s Child, an anthology of stories about adoption. The book goes to press in Fall 2011.

AshleyRose Sullivan announces that her short story, “Displays of Aquatic Escape Behavior,” was recently published on Wigleaf: A Journal of [Very] Short Fiction. Find the story at http://www.wigleaf.com/201004displays.htm.

Tommy Trull announces that his play James Evans, has been awarded a $6,500 production grant from the United Arts Council and will be toured around to schools. .
His full-length play The Immersibles is set for production by Guilford Technical Community College in November, and his short play Anything, Anything You Want is set to be produced by 3rd Stage Theatre in September. (top)

Faculty and Staff

Faculty member Dianne Aprile, along with alum Susan Detweiler (Spring 2010), student Kelly Martineau, and Diane Rhodes (Fall 2008) have formed a creative nonfiction writing group in Seattle called SW2 (Spalding West/Seattle Washington). Among other projects, SW2 plans to organize readings in the Seattle area. Dianne Aprile also took part in a poetry writing class in July at Seattle’s Hugo House with poet Ed Skoog.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti announces that her forthcoming nonfiction book, They Called Themselves the K.K.K., has received starred reviews in following, to date: Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Horn Book, and Booklist. (Booklist will also feature a full-length interview with Susan in the August issue.) The book is to be released August 23, as a print book (Houghton Mifflin) and a Brilliance/Audible audio book narrated by the amazing actor Dion Graham, whose voice Susan likes much better than her own. In early August, Susan is in Los Angeles, participating on a nonfiction panel at the national conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. When she is not begging her grandchildren to pleasepleaseplease give her a new picture book idea, she is completely frustrated with her novel-in-progress, now overdue for her editor, and wondering why anyone would ever want to write a novel when she could just buy one at Borders. (She’ll get over it. She always does.)

Kathleen Driskell read and discussed her work at the Kentucky Women’s Book Fair at the University of Louisville on May 15. She will read with fiction writers Crystal Wilkinson and C. E. Morgan at 7 p.m. Sunday, September 12, at the Downtown Arts Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The reading is co-sponsored by the Kentucky Women Writers Conference and Boomslang. (top)

Richard Goodman‘s new book, A New York Memoir, is published this August. His essay, “L’Inondation: Helping Them Dig Out of It in Nîmes,” appears in the forthcoming The Best Travel Writing 2010.

Helena Kriel was chosen to be part of the panel that judged the World Championships for the Performing Arts. This is an international competition with 50 countries sending teams for competition on the world stage. The finals took place in Los Angeles in July. Helena was a member of the judging committee joining other industry professionals who represented the performing arts.

Jody Lisberger has been invited to read her story “In the Mercy of Water” at the International Girls Conference on November 22-24, at SUNY Cortland. She has been granted a full workshop slot (75 minutes) at the National Women’s Studies Conference in Denver on November 11 to present a craft workshop called “Writing Down the Body: Making the Invisible Visible, the Silent Spoken.” She’s also been invited to be the writer-in-residence at Lyon College, Arkansas, the first week of November.  In June she led a fiction workshop and participated in a panel, “Collection vs. Novel—What Am I Writing,” at the Ocean State Summers Writing Conference. She was honored to have faculty member Crystal Wilkinson leading a workshop and giving a craft talk at the conference, too.

Nancy McCabe has creative nonfiction in the current issues of Fourth Genre, Colorado Review, and Bellingham Review. Her essay “Threads” is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, and her piece “Still Dancing,” published in 2009 in Gulf Coast, has been selected for the Notable List in the upcoming edition of Best American Essays. In July she attended the Highlights Foundation Writing for Children conference and served as a magazine judge for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Joyce McDonald was a keynote speaker at the Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in July, which was coordinated by regional adviser, Spalding alum Edie Hemingway (Spring 2004). She spoke on “The Transformative Power of Fiction: How Real-Life Stories Inform and Shape Our Own.” Joyce also participated in “Steps in the Write Direction: A Panel Discussion on Writing Programs.” In June, she ran a three-day writing workshop at the 62nd annual Philadelphia Writers Conference. (top)

Sena Jeter Naslund‘s book tour appearances for her latest novel, Adam & Eve, on sale September 25 include

• Live radio interview 1:45 p.m. Sept. 24 with Spalding alum Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (top) 

• Birmingham, AL, 4:00 p.m. Tues., Sept. 28, Alabama Booksmith, 2626 19th Place S

• Montgomery, AL, 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 29, Troy University, Whitney Hall (334-265-1473)

• Louisville, KY, 6 p.m. Fri., Oct. 1, Speed Art Museum, 2035 S Third St.

