Life of a Writer: January 2026

EXCITING NEWS & UPDATES FROM SPALDING'S NASLUND-MANN SCHOOL OF WRITING STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY & STAFF

Students

Colleen Alles (P) has accidentally fallen in love with the novella. Her debut novella, Incident at Twin Lakes Resort, won the 2025 Etchings Press (

University of Indianapolis) contest for best novella and was published October 20. In March, Finishing Line Press will publish her second short novel, The Very Terrible Drowning of Bryan Price, which was longlisted in 2023 by Regal House Publishing for its Fugere Book Prize for Finely Crafted Novellas. Her story collection Close to a Flame was featured in LitHub’s 100 Notable Small Press Books 2025. More information can be found on her website www.ColleenAlles.com.

Julie Delegal (F) enjoyed reading at the “Second Sunday Poets and Authors” event, held January 11 at Happy Medium Books & Cafe in Jacksonville, Florida. She read a stand-alone chapter entitled “Magnolia Red” from her untitled novella-in-progress. Julie is grateful for the encouragement of her local writing community, whose leading members include Spalding alumna Darlyn Kuhn (CNF/P ’09), author of Sewing Holes.

Morrow Dowdle (P) won first place in the North Carolina Writers’ Network 2025 Barrax/Bayes Poetry Contest for military veterans, for their poem “Racoon.”

Jennifer Kathryn Fulton’s (CNF) essay “Fear and Vigilance” was published in Issue X of Text Power Telling Magazine in September. In addition to writing and teaching, Fulton works with the ALAN Mentorship Committee to plan webinars where teachers, librarians, teacher educators, and YA authors can connect, share, and learn alongside one another. (ALAN is the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE). Their next webinar, “We Love ALAN Books,” is February 11 and will feature favorite titles from the November 2025 ALAN Workshop, an author panel, breakout sessions, and book giveaways. Authors Brittany N. Williams, Ryan La Sala, and Hannah Sawyer are confirmed for the panel. All ALAN webinars sponsored by the mentorship committee are free and open to non-ALAN members. Please register to join us!

James Marshall (TVSS) has been selected as an Artist in Residence for the prestigious Catwalk Art Residency for Spring 2026. Marshall is a filmmaker, writer, director, and educator who will develop a new stage project during the residency, collaborating with the award-winning actress and director Shona Tucker of Vassar College. Marshall serves as Artist in Residence at Simmons College of Kentucky and has held Guest Artist positions at the University of Louisville. He is currently developing a television show while simultaneously writing a feature film for acclaimed director Supran Varma. He is committed to exploring storytelling across platforms, from stage to screen, while fostering collaborative creative processes that bridge institutional and artistic communities. 

Kelley McVay (CNF) published her essay “The Ruins of St. Benedict” in GlitterClit #2, published by Obsolete Press.

Aspen Pleasant (F) published a short fiction piece called “Power Dynamics” in the December issue of Epistemic Literary.

Katie Andrews Potter (W4CYA) will be running a writing workshop series for teens in partnership with the Indianapolis Public Library. She is excited to bring more creative writing experiences to the Indy youth! You can find her at https://www.katieandrewspotter.com.

Nettie Reynolds (CNF) received a Pushcart Prize essay nomination for her essay, “What They Don’t Tell You About Dying Alone,” published in Chicago Story Press. Reynolds was most recently published in The Manifest Station in October, with “The Courage to Bloom.”

Beverly Sce, Ph.D, (CNF), published a series of stories in A Pot of Basil, ekphrases on love and loss in November, which can be found on Amazon.com. She teaches a variety of writing courses including “Life Writing,” “Ekphrasis: Creative Writing from Visual Art,” “Writing Your Journey Through Cancer,” and “Writing the Journey of Divorce.” She teaches at various local adult schools, art centers, and online. She is an affiliate teaching member of Amherst Writers and Artists. In addition, she is also a certified autobiography instructor from the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies.

Faculty & Staff

Whitney Collins (Faculty, F ’18) has stories forthcoming in The Idaho Review, The Laurel Review, Chatterbox!, Atmo, and Ghost Parachute’s anthology. Her story “Tender” recently placed as a Top 10 Finalist for American Short Fiction’s Halifax Ranch Prize.

