EXCITING UPDATES FROM SPALDING MFA STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY, AND STAFF ON PUBLISHING, PRODUCING, AND OTHER DOINGS – ENJOY!
STUDENTS
Theresa Anne Carey’s (SW) first semester screenplay, The Lady Pirates, is a Finalist in the Wayward Film Festival. She was interviewed along with other prize winners of the UK FilmDaily Screenwriting competition, the interview can be found here. In addition, her newest play, The Twelve Dancing Princesses & The Frog Prince, A Fairy-Tale Mashup, written with her two youngest children Jack & India Clizer, will be performed by a local children’s theater group in mid-May, details available here.
Elizabeth Felicetti, (CNF) had three essays published in March, in the Grief Diaries , Christian Century, and the Other Journal. She tweets @bizfel.
Lennie Hay (P) recently heard that she will have two poems published this spring. “Voices 1956” will appear in the next issue of Uproot, an online literary journal associated with the University of Illinois at Springfield. A second poem, “In the Gallery with Frida Kahlo—after Dali Museum’s 2017 exhibit,” will be published in HARTS & Minds a literary journal affiliated with the University of Bristol, UK. Lennie will graduate in November, 2019. She can be found on Facebook, here.
Melanie Haws Sakalla (F) recently participated in a panel reading at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, held in Cincinnati in April. She read an excerpt from her short story, “You Never Told Me,” from the anthology Unbroken Circle: Stories of Diversity in the South ( Bottom Dog Press).
Stacie Ramey’s (CYA) third YA book, The Secrets We Bury was released March 6, 2018. Kirkus called it “A sensitive, funny, and sometimes awkwardly romantic story of survival and self-awareness.” Available at all major outlets, including here.
Taylor Riley (CNF), had an essay, “The Truth About Tampons” published in the Eckleburg Review. Her essay, “Namaste, or Something Like It” was published by Riggwelter Press. In April, she attended the Appalachian Studies Association Conference on a scholarship. In May, she was the Kentucky Oaks and Derby fashion and social media reporter for Courier Journal. She will transition from Louisville’s metro newspaper to the managing editor role at the Henry County Local (Kentucky). She will serve as the Spalding University Masters of Fine Arts representative on the Spalding University Graduate Student Advisory Council in the next year. In July, she will attend the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference on scholarship, where she will also workshop an essay.
ALUMNI
Alicia Anthony (F ’16), has been named as a finalist in the Paranormal category of the 2018 Golden Heart® awards from the Romance Writers of America® for her manuscript INHERENT LIES. The Golden Heart award recognizes excellence in unpublished romance fiction manuscripts. Alicia currently resides in Jeffersonville, Ohio. Winners of the awards will be announced Thursday, July 19, 2018, at an Awards Ceremony to be held at the 38th Annual RWA Conference in Denver, Colorado.
Kristin Brace (F ’12) is thrilled to announce the publication of her first book, a chapbook of poetry called Fence, Patio, Blessed Virgin scheduled for release on July 13 from Finishing Line Press. The chapbook weaves together memories of Brace’s grandmother with narrative from the last two years of her life. Fence, Patio, Blessed Virgin is on pre-sale directly from the press through May 18. In addition, she was interviewed on the Electric Poetry radio program, which included a few poems from the new collection. The interview can be seen here. You can follow Kristin on the web, here.
Drema Drudge (F ‘13) has been asked to speak at the adult education program Learn More Center’s commencement on May 9 in Wabash, Indiana. Drema’s speech will be “Write Your Story, Right Your Life.” In addition, Drema and Barry Drudge (F ‘18) have created a website together devoted to literary instruction, analysis, inspiration, and news. You can find it at: writingallthethings.com.
Carolyn Flynn (F/CNF ’12) is leading a writing retreat near Zion National Park in Utah for fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction and prescriptive nonfiction writers July 18-22. This generative retreat includes craft talks on voice and structure, plenty of time to write, a trip to Zion and a session with an art therapy coach that will help you map out the narrative arc of your story. Carolyn co-led the Silver + Sage Winter Writing Retreat in Santa Fe earlier this year with memoirist/poet Elizabeth Cohen. In addition, her short story, “Improvising,” was published on the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature in 2017. To find out more about the Zion retreat or the 2019 Silver + Sage Winter Writing Retreat in Santa Fe, email carolyn@carolynflynn.com.