• St. Paul, MN, 4:30-6 p.m. Sat., Oct. 2, MBA Trade Show, Roy Wilkins Aud, in RiverCentre

• Minneapolis, 7:30 p.m. Mon., Oct. 4, Magers and Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave S

• St. Louis, MO, 7 p.m. Tue., Oct. 5, Left Bank Books at St. Louis County Library, 1640 S Lindbergh Blvd

• Nashville, TN, Fri-Sat., Oct. 8 & 9, Southern Festival of Books, time TBA (615-770-0006 x 12)

• Lexington, KY, 7 p.m. Thur., Oct 14, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle

• Louisville, Sat, Oct 16, Spalding U. Founder’s Day Reading for Alums, time TBA

• Los Angeles, 7 p.m. Mon. Oct 18, Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA

• Laguna Beach, Tues, Oct 19, 6 p.m. Laguna Beach Books, STE 105, 1200S Coast Hwy

• Louisville, Thur. Oct 21, Louisville Free Public Library and KET, 301 York St.

• Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fri., Oct. 22, St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading, time TBA

• Carmel, IN, 5 p.m. Wed., Oct. 27, Carmel Clay Public Library Foundation, 55 4th Ave. SE, and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 28, Golden Leaf Book & Author Luncheon 55 4th Ave. SE, Carmel (317-814-3905)

• Evansville, IN, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 10, University of Southern Indiana, David L. Rice Library, 8600 University Blvd

• New Orleans, LA, Wed, Nov 17, Words & Music Festival, time TBA

• Lexington, KY, 7 p.m. Tues., Feb. 15, 2011, Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning, 251 W. 2nd St. (859-254-4175)

Greg Pape gave readings at Montana Festival of the Book, Second Wind Series in Missoula, and the Missoula Public Library in Montana; Casper Writers’ Conference in Casper, Wyoming, where he also served also judge for the Wyoming Arts Council’s Poetry Fellowships; Associated Writing Programs conference in Denver, where he also served on a panel on regional writing; the State Finals of the Poetry Out Loud! competition in Helena, Montana, where he also served as a judge; Get Lit! festival in Spokane, Washington, where he also served on a panel and led a workshop; and Lewis Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. He has new work appearing or forthcoming in Northwest Review, San Joaquin Review, Lake Effect, and the anthology Poems of the American West.

Molly Peacock is gearing up for book tours for The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, which comes out this fall in Canada and Australia and on April 2, 2011, in the United States. She’s also been reading her poetry at various events in Toronto, including a new type of event: the dinner reading. Guests pay in advance for dinner at a local restaurant and a literary figure interviews a poet, who then reads between courses.Brad Riddell delivered a final draft of his screenplay Crooked Arrows to film producers. It’s the PG story about members of a Native American lacrosse team on a reservation in New York reclaiming their centuries-old sport from the elite prep schools that now dominate the game. Brad performed a page-one rewrite on the original script, and his new version is out for casting and budget with plans to film this fall. He has also optioned Spalding MFA grad Katrina Kittle’s (Fall 2008) third novel, The Kindness of Strangers. Plans are to adapt the book to a screenplay and then remain attached as a producer. (top)

