October 27, 2022
EXCITING NEWS & UPDATES FROM SPALDING'S NASLUND-MANN SCHOOL OF WRITING STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY & STAFF
STUDENTS
John Mark Jennings (CNF) has been selected for inclusion in Remington Review’s five-year anniversary anthology. John’s personal essay, “Big Bend Moonrise,” was originally published in the Fall 2021 issue. John is a writer and photographer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Find him on Facebook @johnmarkjenningsphotographer or visit his website.
Diane Webber (W4CYA) has an essay published in the Fall ’22 issue of Philadelphia Stories, a magazine that publishes work by local writers and artists as part of its efforts to build the literary and artistic community in the area. Three Dead Mice was conceived and composed during a cross-genre semester in Creative Nonfiction, under the thoughtful mentoring of Nancy McCabe.
ALUMNI
A monologue from Elana Gartner’s (PW ’21) play Runtime Error, written during her time at Spalding, has been published in Smith & Kraus’s “Best Monologues for Men 2022.”
Pat Hudson’s (F/CNF ’19) debut novel, Traces, will be released November 1 by Fireside Industries, an imprint of the University Press of Kentucky. Traces is a retelling of Daniel Boone's saga through the eyes of his wife, Rebecca, and her two oldest daughters, Susannah and Jemima.
Alice Jennings (P ’14) is excited to announce that her poem “This is a story but you’re not in it” has been accepted to be published by Broken Sleep Books in its upcoming Frightened Rabbit Anthology, a celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s work in both music and community. She was also a recent contributor to The Federation of Writers Scotland Patchwork Poem for National Poetry Day on October 6. Writing to this year’s theme of Environment, members across Scotland and further afield contributed poetry for this project. They were curated and edited by former-Makar Andy Jackson to spellbinding effect. This year’s poem is titled “And This Is What You Claimed Was Beauty.”
Laura Johnsrude’s (PrWr ’21) essay “Daffodil” was published in the September issue of Drunk Monkeys, and her essay “Losing Flesh” was published in the Fall 2022 issue of Under the Gum Tree. Her piece “Her Thin Summer Top” is forthcoming in The Examined Life Journal. Find her on Instagram @Laura.Johnsrude and Twitter @LauraJohnsrude.
Jessica Love Kim’s (WFCYA ’16) latest YA novel, This Is for Tonight, was recently awarded first place in the Young Adult category and second runner-up overall in the 2022 Orange County Romance Writers’ Book Buyers Best contest. This Is for Tonight, published as Jessica Patrick, is Jessica’s third YA novel. Her first two, Push Girl and In Real Life, are published as Jessica Love.
In 2019, Aimee Mackovic (P, SW ’05) had a heart/liver transplant and is now getting back in the groove. She currently teaches online for Post University and Mayville State University. She has a chapbook coming out this month from dancing girl press called Headlines. She is currently working on a memoir about her transplant journey extravaganza. In 2023, she will be attending two monthlong writing residencies in Iceland (Bainho) and Portugal (NES).
Liz Hall Magill’s (F ’22) short story, “Risen,” appears in Issue 6.1 of Oyster River Pages.
In May, Marilyn Millstone’s (PW ’16) play Proprioception was published as an “acting edition” by Dramatic Publishing. The play—which won AACT NewPlayFest 2020 and premiered at the Cox Playhouse in Plano, Texas, in September 2021—had previously been published in an anthology of AACT NewPlayFest winners. Also in May, Millstone’s play The Sculptress was the focus of a webinar sponsored by the National Museum of Women in the Arts; click to see the recording of that event.
Harriet Squier’s (CNF ’18) piece, “Unofficial Internal Medicine Orientation Manual for Sucker Third-Year Medical Students, 1982” was published in McSweeney’s.
John Styron (F ’22) recently visited the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville where he collaborated with Donna Lawrence Productions, Louisville, on script development for the signature film, Roots.
Colleen Wells’s (CNF ’10) first chapbook, Animal Magnetism, was published in May by Finishing Line Press. Also in May, her essay, “Dearly Beloved, we are Gathered here today - An Homage to a Legend” was published by NUVO. Two of her poems, “The Hawk” and “Gardening with the Aunts,” appeared in the June poetry issue of Ryder Magazine. Colleen started helping as a facilitator in a writing circle with Bloomington Women Writing for a Change in May. Read about Women Writing for a Change outreach.
FACULTY & STAFF
Kathleen Driskell, Chair of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, has work forthcoming in The New Yorker and Appalachian Review. Her poems have recently been published in Symposeum and Red Tree Review. On September 14, she was in conversation with Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle about her debut novel Even as We Breathe at Carmichael’s Bookstore. She hosts the AWP Board of Directors for their Fall Regular Meeting in Louisville, October 19-22. On October 22 at 7:00 p.m. on behalf of Spalding’s Naslund-Mann School of Writing, and with Carmichael’s Bookstore, she welcomes Amber Tamblyn and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in conversation at Spalding’s Columbia Gym Auditorium. She and Katy Yocom will attend the Kentucky Book Festival on October 29 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington with Creativity & Compassion: Spalding Writers Celebrate Twenty Years. Her chapbook, The Vine Temple, part of the Cox Family Chapbook Series at Carnegie-Mellon University Press, is forthcoming February 2023.
Silas House’s (F) seventh novel, Lark Ascending, launched in September. It has been named an Indie Next List Pick (Most Recommended by Indie Booksellers) and a Lambda Literary Most Anticipated Book. It was also included in the LA Times Fall Books Preview and Garden and Gun’s Fall Recommendations.
Fall activities related to Roy Hoffman’s (fiction, CNF) novel, The Promise of the Pelican, include a review in the Alabama Writers Forum news and reviews, and appearances on a panel at the Louisiana Book Festival at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, and as guest speaker for the Montgomery Jewish community, public welcome, at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, at Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem Synagogue.
Erin Keane (CNF, P, PrWr) launched her debut memoir in essays, Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me, on September 27 at Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville with a reading and conversation with Katy Yocom, followed by a signing and panel event at The Strand in New York. She’s out on a book tour now (full book tour schedule here) and would love to see you. For Runaway, Erin has been interviewed by The Cut, LitHub’s Author Questionnaire, and the podcast The Perks of Being a Book Lover. Runaway has been reviewed in the LA Times, excerpted in LitHub, and selected for a number of Most Anticipated lists, including Garden & Gun’s Southerners’ Big Fall Reading List.
Robin Lippincott’s (CNF, F) hybrid piece, “Front Porch,” was published in the museum of americana, Issue 28, which goes live in October. Robin wrote “Front Porch” in response to a prompt he gave the students in his 2021 SpaldingCon flash fiction/CNF generative workshop.
Lesléa Newman (W4CYA) is thrilled that her latest poetry collection, a memoir-in-verse (written for adults) titled I Wish My Father, has received a Massachusetts Poetry Book Honor. She is also excited to announce that her children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies was named by Book Riot as one of the “Best Children’s Books of All Time.”
Katy Yocom (F’03, associate director) was in conversation with Cynthia Newberry Martin, author of Tidal Flats, at Carmichael’s Bookstore on August 25, and with Spalding’s own Erin Keane, also at Carmichael’s, on September 27 for the launch of Erin’s memoir in essays, Runaway: Notes on the Myths that Made Me. The next day, she attended the Louisville launch of Silas House’s newest novel, Lark Ascending. Katy, Erin, and Silas were Spalding MFA students together, many years ago.
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