EXCITING NEWS & UPDATES FROM SPALDING'S NASLUND-MANN SCHOOL OF WRITING STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY & STAFF
Students
Colleen Alles, a second-semester poetry student, has published a new poetry collection, Bonfires & Other Vigils. This collection from Red Rook Press (University of Alabama) explores and celebrates the world around us—and all the worlds beneath those worlds, too. Bonfires & Other Vigils is Colleen’s second book of poetry and was largely shaped by Kathleen Driskell’s mentorship. In November, Colleen will also publish her debut Young Adult novel, The Hound of Thornfield High (Conquest Publishing). This novel is a contemporary retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 classic, Jane Eyre. In The Hound of Thornfield High, Jane is a high school senior who must navigate her first love—Eddie Rochester—in the world of social media, texting, and other uncertainties.
Connor Wilkerson (SW) has recently completed three short screenplays. With excellent guidance, he has gotten much better at incorporating proper structure and character into his screenplays.
Faculty and Staff
K. L. (Kenny) Cook (fiction faculty) is a 2024 recipient of the Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award, Iowa State University's premier award for “professors who demonstrate exceptional mentorship to graduate students both during their time at Iowa State and beyond graduation.”
Kathleen Driskell’s (chair and poetry faculty) poems “Promise” and “Blake Looking Through Trees” were recently published in The Louisville Review; she has three poems forthcoming in the fall issue of Still: The Journal. Her essay “Church of the Goatman,” published in River Teeth, won a Pushcart Prize and will appear in the 2025 Pushcart Prize Anthology, out in early December. She read at Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort, Kentucky, on July 30.
Associate programs director and poetry faculty Lynnell Edwards read from her new collection, The Bearable Slant of Light, in the Bryant Park Reading Room in New York City for their summer series on July 23. Visit her website, http://lynnelledwards.com, for information about her new book, other writing, and upcoming readings this fall.
Leah Henderson’s (faculty, W4CYA ’11) picture book, Your Voice, Your Vote (Harper Collins) has been selected to represent the District of Columbia in the Library of Congress's Center for the Book's 2024 Great Reads from Great Places Youth List. This national reading list highlights a chosen title from each state or U.S. territory during the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Karen Mann, administrative director, recently attended the Writing Heights Writers Association of Northern Colorado conference "Beyond Craft." She enjoyed sessions on traditional and self-publishing, submissions, and marketing. Karen has added Nathan Gower’s (F ‘08) The Act of Disappearing and Chad Broughman’s (F ‘16) The Fall of Bellwether to the list of books she's read this year. If you haven’t read them, she suggests adding them to your own reading list!
Creative nonfiction and fiction faculty member Nancy McCabe’s piece on a recent jury duty experience appeared in the July 23 issue of Newsweek. Her short story “The Lost Diary of Nannita Daisey” is in the anthology Through Western Storms, and her essay “That Good Night” has been reprinted in Dispatches From the Rust Belt Vol. IV. Nancy is spearheading a book in common project to prepare for a visit to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford by Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer in spring 2025. Nancy is organizing colleagues from English, art, philosophy, biology, and communications as well as members of campus staff and her local community, and planning events such as book discussions, nature walks, field trips, and connections with the Seneca Nation.
Lesléa Newman (faculty, W4CYA) has a new poem, “My Wife’s Lovers,” published by The Ekphrastic Review.
Greg Pape (faculty, poetry) has a selection of poems forthcoming in the Montana Poets Laureate Anthology. He has new work forthcoming in SALT. He is currently serving as a judge for the inaugural James Baker Hall Book Award; the winner will be announced in October. On August 24, Greg will participate in the fifteenth Gathering of Authors at the Paul Sawyier Library in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Fiction faculty member John Pipkin's very short story "Engine" was featured in the August 19 edition of Flash Fiction Magazine.
Rebecca Walker (fiction and CNF faculty and CNF '11 grad) is publishing her first children's book on September 10, Time for Us.
Katy Yocom (associate director and F ’03 grad) told a story at The Moth StorySLAM in Louisville in July. Alum Graham Shelby (CNF ’10) hosted. The theme was “temptations.” She recently visited a book club at Lakeside Swim Club, confirming her theory that books and bathing suits go together. In August, she wrapped up the 11th season of Voice & Vision reading series, which she cohosts with Sena Jeter Naslund, with producer Amy Foos Kapoor (W4CYA ’19), in partnership with The Louisville Review and 21c Museum Hotel. When she’s not busy with her Spalding work, she offers developmental editing on fiction and creative nonfiction manuscripts.
Alumni
Avitus B. Carle's (F ’16) story “Within the Orphan Village,” originally published in The Lumiere Review, was selected by guest judge Maurice Carlos Ruffin for the 2024 Wigleaf Top 50. Her debut flash fiction collection, These Worn Bodies, will be out with Moon City Press on November 1.
Kelly Cass Falzone (P ’22) will be the featured poet at “Words Aloud: Poems, Songs, & Stories” on Friday, September 6, at 6:30 pm, hosted by Art & Soul Nashville, an expressive arts center where she has been a student, member, teacher, and more for more than twenty-five years.
Erin Chandler (CNF ’17) has a new book coming out next month! Bluegrass Sons, A True Crime Memoir, will be featured at the Kentucky Book Festival on November 2 in Lexington. The book is available for pre-order.
Ashleé Clark’s (CNF ’19) essay about learning to swim was published on HuffPost.
