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Tag Archives: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
News from Stonecoast
Join the Stonecoast MFA community for a week of inspiring readings and discussions with Stonecoast's award-winning faculty and guest writers, January 10-13th and 15-18th at the historic Harraseeket Inn in downtown Freeport, Maine.
The weeklong series includes flash faculty and guest readings, a conversation on the possibilities and perils of adapting one's work for the stage, and a discussion of the inaugural WISE common text. The residency concludes with the Winter 2020 graduation ceremony.
A detailed schedule of the week's events and readers can be found here.
In November, Nina B. Lichtenstein (Creative Nonfiction) was invited to Ottawa, Canada, to give a book talk on the occasion of the International Memorial Day for Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands. It was in connection with the recent publication of her translation from French to English of the novel For the Love of the Father by French-Tunisian-Jewish writer Chochana Boukhobza. Nina is also happy to share that her essay "Ink Stains and Blood Stains: The Spring of My Becoming" has been accepted for publication in the forthcoming Hippocampus anthology tentatively titled "INK" due out in 2020.
Tom Coash's (Playwriting, Dramatic Arts) play Raghead will be produced in North Hollywood by Actors Workout Studio, as part of their terrific TABOO Festival January 10 – February 8, 2020.
Aaron Hamburger's (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) novel Nirvana Is Here is now available as an audio book!
Elizabeth Hand (Popular Fiction, Fiction) sold a stand-alone psychological thriller, Baby Go Bang, to Mulholland Books/Little, Brown. Her novel Generation Loss has been optioned by British production company Fremantle.
Cara Hoffman's (Fiction, Popular Fiction) children's novel Bernard Pepperlin was a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and Audiofile's Best Audio Book of the Year.
Broadway icon Andrea McArdle (the original Annie) will star in a new 2020 production of Elizabeth Searle's (Fiction, Playwriting, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera. The production is being fully produced by longstanding Equity theater TheaterZone and is opening on February 6, 2020; it was featured in two recent articles in Broadway World. Further productions and a possible tour are in the works for 2020/2021; see the website for updates.
Elisabeth Tova Bailey's (Creative Nonfiction, S'15) film short adaptation of her memoir The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating heads next to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival (CA), Victoria Film Festival (BC), and Kinofilm 16th Manchester International Short Film Fest (UK). The film also received a Jury's Choice Award from the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival, which tours throughout 2020.
Carina Bissett (Popular Fiction, S'18) is a finalist for the NESFA Short Story Contest. The story she submitted was one of the first pieces workshopped at Stonecoast with David Anthony Durham. The winners will be announced at BOSKONE 57 in February.
Linda Buckmaster (Creative Nonfiction, S'11) has had her essay "Alibi Bar, 1968" published in Atticus Review's "Super Unknown. Stories About Songs" series. Two of her poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, one in the Spring/Summer issue and one in the Fall/Winter. She has been awarded a writing residency in May at NES in Skagastrond, Iceland, to work on her current project—a literary journey across the North Atlantic. From there, she will go on to the Hebrides. She and Elizabeth Garber (Creative Nonfiction, '10) were on a panel at the WORD Conference in Blue Hill, Maine, with Jaed Coffin discussing the ethics of memoir.
Julie C. Day's (Popular Fiction, S'12) piece "Flyover Country" can be found in the January/February issue of Interzone. First lines: "Lovers are like flash floods, car collisions, aneurysms: always a possibility but never exactly expected. A small-plane pilot for AeroFix Corp, Sam arrived in my bed via a tray of purple pansies and a convoy of trucks intent on invading the Verona Municipal Airport." Richard Wagner created the amazing illustration. This will be Julie's 7th story with Interzone and her 8th with TTA Press.
Lesley Heiser (Fiction, S'11) was thrilled to see her essay "Rose" up on Diagram this past year. She wishes all Stonecoasters the very best for 2020.
Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S17) has an essay in the January-February issue of Good Old Boat, available at newsstands now.