Jeanie Thompson continued her year of promoting The Seasons Bear Us with a reading at Rudyard Kipling’s INKY Series in Louisville in January, a reading at the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, Alabama, in February, an ekphrastic poetry writing workshop and follow up gallery talk at the Birmingham Museum of Art in March and April, participation in the Slash Pine Poetry Festival at the University of Alabama in April, a reading and teacher workshop at the Red Mountain Reading Series at Jefferson State Community College n March, and the keynote reading and poetry workshop at the Southern Literary Festival on the Campus of “The W”—Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, also in April. In May, Jeanie presented the 2010 Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer to Carolyn Haines at the 13th Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville. Jeanie has published poems in Southern Women’s Review, Vol. 2 No.2 (online at http://www.southernwomensreview.com) and the Slash Pine Poetry Festival Anthology, and has poems forthcoming in PMS (PoemMemoirStory). She was a guest blogger on the Birmingham Museum of Art’s website: http://www.artsbma.org. In Jeanie’s work with the Alabama Writers’ Forum, she and the team of Writing Our Stories participated in the MEGA conference July 20 for Alabama k-12 teachers. More than fifty teachers participated in this three-hour workshop featuring the Forum’s innovative juvenile justice and the arts creative writing program that is now in its fourteenth year with the Alabama Department of Youth Services.

Neela Vaswani announces that You Have Given Me a Country (Sarabande Books), is now available on http://www.amazon. com. For details, see http://www.neelavaswani.com.

Luke Wallin announces that his essay “Point of View and Choice in Conservation” was published July 15 in the online journal Sisyphus, at http://www.hippocketpress.org/sisyphus/luke-wallin. Luke reads his story “Monster” on September 18 in Washington, D.C., at The Black Squirrel. The reading honors the journal Moon Milk Review and is sponsored by the journal Barrelhouse. The story was published in March in Moon Milk Review and was accepted for the 2010 print anthology of MMR. His poem “The Night We Called the Owls” has been accepted by the online journal Dew on the Kudzu and was published July 22. (top)

Alumni

Cynthia Rausch Allar (Spring 2004) has had two poems accepted for fellow alum Diana Raab‘s (Fall 2003) Brink anthology. The poems are “Confession” and “Tendency to Despair.” Her poems “As Always” and “Letter in Light of Recent Tragedies” have been accepted by Evening Street Review.

Deborah Begel (Spring 2006) is producing a 15-minute video on the Navajo Reservation to tell people about water quality problems and solutions. She is also back to producing short features for KUNM 89.9 FM news in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her most recent story is about writer Lucy Lippard’s new book, Down Country: The Tano of the Galisteo Basin, 1250 to 1782, about a region seldom studied or written about in New Mexico.

Glenny Brock (Spring 2007), after spending almost 10 years fortunate enough to write for a living, left Birmingham Weekly, the newspaper of which she had been the editor-in-chief since 2002. Since March of this year, most of her new writing has been cover letters and most of her revision has been on minutiae in her résumé. When she’s not applying for jobs, she is working with her partner, Bradford Daly, on a food blog called “Stay Hungry” (which takes its title from the debut novel by creative nonfiction faculty member and fellow Birminghamian Charles Gaines), or on the translation of Bengali poetry by Satyapriya Mukhopadhyay. Every Saturday this summer, Glenny is running a writing booth at a farmers market in Birmingham. She is one of a dozen volunteers for the Desert Island Supply Company (DISCO), a new nonprofit organization that provides workshops, one-on-one tutoring and other creative writing opportunities for students ages 8-18. (top)

Roy Burkhead (Spring 2004) attended a Q&A session and public reading by former National Poet Laureate Billy Collins in April at Western Kentucky University. The Fall 2010 semester starts Roy’s fifth semester of teaching general education courses for WKU’s Department of English. In addition, the editor of the book Favorite Recipes of Kentucky Celebrities has selected Roy to appear in the Tennessee edition of the book, due out November 1. The cookbook has hundreds of recipes from Kentucky businesses, artist, writers, athletes, sportsmen, actors, and musicians. Tennessee contributors include such people as Trace Adkins, Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus, Jack Hannah, Ashley Judd, Martina McBride, David Sacks (founder of PayPal), and Reese Witherspoon. In addition to the recipe, each contributor has a short bio and a blurb on the story behind the recipe. The cookbooks are used for fundraising efforts for nonprofit organizations. Additional details available at the editor’s blog, http://www.celebritycookbooks.blogspot.com.