In addition to leading the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, Chair Kathleen Driskell continues her work as Kentucky Poet Laureate 2025-26. On December 7, she taught a virtual class focused on meaning-making in sentences, the third talk in a series of fundraisers for the Kentucky State Poetry Society. Later in December, she read at the event “When Poetry Meets Jazz” at the First Presbyterian Church in Frankfort. Virtually, she talked with members of “Read in Peace,” a book club coordinated by the Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina, to discuss her collection Next Door to the Dead, the first poetry book the group had selected. An article featuring Kathleen will soon be published in the Spalding University alumni magazine, and she was profiled in the winter issue of University of Louisville Magazine. In late January, she visited the University of the Cumberlands to visit MFA alum and Professor of English Jamey Temple’s (F ’08) creative writing class and to deliver the university’s annual Palmer Lecture later that evening. At the end of January, she will visit a class at the University of Kentucky’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment to discuss how creative writing might be used across the disciplines for student success. She and Silas House (faculty, F) will lead workshops during a writer’s retreat at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in late February. In March, she visits the Rowan County Arts Center as part of the James Baker Hall Foundation’s series “Trail Talks.”

Lynnell Edwards (associate programs director, faculty, P) presented a generative workshop “Wish You Were Here: Writing the Postcard Poem” at the 2025 Kentucky Book Festival in November to an enthusiastic group of seventy-five to write postcards and talk about poetry of place.

Nathan Gower (faculty, F) served as faculty at the North Carolina Writer’s Network Fall Conference in Wrightsville Beach in November, where he gave a public reading and taught a craft class on building tension in short narrative prose. He also taught a public Zoom course hosted by Write Wilmington on building atmosphere in fiction. Finally, he was a featured author at the Cape Fear Book Festival hosted by the New Hanover County Public Library in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Leah Henderson’s (faculty, W4CYA) latest picture book, I Am the River (Levine Querido), co-authored with former editor Patricia Lee Gauch, was released on January 6. In addition, her picture book The Courage of the Little Hummingbird was awarded the 2024-2025 Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Elementary Book Award.

Erin Keane (Faculty, P, CNF) appeared January 15 on a panel about film, “Psychedelic Cinema and Rubber Soul,” with other Salon critics at the inaugural Everything Fab Four Fest in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in November. Her essay “Dreamchild, or the Curse of Being Alice” was published by Essay Daily as part of their 2025 Advent Calendar series on visual media, and her prose reflection “Night Deer” was published by Necessary Fiction in their Points of Light winter solstice series.

Karen Mann (co-founder and administrative director) recently read and reviewed Elaine Neil Orr’s (faculty, F, CNF) latest book, Dancing Woman. Find Karen’s book recommendations at @karenmannedits. Karen is currently a volunteer proofreader for Colorado publisher Quills and Cosmos. The press specializes in speculative fiction by women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other minorities, amplifying voices that are too often overlooked in traditional publishing.

In December, Lee Martin (faculty, F, CNF) visited the Bound by Books book club in Casey, Illinois, to talk about his recent novel, The Evening Shades. In the parlance of small-town newspaper society items, “a good time was had by all.”

Lesléa Newman (faculty, W4CYA) is thrilled to announce that her picture book, Joyful Song: A Naming Story, has received a 2026 Harold Grinspoon Story Award.

Elaine Neil Orr’s (faculty, F, CNF) novel Dancing Woman was a finalist for the Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award.

Greg Pape (faculty, P) has a new book of poems, Light Moving in Waves, forthcoming from Accents Publishing. He read at Mortimer Bibb’s Public House in Frankfort, Kentucky, on January 15. He is currently at work writing a memoir.

Katy Yocom’s (associate director, MFA, F ’03) novel Three Ways to Disappear made an appearance on the Amazon Kindle Best-seller list in December, at No. 5 in Women’s Literary Fiction.

Alumni

Elaine Alexander (MFA, PW ’24) is pleased to announce that her full-length comedy, Sex, Lies, and a Sycamore Tree, was awarded Best Local Production by readers of QCNerve, a Charlotte newspaper, in their annual Best in the Nest competition. The play, which takes a comedic look at the pitfalls of suburban overdevelopment, gentrification and midlife infidelity, was Elaine’s MFA thesis. https://elainealexanderplaywright.com. Instagram: @elainealexander

Priscilla Atkins (MFA, P ’08) has poems in The Opiate ( “À la Harpo,” “Jackie, Pat and Me”), Hamilton Stone (“Bowerman’s Berries,” “Didn’t Sylvia More or Less Hate Everyone?” “Bill B., you had a little crush”), Jokes Review (“Mish/Marcia”); her poem “Pea Notes” is included in The Headlight Review: Greatest Hits 2019-2024; her Arkana hybrid “Pearls from the Guestbook” received an Editor’s Choice award. An interview appears in Arkana contributor spotlight Substack (Nov 2025): Priscilla Atkins.