Mike Langworthy (Creative Nonfiction, W'11) is co-writing dialogue and lyrics for Take The High Road, a musical produced in Denver during 2020. The show will combine repurposed melodies from musical theater and popular music with an original story of a real estate developer who locks horns with, and falls for, a community activist fighting his attempts to build a resort in her idyllic mountain town. The show is being produced by Magic Moments, a company that for over thirty-five years has created large-cast, high-quality musical productions that give performers with a broad range of special needs, both physical and developmental, opportunities to work alongside seasoned professionals. Rehearsals begin in January for performances in late March 2020.
Fiona Lehn (Popular Fiction W'15) has a new speculative novella, Lift-Off, published by Devine Destinies. Click here to read more about the project and here to view the book trailer.
Kristin Leonard's (Fiction, S'18) poetry was published in Maine's Best Emerging Poets 2019 anthology. Her short story, "Jason's Daddy," was published in The Showbear Family Circus.
The Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, will host Catharine H. Murray (Creative Nonfiction, S'17) on January 11th from 1:00-3:00 p.m. for Writing the Stories of Your Life, a free workshop on writing memoir. Catharine will then offer a Six-Week Series for Women at the Good Medicine Collective from January 13th to February 17th; Writing to Heal will incorporate small group support, instruction and practice for using writing as a way to move through loss. On January 26th from 9:00 a.m. to noon, Catharine will join with Deb Cook to offer Winter's Deep Peace Practice: Yoga Nidra and Writing, a morning of deep rest and integration. Participants will move from Yoga Nidra into a quiet hour of meditative journaling supported by prompts and guidance.
Mary Heather Noble (Creative Nonfiction, W'14) is pleased to share that her long-form essay, "Plume: An Investigation," will be published in the January 2020 issue of True Story. The essay was started during her time at Stonecoast and has been modified from her Stonecoast thesis.
Jenny O'Connell's (Creative Nonfiction, S'17) flash nonfiction piece "How to Sleep in an Airport," published last spring in Hippocampus, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize! This November, she spoke about positive risk-taking and her 2014 solo trek across Finland to a packed Camden Opera House at Midcoast Pecha Kucha night. You can watch her speech here.
Bruce Pratt (Fiction, S'04) has poetry in or forthcoming from The Cafe Review, Coal City Review, and Connecticut River Review and anthologies from Main Street Rag and Flying Ketchup Press. On January 25, Bruce will be offering a seminar entitled "Creating Your Novel in Ninety Minutes" at the Blue Hill Library; this is open to the public but limited to twelve participants. Contact Hannah Cyrus at the library for more information. Bruce will also be teaching a seminar for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance at the Cobscook Community Learning Center in Trescott on February 29 from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. on learning to inhabit your fictional characters. Contact Hannah Perry at MWPA for details.
Sean Robinson (Popular Fiction, W'14) doesn't have much on the writing front, but just completed a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Educational Leadership and is now certifiable (exactly) as a school principal. He was also recently accepted into the Harvard Principal's Center for a Certificate in School Management and Leadership. He has also, also, been accepted to a residency at the University of Washington's Olympic Natural Resources Center this April. While he's delighted, it all sounds way fancier than it is, he promises.
Patricia Smith, former faculty member and member of the Stonecoast 2008 class in poetry, has been named a Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York, the highest rank in the state's university system.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's (Popular Fiction, S'13) story "Where You Linger" will appear in the January/February issue of Uncanny Magazine.
Morgan Talty's (Fiction, W '19) short story "The Blessing Tobacco" will be published this January in TriQuarterly. The story will also be excerpted in Literary Hub: The Best of the Literary Internet.
Darlene Taylor (Fiction, W'17) received an award for a fellowship grant as an individual artist in literary arts from the DC Commission on Arts and the Humanities. She is completing research and writing that expands her short story "Piper's March" into a novel ("Piper's March" was published in Kweli Journal in 2018). In other news, Darlene will moderate a panel during the 2020 AWP Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The panel also features Breena Clarke of Stonecoast and authors Rion Amilcar Scott, Jacinda Townsend, and Crystal Wilkerson. The authors will discuss how fiction writers use historical imagination to create characters from little-known histories. "They Must Have Felt: Imagining Emotional Landscape and Place" is scheduled for Friday, March 6, 2020, from 12:10-1:25 p.m. in Room 205, Henry B. González Convention Center, Meeting Room Level.