David Bennett Carren (Fall 2005), along with co-author J. Larry Carroll, won the Act I: ION TV Movie Contest for Strong Suspicion. The contest, presented by the New York Television Festival and ION Television, awards the winners $40,000 and a development deal with ION Television. Once in development, the script has the possibility to be produced as a TV movie to air on ION Television. The synopsis of the script: When a spoiled playboy’s attempt to annoy his wealthy absentee father lands him in grand jury duty for a year, he takes on a corrupt prosecuting attorney and transforms a compliant jury into the baddest game in town. The Red Queen, written and directed by David, had its world premiere at the Cine Las Americas Film Festival in April at the Regent Metropolitan 14 in Austin, Texas. The film’s stars, Valente Rodriquez and Linda Bustamante, and David were present for Q & A. Produced entirely in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, The Red Queen has also earned an honorable mention in the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival and second place in the University Film and Video Association Screenwriting Competition. (top)

Amy Watkins Copeland (Spring 2006) discussed poetry, publishing and Red Lion Square, the poetry podcast she co-edits with Jae Newman (Fall 2006) on “The F-Bomb,” a feminist talk radio show on WPRK 91.5 FM on July 5. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.redlionsq.com/episodes/fbomb.mp3. She works in a pretty good Spalding endorsement! They are taking submissions for Red Lion Square. To subscribe (it’s free) or find more about submitting, visit http://www.redlionsq.com.

Sonja de Vries (Fall 2009) announces that her first chapbook, Planting a Garden in Baghdad, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. Sonja, along with alum Barry George (Fall 2009), faculty member Debra Kang Dean, and Makalane Bandele, participated in a “Poets for Haiti” fundraiser along with singer/songwriter Shadwick Wilde. The event, which Sonja organized, raised $500.

Joan Donaldson (Spring 2008) announces that the State of Tennessee chose her young adult novel, On Viney’s Mountain, to represent Tennessee at the National Book Festival sponsored by the Library of Congress. Joan appears at the Pavilion of States, where the 52 books chosen will be displayed. (top)

Kathryn Eastburn (Spring 2006) has relocated to Colorado Springs, where she is teaching “Beginning Creative Nonfiction Writing” in The Colorado College Summer Session, and “Write Mind: A Course in Life Story Writing” to older adults at the Hancock Community Center. Kathryn’s radio column, “The Middle Distance,” can be heard every Friday online at http://www.krcc.org (click on “The Big Something”), and every Saturday at 1 p.m. Mountain Time after “This American Life” on KRCC 91.5, the Colorado Springs-based NPR affiliate station. Kathryn teaches “Introduction to Personal Narrative” at Denver’s Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop in the fall and is working on a proposal to set up a program of memoir writing workshops for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Kathryn is delighted to be included in the newly published anthology Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing (University of Georgia Press).

Lia Eastep (Spring 2008) is covering the arts and culture beat for (614) Magazine, a monthly glossy lifestyle magazine in Columbus, Ohio.

Ann Eskridge (Fall 2008) won honorable mention for her young-adult book The Raven in the http://www.Wordhustler.com Literary Contest. The contest netted almost 1,000 entries.

Darlyn Finch (Summer 2009) hosts a radio segment called Scribbler’s Corner on the show “Yo Soy Latino” from noon to 1 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at 801 AM WEUS in Orlando, Florida. Her guests are writers, editors, poets and literacy champions. You can listen live at http://www.yosoylatino.us.
Darlyn was honored to be invited to participate in “Transformations, A Creative Convergence of Poets and Artists” (http://www.411.fit.edu/transformations), sponsored by the Florida Institute of Technology. Edmund Skellings, poet laureate of Florida, is honorary chairman of the project, involving twelve pairs of collaborators. Darlyn’s partner was Melbourne painter Jerry Hooper (http://www.jerryhooper.com). The exhibition of the created works is installed at the Brevard Art Museum (http://www.brevardartmuseum.org). (top)

Stacia M. Fleegal‘s (Fall 2006) second full-length collection of poetry, Versus, was recently accepted for publication and is forthcoming by BlazeVOX. Additionally, her poem, “Horoscope,” was part of the July 6 Red Lion Square podcast.

Foust (Fall 2008) announces that her story “Camera Obscura” was in Issue 4 of Moon Milk Review. Her story “Almost There” was reprinted in Volume 4 of Shalla Magazine. Her story “Missing” is in the August issue of Word Riot. In June, she gave a reading at Chop Suey Tuey Books in Richmond, Virginia. On September 18, she reads at The Black Squirrel in Washington, D.C., along with seven other Moon Milk Review contributors. Find out more at http://www.foustart.com.