Catherine Berresheim (MFA, CNF ’14) wrote a piece for HuffPost, “After Divorcing My Husband Of 30 Years, Social Security Hit Me with Shocking News: ‘That’s a Common Misconception.’” The piece was later picked up by BuzzFeed.

Tay Berryhill (MFA, F ’09) won first place in the 2025 SCBWI Southern Breeze Writing Contest for her novel Wading in the Same River, a YA paranormal, dark romcom in the spirit of Heathers. Judged by six publishing professionals, over 400 pitch entries were scored based on “likes” and the judges’ rankings of their top three picks. Three agents on the judging panel requested Tay’s query and manuscript pages. This is Tay’s fourth first-place award in SCBWI regional writing contests.

Brittany Bryant (MFA, P ’18) received a SU26 faculty fellowship from the Appalachian College Association.

Anne Bucey (MFA, P ’22) is happy to announce the November publication of A Shade Pulled Just Barely. She is especially excited about an upcoming reading from the book in Atlanta, as she will be joined at the mic by fellow Spalding poetry alum Melanie Weldon-Soiset and CNF alum Nancy Luana Wilkes. Last year Arkansas Review, A Journal of Delta Studies, published five of Anne’s historic persona poems from an unpublished book length manuscript. The poem “Canebrake,” also from that manuscript, was a finalist for the 2023 Ron Rash Award and appeared in Broad River Review. 

Bobbi Buchanan (MFA, CNF ’04) is facilitating the Arts Leadership Program (ALP), a hands-on, mentor-supported experience designed to help artists of all types grow creatively while developing leadership skills. The program, funded by a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, centers artists who use creative work as a tool for healing, connection, and recovery.

ALP participants will help shape and support the launch of the Salt River Local Arts Collaborative’s new literary magazine. The program is part of Bobbi’s ongoing arts work in Bullitt County, including quarterly artists’ socials and a summer youth arts and mindfulness camp funded by the James Baker Hall Foundation. You can apply for the ALP here.

Lauren Budrow (MFA, F ’18) published a professional trade article titled “Allaying the Fears of Future Funeral Directors” in the January issue of Southern Funeral Director Magazine. Although this is outside her poetry concentration, it is an example of the power of writing as professional development.

Roy Burkhead (MFA, F ’04) has been selected as the recipient of the Part-Time Teaching Award at the Potter College of Arts & Letters (PCAL) at Western Kentucky University, where he’s an adjunct English professor. He remains under consideration for the University Part-Time Teaching Award. His story “A Pass for the Brokenhearted,” published in Issue 96 of The Louisville Review, has been nominated for Blair’s New Stories from the South 2026 anthology. In addition, from October 31 to December 25, Roy serialized his Spalding MFA Creative Thesis (The E-Postle) on his Substack publication, The Old Man and the Manuscript. The first three chapters are available for free, and he is self-publishing the novel in 2026. Find Roy online at https://royburkhead.substack.com

Kate Bustillos (MFA, W4CYA ’21) and Liz Wilks (MFA, W4CYA ’21) have launched Mansion 21 Press, bringing together the community experience of the MFA program with an indie publishing philosophy of putting the author and their creative work first. They offer support and professional services for each stage of the storytelling process, championing your stories from first draft to publication. They are currently focused on building a client list for developmental editing, line/copy editing, and proofreading. www.mansion21press.com

David Bennett Carren (MFA, SW ’05) just retired a full professor from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley after 18 years’ service. Professor Carren will be eternally grateful to the MFA program at Spalding University for the credentials he earned there that helped him achieve his goals in academia.

Amy Cornell (MFA, F ’25) chairs the board of directors of Women Writing for a Change Bloomington, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people use writing as a tool to transform their lives.  She had two short stories published in December: “The Cat Lady” at Berlin Literary Review, and “A Clean Well Lit Space” in August Drift and Dribble.

Janie Diamond (MFA, CNF ’19) writes and teaches Bible studies in Louisville at Southeast Christian Church’s Chapel in the Woods. She includes personal essays in her teaching. Her most popular study is “Finding Philadelphia,” a study of the seven letters Jesus wrote in the Book of Revelation. She also periodically teaches “This is My Story,” a workshop on writing our testimonies.