Michael Jackman’s (P ’12) poem “Three Apologies” is out in the latest issue of Gyroscope Review. Print edition here. Kindle version here and PDF version on Gyroscope Review here. In addition, his poem “Between Two Nothings” was published in March in Louisville’s Community newspaper. Jackman will be a featured reader, along with some of his current and former poetry students, at the Flying Out Loud reading series next November 12.
KC Kirkley’s (F ’13) short story “How to Read a Love Letter” is now available as a hand-bound tiny book in the Zoetic Press Viable Series, available exclusively to patrons of the press. Twitter @kckirkley.www.poloniusreviews.com. www.kckirkley.com.
Nancy Chen Long (P ’13) participated in two readings at the 2018 AWP Conference in Tampa: She was one of five University of Tampa Press authors who read at the Tampa Review: Celebrating 54 Years of Poetry Publishing event. She also read, along with Kathleen Driskell, Kiki Petrosino, K. L. Cook, Cole Bellamy, and Leah Henderson, at Spalding’s fabulous off-site reading at the Blind Tiger Café. Also at AWP, she had a book-signing at the University of Tampa Press booth for her book Light into Bodies. She returned to Florida again in early April as a featured reader for the Florida Literary Arts Coalition, reading at Florida Southwestern State College in Naples, Valencia College in Orlando, and at St. Leo College, where she also led a class in a creative writing exercise and discussion. In later April, she conducted a half-day poetry workshop at Women Writing for a Change-Bloomington called “First and Final – Beginnings and Endings.” Her poem “Memory Reel” was published in the Spring 2018 issue of The Southern Review. You can hear her read the poem here. In addition, her poem “Sestina” was published in the Winter 2018 issue of Cimarron Review. “Saving My Mother” was published in the 2018 print version of Crab Orchard Review and “Gonga” was published in Issue 6 of So It Goes: Literal Journal of The Kurt Vonnegut Museum.
FACULTY & STAFF
Dianne Aprile (CNF Faculty) was one of two featured readers at Seattle’s Words West Literary Series on Wednesday, March 21. She read with poet Melinda Mueller.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti, (W4CYA Faculty), is pleased to announce that her forthcoming nonfiction anthology, 1968: A Year of Rebellion, Revolution, & Change (Candlewick, September 2018) has been named a Junior Library Guild selection. She co-edited the anthology with Marc Aronson.The anthology includes contributions by two Spalding alum, Jennifer Anthony and Omar Figueras.
Beth Ann Bauman’s (W4CYA Faculty) fiction “Under a City Sky” is forthcoming in Ponder Review. Later this month she’ll participate in a YA-themed reading at KGB Bar in New York City.
Lynnell Edwards (Spalding MFA Associate Director) prose poem, “We were talking about
guns” was recently released and published in Waccamaw Journal, available online only
here. She has another prose poem coming out soon in Valparaiso Poetry Review, also available online only.
Elaine Neil Orr’s (F Faculty) essay on writing Swimming Between Worlds, is available here. A review of the book by the Mountain Times can be found here. Her essay, “Looking for the Secret Door,” on the mystery of writing historical fiction can be found here.
Julie Benko, Jim Stanek, Megan McGinnis, Sarah Beth Preifer, Aaron Galligan-Stierle, Amie Bermowitz, Zal Owen, Blair Alexis Brown, Charlie Schulman, Brad Rouse and Michael Roberts
Charlie Schulman (PW/SW Faculty) is pleased to announce that Goldstein The Off-Broadway Musical is currently running at The Actors Temple in NYC. Written and Produced by Michael Roberts(Composer/lyricist) and Charlie Schulman (Book-Writer), the show has received rave reviews, publishing offers and was recently nominated Best New Musical 2018 by The Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. Michael and Charlie are in pre-production for The Original Cast Album to be recorded in July. They are looking forward to teaching a Musical Theater Workshop at Spalding during the upcoming Spring residency. This is their second time teaching the workshop together. For more info about their show go to Goldsteinmusical.com