Barry George (Fall 2009) was a guest lecturer at Mercerburg Academy’s Young Writers Camp, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in July. He is writing a review of Sonia Sanchez’s new book, Morning Haiku, for the Alabama Writers’ Forum Web Site, http://www.writersforum.org/home.aspx. (top)

George Getschow (Spring 2005), principal lecturer at the University of North Texas Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism, has been inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. The Texas Institute of Letters is a nonprofit organization with the purpose of stimulating interest in Texas letters and recognizing distinctive literary achievement. Members, who must be Texas residents, include National Book Award winner Robert A. Caro; author Don Graham; Skip Hollandsworth, executive editor of Texas Monthly and poet and essayist Naomi Shihab Nye. Getschow has taught at UNT since 2002. At the Mayborn School of Journalism, Getschow serves as writer-in-residence for the school’s annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The conference, held each summer, has become the nation’s most acclaimed narrative nonfiction conference, bringing together authors, editors, journalists, literary agents and publishers and awarding book contracts and cash prizes for manuscripts, personal essays and reporting and research-based narratives. Getschow created and is the editor of Spurs of Inspiration, an anthology of the 10 “best of the best” submissions to the Mayborn Conference, and created and helps to produce Mayborn magazine, which showcases the work of the Mayborn School’s graduate students and the writers who are the guest speakers at each year’s conference. In addition, each year, Getschow assembles a group of students for immersion writing workshop in Archer City, the hometown of novelist and UNT alumnus Larry McMurtry. During the workshop, McMurtry usually meets with students in his home to discuss writing and the writing life. Getschow is completing a literary nonfiction book, Walled Kingdom, which grew out of a two-part narrative that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.

Tara Goldstein (Fall 2006) announces that her play, Harriet’s House, about love, loss and adoption in a same-sex family, was produced by her production company Gailey Road Productions in early July. About 450 people saw the production during its three-day run at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre. In July, Tara also became chair of the Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) Women’s Caucus. PGC is a national association mandated to advance the creative rights and interests of professional Canadian playwrights, promote Canadian plays nationally and internationally and foster an active, evolving community of writers for the stage. As chair of the Women’s Caucus, Tara plans to design and run a six-week cyber-playwriting challenge for PGC members in the fall. (top)

Joe Gisondi (Spring 2010) wrote “Getting Sportswriters to Play Your Game,” an article published in College Media Review that details methods for training student-journalists in both the class room and the newsroom.

Lydia Griffin (Fall 2008) has just completed her first biography for the fourth-grade level, Susan Anderson: High Country Doctor, to be published by Filter Press in September. Lydia is working on her secondary teaching certification in English through Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona. Lydia is the keynote speaker at the Girls Scouts of Montana and Wyoming conference this fall.

Lucrecia Guerrero (Fall 2005) teaches “Introduction to Fiction” at Purdue North Central in Westville, Indiana, this fall. She also teaches “Flash Fiction” at the Lubeznick Center for the Arts in Michigan City, Indiana. Her one-act play, “Look on the Bright Side,” is one of four plays to be produced in the spring at the Lubeznick Center for the Arts. Tree of Sighs, her first novel, is scheduled to be published by Bilingual Press at Arizona State University in the winter.

J.J. Gumbs (Spring 2009) announces that her book The Jamerican was launched on July 15 at the Starapples Restaurant/Stanley & Empress Boutique Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica. In attendance were present and past presidents of the Mona Lions Club, representatives of the Jamaica 4-H Clubs movement, the Book Industry Association of Jamaica (BIAJ), the media, and friends and family of the author. Emcee for the evening was Empress Mullings of NewsTalk 93 FM. Entertainment was provided by Lester Lewis and Singing Rose, along with Singer Jah—the first Magnum King in Jamaica. According to Mary Yukari Waters, author of The Favorites, The Jamerican is “a delightful tale of love in a Jamaican-American community—compulsively readable, and filled to the brim with charm, humor, and joie de vivre.” The Jamerican is available in bookstores and on http://www.amazon.com and http://www.barnesandnoble.com. (top)

Brian Hampton (Spring 2006) announces that Studio Players theater group in Lexington, Kentucky, opens its 2010-2011 season with his play, The Jungle Fun Room, from September 16-October 10. The Jungle Fun Room was the winner of the Audience Favorite Award at the Penobscot Theatre’s Northern Writes New Play Festival and received its world premiere in this summer’s New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) at the Actors’ Playhouse. This is its regional debut. Visit http://www.studioplayers.org or http://www.brianhampton.net for more information.