Charlotte Rains Dixon (MFA, F ’03) co-led writing workshops in England and France in 2025 and will be teaching again in those locations this year. Learn more about overseas writing workshops at https://www.letsgowriteworkshops.com/. When not working on her next novel, she's a book and writing coach, and she writes about writing regularly on her Substack. 

Ann Eskridge’s (MFA, PW/W4CYA ’08) 10-minute play, “A Rose By Any Other Name,” has been selected for production at First Run Theatre’s Spectrum Short Play Festival to be held February 27- March 8 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The play was first commissioned by Purple Rose Theater, founded by actor Jeff Daniels.

Jeffrey Fischer-Smith (MFA, PW ’17) recently received two major artist fellowships supporting his creative work. He was awarded a $5,000 Long Island Grants for the Arts: Artist Fellowship from the Huntington Arts Council to explore lyric writing and music, and a $10,000 New York State Council on the Arts: Support for Artists Fellowship to develop his new play, Mama’s Boys, or The Inverted Jenny, which was workshopped at Spalding University in Fall 2024. Fischer-Smith is the librettist and a creative producer of Smalltown Boy | The 1980s New Wave Musical, which was first workshopped at Spalding during his graduation residency. He is currently co-producing a workshop and industry presentation in London this March alongside Julie Nichols (MFA, SW ’15) and several additional producers. The team is raising both philanthropic and investor support. To make a gift, please go to https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=JF2067. For more information about investing in the musical—for as little as $1,000—contact jfischersmith@yahoo.com.

Writer/director/producer Michael Fitzer (MFA, SW ’25) screened his short film “Nub City” at the Cannes Indie Shorts Film Awards in November. “Nub City” was written by fellow alum Nicholas Hulstine (MFA, PW ’22) and stars Hulstine and Terry Tocantins (MFA, PW ’22). Michael also begins production on his screenplay “Music Therapy” this spring. He workshopped the screenplay in his first Spalding residency.

Karen George (MFA, F ’09) had a short story published in Stirring Literary Magazine, 3 flash fictions in Flash Boulevard, “poems in 'O,” “to bloom, to arch open” — poetry by Karen L. George, The Mackinaw: A Journal of Prose Poetry, Still Point Arts Quarterly, and a nonfiction piece in the Dos Madres Press anthology TRIBUTARIA - Poetry, Prose, & Art Inspired by Tributaries of the Ohio River Watershed. She was one of the initial readers for Madville Publishing’s Arthur Smith Poetry Prize.

Barry George (MFA, P ’09) has haiku published in the current issues of Blithe Spirit, Presence, Haiku Canada Review, and Ko, as well as a tanka in The Art of Tanka. His book Sirens and Rain (2020), haiku and senryu about life in Philadelphia, is currently one of the required texts for an Intro to Literature course at Community College of Philadelphia. He gave a guest presentation to the class during last fall’s semester and will return again this spring.

Holly Gleason (MFA, CNF ’15) had a really big Fall. Debuting at No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover and Combined Ebook/Hardcover Nonfiction lists with Heart Life Music, written with longtime collaborator Kenny Chesney, the pair spent seven weeks on the list before the year ended. Gleason also won the Diversity in Music (Print) Award at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, where she received four second-place awards including Independent Journalist of the Year, Memoriam/Appreciation Film for a Kris Kristofferson tribute and third place for Podcast, Scripted/Limited Run for “The Boar’s Nest: Sue Brewer & the Birth of Outlaw Country.” “The Boar’s Nest,” which tells the story of the woman holding Waylon, Willie, Kris Kristofferson and more together before they were stars, let alone legends, also won the Gracie Award from Women in Media, received a Silver from the Shortys, and was short listed/nominated for an Audie.

Robert Golphin’s (MFA, SW ’13) short film “Chest Candy,” which he wrote, directed, and starred in, is available on YouTube after a festival run that included award nominations and wins. The film centers on a veteran’s mental health challenges and their effect on his family.

Lucrecia Guerrero’s (MFA, F ’05) literary noir novel, On the Mad River, published by Mouthfeel Press, has received some accolades. The novel took first place in Bookfest’s 2024 American Fiction Award, Suspense. In 2025, the novel was a finalist for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, Crime Fiction. In October, On the Mad River received the Gold in the 27th annual International Latino Book Award for Fiction/Drama.