Kathryn Eastburn (CNF ‘06) is launching a statewide online literary review in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Reader(RMR), due to launch on September 1. Modeled after Humanities Tennessee's Chapter 16, RMR will review new and recently released books by Colorado authors, set in or about Colorado, and feature significant authors, literary organizations, and events around the state. Colorado Humanities is RMR's fiscal sponsor. They'll publish weekly, forty-four weeks per year, with content by paid freelance writers.
The Rev. Elizabeth Felicetti (CNF ’20) published her second book, Irreverent Prayers: Talking to God When You're Seriously Sick, co-authored with Samantha Vincent-Alexander, on July 2 from Eerdmans. Elizabeth and Samantha also wrote an article about their book for Duke Divinity’s Faith & Leadership, “Irreverent Prayers for Times of Serious Sickness”. Elizabeth recently had to step down from her position as rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church for health reasons, so is especially grateful to be writing books as she navigates this transition. She recently turned in a memoir to her publisher and is now working on a devotional about John the Baptist. You can find her at her website, www.elizabethfelicetti.com, on Facebook and Instagram, and on X @bizfel.
Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Felicetti died on August 18. The Naslund-Mann community mourns her loss. Her memoir is expected to be published by Eerdmans.
Karen George (F ’09) had six prose poems published in The Mackinaw, a poem in the “All About My Mother” series at Silver Birch Press, and a poem in Sheila-Na-Gig.
Quincy Gray McMichael (CNF, P’22) has refocused on her hybrid memoir, The Unsustainable Farm, after giving the project time to grow “like a tree” (thanks, Fenton Johnson). In June, the project was selected for a Black Lawrence Press manuscript consultation with Christopher Locke, who offered a fresh perspective on Quincy’s writing and encouragement to continue weeding and watering. The Gravel Road, a “groundbreaking agricultural arts magazine built around storytelling,” selected farm-life poems “New Boots” and “In Oklahoma” (both from the above manuscript) for their Autumn inaugural issue. “Visible Learning,” an essay about playful innovation at Greenbrier Community School, is featured in the summer issue of Greenbrier Valley Quarterly. Her lyric essay “Cicadian Rhythm” has been awarded Honorable Mention in Streetlight Magazine’s Essay/Memoir Contest. The essay, which serves as a chapter in her hybrid memoir, will be published on Streetlight’s website and in its annual print anthology. Follow Quincy on X, on Instagram, or on her website.
Lucrecia Guerrero’s (F ’05) literary noir novel, On the Mad River, was published in March by Mouthfeel Press. In July, she facilitated two craft workshops at the Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie, Indiana. She currently lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Connect with her on Facebook.
Michael Hayes (F ’06) recently played a role in an indie short called #toxic_positivity (2024), a dark comedy now making its international film festival run. In April, he was honored and thrilled to play Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with Sheboygan Theater Company's Studio Players. He is currently producing a feature film with a high school classmate based in Louisville, as well as completing a screenplay with his best friend from childhood in Indianapolis. He lives in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Robin Heald (W4CYA '06) is thrilled that her picture book, The Light from My Menorah: Celebrating Holidays around the World, will be released by Pajama Press on September 17. The Light from My Menorah follows the path of light from a child’s menorah: over mountains, and oceans, into outer space, and to the far ends of the earth, where other children celebrate their own festivals of light. The gorgeous illustrations are by Andrea Blinick. The book is available for preorder.
Chris Helvey (F ’05) recently signed a contract with Wings ePress to publish Revolution, his thirteenth novel. Revolutionis scheduled to be published in November.
Michael Jackman (F ’12) published a poem in the summer issue of The Louisville Review.
Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan’s (CNF ’03) essay “Crossing the Wild River” was published in the 2024 issue of Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry. Her poem “Salt of the Sea” was published in the July issue of Amethyst Review. Two of her poems, “Braided River” and “Unforeseen,” will be published in the forthcoming anthology Alaska Literary Field Guide.
Kelly Martineau (CNF ’12) has published three poems this year, “Best Wishes for the Expectant Mother” in Thimble and “Catch and Release” and “The Evidence Against You” in Does It Have Pockets. More information about her writing is available on her website, https://kellymartineau.com. Keep up with her writing, stitching, and dyeing adventures on Instagram.
Lindsey Pharr (CNF ’24) received a residency through Peaked Hill Trust’s Arts & Sciences Program for a two-week stay in one of the historic dune shacks on the Cape Cod National Seashore this summer. Her award-winning essay “Unfinished Foxes” will be published in the fall issue of Southeast Review. Her essay “Bone by Bone” will be published in the fall issue of River Teeth.
Savannah Sipple (P ’08) edited the feature piece “100 Women We Love” in GO Magazine’s Pride issue, published in June. The piece profiles 100 women who love women and are making an impact in their fields and communities.
Katerina Stoykova (P ’09) published a nonfiction book, The Poet's Guide to Publishing: How to Conceive, Arrange, Edit, Publish and Market a Book of Poetry (McFarland, 2024). This guide to publishing poetry is designed for the poet on a journey from producing a pile of poems to celebrating at a book launch.
This autumn, Melanie Weldon-Soiset (P’24) will host Poetry Roam: A Craft & Generative Poetry Lounge. Poetry Roam provides an opportunity to dally in the magic of verse and draft new poems. These virtual lounges are open to all poetry levels, including beginners. Each session will focus on a different craft element and offer example poems for exploration. There will be ample time to freewrite, with an optional prompt provided. Each lounge concludes with debriefing and sharing to each person’s comfort level. This autumn’s Poetry Roams will happen on select Fridays, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Eastern. Tickets are sliding scale. On another note, Melanie's poems have recently been published in Yellow Arrow Journal, Cable Street, Geez, and The Orchards Poetry Journal. Find Melanie on Instagram.
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