Mike Hampton‘s (Fall 2005) short story “The Medicine Man’s Boy” appears in the first issue of Southern Grit, and his short story “Super Hero Suicide Notes” will appear in issue 3 of The Wrong Tree Review. His essay “Subject 72” appeared in the 13th issue of Paradigm.

Colleen S. Harris (Fall 2009) reports that her poem “Confession” appears in New Verse News at http://www.newversenews.blogspot.com/2010/07/confession.html# and that her poems “These Terrible Sacraments” and “The Postscript She Doesn’t Write” appears in the winter issue of Minnetonka Review. All are pieces from her forthcoming book, These Terrible Sacraments. Her poem “Violet Petals” appears in the next issue of Hawk & Whippoorwill, and her poems “Helen,” “Midwife to Bathsheba,” and “Mary to Her Son X” appear in the July 2010 issue of Ontologica. Colleen is putting the finishing touches on her poetry book, These Terrible Sacraments, which is to be published by Bellowing Ark Press in 2011. The manuscript collects stories from her brother, who served as a Marine for three tours through Iraq and Afghanistan. (top)

Chris Helvey (Fall 2006) won second place in the Next Great Writers Contest sponsored by the Carnegie Center of Lexington, Kentucky, for his short story, “Work Gloves.”

Edie Hemingway (Spring 2004), regional adviser for Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, planned and directed the annual conference, July 17-18, in Frederick, Maryland. With her Random House editor, Michelle Poploff, Edie presented a joint session on the author/editor revision process. Faculty member Joyce McDonald presented a keynote speech. Alum Teresa Crumpton (Fall 2003) presented a workshop on revision, and former faculty member Carolyn Crimi also presented. Patti Zelch (Fall 2003) attended the event. Following the conference, Kathleen Thompson (Fall 2003) joined Edie, Teresa, Patti, and two other writers at Blue Mountain Retreat on an organic farm in western Maryland. In the mornings, the writers were mostly writing and revising. (Teresa kept the whip cracking.) Kathleen, however, slipped away one morning to pick blackberries. The group was quick to excuse her when she baked a blackberry cobbler and concocted bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil from the farm. Late afternoons and evenings they critiqued a variety of manuscripts for each other—three middle-grade novels, a young adult fantasy, an adult novel, a short story, and a screenplay.

Lisa Jayne (Spring 2010) announces that her play “One Week: An Uncommon Love Story,” opened at White Mountain Regional Theater in May, with additional shows in June. Fourth semester fiction student Amy Hanridge is in the production. Find out more at http://www.whitemountainregionaltheater.com. (top)

Marci Rae Johnson (Spring 2005) has poems upcoming in The Louisville Review, Minnetonka Review, The Christian Century, and Red Lion Square. She teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, in the fall.

Heather L. Jones (Spring 2008) reports that her play, The Waitress Play, received a three-performance run as a staged reading at American Stage Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida. The show was the debut of Blue Scarf Collective, a theatre-making group that also includes St. Petersburg writer/actors Aleshea Harris and Roxanne Faye. (Find the fan page on Facebook.) Heather has just completed her first school year as a composition instructor at the University of Tampa and continues to teach this coming school year. Also, this fall she teaches a creative writing workshop at the new Aging Well Center in Clearwater, Florida. Heather’s one-act play, What Remains, was presented along with Aleshea’s Big Trick and Roxanne’s Aftermath in a show titled Triage: The Mortality Plays, which ran for six days in July—three at the Palladium in St. Petersburg and three at the Creative Loafing Event Space in Tampa. Heather has also negotiated with the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg to write a one-woman play about Gala Dali, and Roxanne performs in it this coming spring, when the new building opens.