Cherie Andrea Hamilton (MFA, W4CYA ’14) recently published Notti Pine and the Dreamtime, a middle grade fantasy adventure novel. When eleven-year old Notti Pine moves away from her beloved grandmother, she struggles with homesickness and finding her place in a new town. But everything changes when she receives a mysterious silver dreamtime bracelet from her late grandfather, unlocking her ability to travel beyond the rail of sleep.

   Through vivid dreams that spill into reality, Notti encounters pirate mutinies, ancient temples, African storytellers, and messengers from the spirit world. Each dream reveals clues about her family’s heritage and her own destiny. As she faces dangers, solves mysteries, and builds new friendships, Notti learns the courage to embrace her gift and protect the wisdom of the dreamtime before it is lost forever. Part historical, part spiritual adventure, this novel is a lyrical meditation on ancestry, bravery, and the power of imagination. 

Kelly Hill’s (MFA, F ’13) linked short story collection, Just Don’t Ask Us What We Do All Day—whose stories center around the choices women make under the weight of politeness and performative perfection—will be published by Vintage-Penguin Random House in April 2027. 

Corrine Jackson (MFA, F ’12) launched “Rooted in the Ordinary” this quarter, a personal essay site focused on faith, creativity, homemaking, and attention to everyday life. She is currently publishing regular essays and using the site as a space to develop a sustained body of reflective work shaped by lived experience and theological study. Her writing explores slow formation, faithful presence, and creativity as a way of attending to God in ordinary life.

Mackenzie Jervis (MFA, F ’16) has released a new travel guide, 111 Places in Las Vegas That You Must Not Miss, published by Emons Verlag. The book offers readers an insider’s look at Las Vegas through a curated collection of unexpected landmarks, lesser-known favorites, and must-see spots beyond the Strip.

Laura Johnsrude’s (MAW, PrWr ’21) essay “Beholding Something Fine” is included in an upcoming print anthology, Where I Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine, due out in March from Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. Her essay in Appalachian Review, “The Tiger in the Bin,” was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her book review of No Less Strange or Wonderful by A. Kendra Greene was published in Issue Ten (Fall 2025) of Good River Review.

Teddy Jones’s (MFA, F ’12) latest novel, A Family of Good Women, is out now from Stoney Creek Publishing. Her next novel, Far from Uncertain, is due out in March.

Rob Kaiser’s (MFA, CNF ’10) piece “Haunted by Herman Melville” appeared in the Opinion section of The Boston Globe.

Amy Foos Kapoor’s (MFA, W4CYA ’19) debut children’s picture book, Into the Blue: A Counting Adventure (BeaLu Books), was featured in the November 1 issue of Kirkus Reviews magazine, where it was called “a charming and educational tale that swims into a world of childhood wonder.” Amy has appeared at recent book festivals, including the Kentucky Book Festival and the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, and she will be a featured author at the City of Florence, Kentucky, 2026 Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, February 28.

Katrina Kittle (MFA, F ’09) will be teaching a three-week online course for Word’s Worth Writing Connections called “Revision Inspiration,” which leads you through her triage approach to revision. Class runs Wednesdays, January 21, 28, and February 4 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. Eastern via Zoom. Full description and registration at https://www.wordsworthdayton.com/. You can find out more about her other classes at her website, katrinakittle.com.

Hilary Kretchmer (MFA, F ’24), writing as Téa Sera, recently found a home for her short story “The Grind” in Etched Onyx Magazine. Hilary looks forward to reading the story and being interviewed for their Story Discovery Podcast as well.

Jennine "DOC" Krueger (MFA, P '18) has been named a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow in Musical Theatre. Her current musical focus, Cuttin’ Heads, is a blues-soaked, 1930s barbershop musical rooted in the legend of Robert Johnson at the crossroads, harmonizing urban folklore with a descent worthy of Dante himself. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Film and Television at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

As part of his work with the University of Miami's communications team, Michael Malone (MFA, CNF ’10) is used to generating feature type stories on a wide range of subjects from cryptocurrency to AI research to alumni who are excelling around the world. Recently, with the football team on the verge of a national championship, he’s traveled or reached out from home base, applying storytelling skills (dispatches) that capture how the games are reconnecting the fanbase with their excitement, education, and experience—sometimes decades ago—at the university.