René Ketterer (Fall 2007) attended the “Computers and Writing 2010: Virtual Worlds” Conference at Purdue University in May. See http://www.digitalparlor.org/cw2010/ (top)

Cyn Kitchen (Spring 2005) announces that “Prosthesis,” a flash fiction piece, appears in the August 2010 issue of You Must Be This Tall to Ride (http://www.youmustbethistalltoride.net). Cyn is anxiously awaiting the birth of her first book, a collection of short stories called Ten Tongues, in October 2010 from MotesBooks. In anticipation of its arrival, she’s launched a new website, http://www.cynkitchen.com.

Katrina Kittle (Fall 2008) announces that her fourth novel is set to be released from Harper Perennial on August 3. The Blessings of the Animals, from which she read at her graduate reading, is an Indie Next pick for August 2010. She is on book tour in the Midwest/Great Lakes region for much of August. A list of events can be found at her website, http://www.katrinakittle.com.

Amina S. McIntyre (Fall 2009) participated in the Tip My Cup Productions’ 24 Hour Theater Festival at the Roy Arias Theater in New York on June 11. Her play, NO THANKS! Math Genius Turns Down $1M Prize, or A Poincarious Situation, was performed.

Mindy Beth Miller (Spring 2009) recently gave her first interview as an emerging Appalachian writer to Sheldon Lee Compton (Fall 2007), which appeared on his Bent Country blog.
Also, her short story “Entangled Roots” is featured in the June issue of Still: The Journal. Still is an online journal, and Miller’s story can be accessed at http://www.stilljournal.net.

Nicole Moro (Spring 2009) announces that her chapbook of poetry, Almost, was released this July from Finishing Line Press. Kentuckiana folks should be on the lookout for forthcoming readings. Additionally, Nicole is delighted to note that she has recently accepted a full-time faculty position at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. She observes, “Life is good!” (top)

Richard Newman (Fall 2004) has poems appearing in Boulevard and the anthologies Seriously Funny (University of Georgia Press) and Flood Watch (Walrus Press). Garrison Keillor recently read another poem from his first book, Borrowed Towns, on The Writer’s Almanac.

Frances Nicholson (Spring 2004) announces that her poem “Serenade for a Red Planet” is included in Fearless Books’ second poetry anthology, TOUCHING: Poems of Love, Longing, and Desire. She also led another six-week workshop on poetry and the sacred, through Pasadena Presbyterian Church in the weeks following Lent. In her capacity as an area theatrical critic for a string of Los Angeles suburban daily newspapers, she was amused to discover the artistic director of The Theatre at Boston Court, an award-winning Los Angeles-area theater company, has set up a Facebook page praising her work and trying to “Betty White” her onto the staff of the Los Angeles Times.

Loreen Niewenhuis (Spring 2007) announces that her short story “A Little Piece of Me” was accepted for publication at River Oak Review. An excerpt from her book about her 1,000-mile hike around Lake Michigan appears in this summer’s Ontologica (http://www.warriorpoetgroup.com/Ontologica). (top)

Rosanne Osborne (Spring 2007) has two poems, “Printer’s Devil” and “Sam Clemens Dreams of Laura,” in the Summer 2010 issue of The Village Pariah.

Mary Popham (Fall 2003) published book reviews in Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky: July 10: The Blue Hour, by Frederick Smock; June 19: When the Bough Breaks: An Anthology by members of KaBooM Writing Collective; and book reviews published in New Southerner magazine, edited by Bobbi Buchanan: Summer 2010, Eli the Good, by Silas House; and Nothing Like an Ocean by Jim Tomlinson; and Spring 2010, What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets, edited by Jeff Worley; and for ForeWord Reviews: May/June: I Am Here and Not Not-There, by Margaret Avison; and Mar/Apr, Empire for Liberty, by Richard H. Immerman.

Molly Power (Spring 2007) has had her story, “Parity,” published in The Briar Cliff Review, Volume 22, 2010. This is an annual publication of Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa. (top)

Diana Raab (Fall 2003) announces the release of her memoir/self-help book, Healing With Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey (Loving Healing Press, June 2010), which she began while in Spalding’s charter class, just after recovering from breast cancer. The book was a part of her creative thesis in nonfiction. The book has already received stellar reviews, including one from our esteemed director, Sena Jeter Naslund: “Though I am a professional writer, it’s hard to find words for the admiration I feel for Diana Raab and her inspiring true story: Healing With Words. Time after time, Diana articulates incisively the thoughts and feelings that convey hoped-for meaning and encouragement. She is a woman who knows what it is to live fully in the face of mortality. She will add value to the life of every person who reads this book. That she includes the creative impulse to write and the solace offered by contemplating the beautiful as a vital part of human existence resonates at a spiritual level for me.”