Lori Marra’s (MFA, F ’25) thesis full-length comedy, Zip-it: The Real Life Drama of an Italian-American Lesbian, is one of six finalists in Echo Theater Company’s (Los Angeles) 2025 New Play Competition. It was one of 380 plays submitted to this year’s competition. On December 21, the theatre announced the top six finalists. The final three winners will be awarded by January 31. Learn more at Echo Theater Company.

Clint Martin (MFA, CNF ’20) saw his essay “Strumming Some Hums” published in the latest issue of Gulf Stream Magazine, while in the latter half of 2025, his essay “Cardinal Math” appeared in The Kenyon Review, “Jump Rock” in Sagebrush Review, and “Fore! the Record” in The Dewdrop’s “All About Love” feature.

Lisa McCormack (MFA, F ’24) will have a short essay published in the winter edition of the literary magazine Untelling, which will be out later this month.

Amina McIntyre (MFA, PW ’09) won the Gene Gabriel Playwriting Award through the Suzi Bass Awards for her play How to Make a Home. The play was featured in American Theatre Magazine this past summer. Additionally, Amina is a 2025 Tanne Foundation Award Winner.

Diana McQuady (MFA, F ’14) published a short story titled “Missed” in the November 2025 issue of The Write Launch.

Faith Miller’s (MAW, F ’25) flash story “El Salvador” is in December’s Literary Heist.  Her novel, Logic Puzzles, was short-listed for the Irish Writers Centre International Emerging Novel prize in December.

Marilyn Millstone’s (MFA, PW ’16) 10-minute comedy “Compos Mentis,” now published by Art Age Publications, was performed in September by Northern Lites Readers Theatre in Cadillac, Michigan. It will be performed again this February at Shepherdstown University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The play—which has been produced over a dozen times around the U.S. and in Sydney and Dubai—was workshopped during Marilyn’s first residency at Spalding, under the tutelage of the always awesome (and frequently hilarious) Charlie Schulman.

Andrew Najberg’s (MFA, P ’10) latest horror novel, Eat the Light, is due out in March. Andrew is part owner and co-editor of the publishing house Aethon: Wicked House, which released it first two titles in January: Lyla in the Flesh by Nick Roberts and Porcelain Lullaby by Blaine Daigle. The press has approximately 50 titles slated for 2026 release.

Joy Neighbors (MFA, PW ’20) has released a new book, Crown Hill: The City on a Hill, published by Sutton Publishing in November. This richly illustrated volume offers an intimate look at the monuments, mausoleums, and markers that define Crown Hill Cemetery. Through detailed photography and thoughtful narrative, the book uncovers the stories and symbolism behind those laid to rest there, offering readers a deeper appreciation for the lives of Indianapolis residents who came before. Joy will be speaking and signing books at various Indianapolis venues throughout the year.

Stacie Ramey (MFA, W4CYA ’18) celebrates the release of the first in a cozy mystery series called Spellbound by Murder (Crooked Lane Books) on March 10. It is a mix of Gilmore Girls and Charmed, featuring three generations of women who run a magical bookshop in a small New England town.

Andie Redwine’s (MFA, SW ’20) directorial debut The Tenderness Tour, a feature-length documentary, premiered in October at the Heartland International Film Festival, where it received the Indiana Spotlight Audience Choice Award. It was named Best Documentary 2025 by the Indiana Film Journalists Association and has been named a top film of 2025 by critics at FilmYap, Midwest Film Journal, and elsewhere. The film follows disability activist Richard Propes on his mission to fight medical debt.

Amy Le Ann Richardson (MFA, F ’09) received a 2025 Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to support the creation of a poetry collection exploring how generational knowledge passed down by Appalachian women serves as a map for surviving climate collapse through practices of care, adaptation, and resistance. Drawing from oral histories, family stories, and inherited wisdom, the project honors women who helped their families endure past and ongoing traumas and deepens Richardson’s practice as a feminist social change artist. Richardson also has three poems published in the recent issue of Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature and two poems in the inaugural issue of Mountain Movement Magazine. She can be found on Instagram at @amyleannrichardson.

Rosemary Royston (MFA, P ’09) had three poems published in the October issue of Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature, and was the facilitator for January Jumpstart, a generative poetry workshop for the Tennessee Mountain Writers in Oak Ridge.

Abigail Rudibaugh (MFA, P ’24) received a Pushcart Prize nomination for her poem “ ‘All that you remember must be written down,’ so  I’m writing it down,” which was published in the Fall 2025 issue of Good River Review.

2026 promises to be a knockout year for Catherine Rush (MFA, PW ’12) beginning in January with a reading of her bilingual play The Loudest Man on Earth as part of the New Works Northwest Festival at the Union Arts Center in Seattle.  Less than a month later her new play, Fishbowl, will open as part of the Bainbridge Performing Arts’ Studio Series season. Catherine intends to harness this momentum and use it to create more work for the rest of the year.

Ron Schildknecht's (MFA, SW ’12) short film “Mother, Protect Us” was recently screened at the Ukrainian Film Festival in America, Chicago, where it received the Viewer’s Choice Award.

Mervyn Seivwright (MFA, P ’19) finished up the year with four literary journals. His poem “Sunrising from the Mind 12” appeared in Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, “Awakening,” Issue 9, London Arts-Based Research Centre, London, England. “Do Not Yield” and “If Crickets Could Talk” appeared in Mouthful of Salt, Granules. “Our Eclipse of Sunset” appeared in Neologism Poetry Journal, Issue 102, and “My Mind Channels” in Frazzled Lit, Issue 4, Ireland. Here’s a portfolio of Mervyn’s work.

Graham Shelby (MFA, CNF’10) continues to screen his documentary City of Ali for educational audiences worldwide. The film tells the story of Muhammad Ali’s roots in Louisville and his global impact. In the past year, Graham has joined screenings and discussions and presented clips of the film for high school and university audiences in France, the UK, the UAE, and in the United States at Harvard, the State University of New York, the World History Association Conference, and at his alma mater, Spalding! Graham has more screenings and travels planned for 2026. If your school or university might be interested in hosting a screening of the documentary, reach out to Graham at gshelby3@gmail.com. 

Amy Oden Simpson (MFA, PW ’13) contributed her 10-minute play “All or Nothing” to the Fondren Playwriting Workshop’s 24-hour festival in Jackson, Mississippi, last fall. Within the span of 24 hours, Simpson met her director and three actors, wrote the script, submitted the final copy for a day of rehearsals, and joined the audience for the evening’s performance.

In the Fields of Fatherless Children, a novel by Pamela Steele (MFA, P ’04) set in late 1960s Appalachia, is set to be released by Counterpoint Press on March 24. Stay tuned for details of readings in local areas. Pam can be reached via her Facebook page: Pamela Steele Books.

Katerina Stoykova (MFA, P ’09), in her role as president of the Kentucky State Poetry Society, moderated a conversation between Kentucky Poet Laureate and Naslund-Mann School Chair Kathleen Driskell and Silas House (faculty, fiction) about writing, teaching, publishing, community, and more at the Kentucky Book Festival in November. Katerina’s publishing house, Accents Publishing, recently celebrated its sixteenth anniversary.

Jamey Temple’s (MFA, F ’07) prose poem “270-736-5241” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Red Branch Review.

Irene Turner (Post-master’s cert, F ’25) co-wrote and produced the new mystery fiction Lady Killer on Audible, starring Fred Armisen, Erica Hernandez, Jesse Garcia, Hugh Dancy, Sasheer Zamata and Julia Sweeney.

Diane Webber (MFA, W4CYA ’23) is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of The Artist and His Museum. The research and (countless) earlier drafts of this tale—a narrative history of perhaps the most groundbreaking museum in American history ever to be forgotten—were crafted under the care of excellent mentors during Diane’s years in the MFA program. Published by Brookline Books, an imprint of Casemate Publishers, it will be released on June 1.

Jonathan Weinert (MFA, P ’05) has new poems in VOLT and Ocean State Review. Ghost Smoke, a book-length hybrid poem written in collaboration with poet H. L. Hix, is forthcoming in August from Project Poëtica / Bridwell Press at Southern Methodist University. Jonathan has recently been named Assistant Editor at The Louisville Review.

Amanda Burr Xido (MFA, F ’18) is the producer and story consultant (where she did lots of writing!) on the new feature film Sons of Detroit, which had its electrifying world premiere at DOC NYC in November. The film will go on to play at film festivals across the U.S., starting with the Sedona International Film Festival in February and the prestigious True/False Festival in Columbia, Missouri, in March, with more in the wings. Watch the trailer and join the mailing list at the website, and follow on Instagram or Facebook to learn more! Would love to see Spalding folks at upcoming screenings.