Diana Noasconi Rhodes (Fall 2008) announces that her essay “Swimming Upstream” is to be published in the September issue of Seattle Woman Magazine. The essay sums up, in 500 words, the experience of being an expatriate in Germany for five years (two of which were spent in Spalding’s MFA program). The online version of the magazine can be found at http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com.

Rosemary Royston (Fall 2009) is teaching “The Many Faces of Tone” at the Institute for Continuing Learning, Young Harris College. Royston’s poem “Igneous or ‘of fire’” won the 2010 Literal Latte Food Verse Award (New York), and her poem “Propagation” has been accepted for publication in Alehouse.(top)

Clayton Scott (Spring 2007) has an article titled, “Slamming Arkansas Schools,” being published in the April issue of Teaching Artist Journal, a national publication that can be found online at TAJournal.com. In the article, Clayton writes about his work in public schools throughout Arkansas, where he continues to thunder across his state, inspiring students (fourth-12th grade) to write and perform poetry. He also remains a true writer/teacher with the world premiere of his one-person play, Down in Littletown. The play has received resounding standing ovations, and he is now taking his play on the road, performing in towns throughout his state. His play, which has already received attention in New York City, began as his creative thesis at Spalding.

Dawn Shamp (Spring 2005) is on the faculty of the Table Rock Writers Workshop (formerly Duke University Writers Workshop), September 20-24, at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. Other faculty members include Abigail DeWitt, Zelda Lockhart, Darnell Arnoult and Judy Goldman. Details are at http://www.tablerockwriters.com.

Pamela Steele (Spring 2004) has two poems in the newly released anthology New Poets of the American West. She recently taught a writing workshop at Summer Fishtrap and was interviewed on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud program on July 21. Pamela has also finished the first draft of a novel, written while participating in a year-long novel workshop taught by Jane Vandenburgh.

Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (Spring 2003) announces that her new young adult novel, The Gardener, was featured on Good Morning America in the segment “Best Summer Books for Kids.” The book has been nominated for Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Books for Young Adults.

Gretchen Tremoulet (Fall 2007) has had a short story titled “Going Downhill” published in Natural Bridge, No. 23 (Spring 2010). (top)

Christamar Varicella (Fall 2007) placed two humor pieces recently. “An Open Letter to Jack Kerouac” appeared in the July issue of Pig in a Poke and can be viewed at http://www.piginpoke.com/07-2010cvaricella.html. “An Open Letter to Tom Wolfe” found a home with A River & Sound Review (http://www.riverandsoundreview.org/Humor/Issue3/Varicella.htm).

Jonathan Weinert (Fall 2005) announces that his manuscript Strange Equations was a finalist for the Green Rose and Colorado prizes this year. His chapbook, Charged Particles, was a finalist for the Center of Book Arts chapbook competition. You can hear Jonathan read three poems from the chapbook at Red Lion Square (http://www.redlionsq.com), the fabulous new online literary venture from fellow Spaldingites Amy Watkins Copeland (Spring 2006) and Jae Newman (Fall 2006).

Aimee Zaring (Spring 2005) announces that her short story, “Cruise,” is forthcoming in the fall issue of Adirondack Review. Her book review on Paul Harding’s Pulitzer-winning Tinkers and Elizabeth Hardwick’s short story collection, The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick, appeared in the June 12 and July 3 editions, respectively, of The Courier-Journal. She also went on a writer’s retreat to a cabin at Cedars of Peace, affiliated with the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse near Bardstown, Kentucky, in July. (top)

Contact us:

MFA Office: (502) 585-9911, ext. 2423 or (800) 896-8941, ext. 2423
mfa@spalding.edu

FAX: (502) 992-2409

MFA in Writing
Spalding University
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Louisville, KY 40203

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