Lisa C. Taylor (Poetry, S'04) was honored to be a part of a holiday reading in Orleans, MA, on December 27th with Tom Daley, Christine Jones, and J. Barrett Wolf, music by Jordan Renzi, sponsored by Voices of Poetry. Lisa has officially named her workshop offerings Whitewater Writing. She will offer an all-day writing retreat with a catered lunch on January 4th in Connecticut—snow date: January 11. This retreat is nearly full but contact Lisa if you are interested. Lisa is a fiction editor and interviewer for Wordpeace, an online magazine created by Lori Desrosier (the founder of Naugatuck Review). In the upcoming issue, Lisa interviewed Maida McKenna, founder of Word Scientists, a literacy organization in Nepal; and Kevin Brodie, an award-winning playwright who is currently working on a play about American Indian Schools directly related to time spent on a Shoshone reservation with his grandfather. This issue should be out in late February or early March. Lisa also writes book reviews; her latest review was on Look Look Look by Calista Buchen (Black Lawrence Press) and appeared in the Mom Egg Review in December. Western Stonecoasters: Lisa and her husband Russ will be moving to Colorado (near Durango) in late summer 2020. She would love to organize some readings and make contact with writers who live in that area. Finally, Lisa will be at AWP in San Antonio March 4-8 and would also like to meet up with Stonecoasters.
Melanie Viets (Creative Nonfiction, W'17) is pleased to share some of her efforts guest editing "Root Mapping" at The Learned Pig. Published features include new work from Rick Bass (Faculty: Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Writing for Social Change) and in January, a new essay by Catharine Murray (Creative Nonfiction, S'17). Submissions are welcome as the journal series continues in 2020.
Tagged as Aaron Hamburger, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Breena Clarke, Bruce Pratt, Cara Hoffman, Carina Bissett, Catharine H. Murray, Darlene Taylor, David Anthony Durham, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Elizabeth Garber, Elizabeth Hand, Elizabeth Searle, Fiona Lehn, Jaed Coffin, Jenny O'Connell, Julie C. Day, Kristin Leonard, Lesley Heiser, Linda Buckmaster, Lisa C. Taylor, Mary Heather Noble, Melanie Viets, Mike Langworthy, Morgan Talty, Nina B. Lichtenstein, Patricia Smith, Rick Bass, Sean Robinson, Tom Coash, Veda Boyd Jones
by Robert Stutts | September 1, 2019 · 6:33 am
The podcast of Tom Coash's (Playwriting, Dramatic Arts) play Raghead has been added to the American Playbook Series. Raghead will also be produced in September at the Short & Sweet Festival in Auckland, New Zealand, and the Write About Now Festival in London, UK.
John Florio (Creative Nonfiction, Popular Fiction, Writing for Social Change) writes about the intersection of race, politics, and sports for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His latest piece was an August feature story for ESPN's The Undefeated: Toni Harris Made History by Getting a Football Scholarship. Now She Needs to Make Tackles. His YA book, War in the Ring: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, and the Fight Between Hitler and America, was released by Macmillan's Children's Group in June 2019.
Aaron Hamburger (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) will be reading from his novel Nirvana Is Here at KGB on 85 E. 4th St. in New York on Sunday, September 8 at 7:00 p.m. He'll also be signing books at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Sunday September 22 at his publisher's booth in the afternoon. Also, a new mini-documentary (two and a half minutes) about Aaron and the novel directed by Ender Emre is now available online here. Check out Aaron's Nirvana events in October (including appearances at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, The Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University, the Detroit Public Library, and the National Press Club…) here.
Four-Sided, the short film based on Elizabeth Searle's (Fiction, Playwriting, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) novel, is now an Official Selection at two more festivals this fall: Chi-Town Multicultural Film Festival in Chicago and Reel Q: Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ Film Festival! First, the film will have its USA debut at Massachusetts Independent Film Festival. For updates see www.afoursidedbedfilm.com
Elisabeth Tova Bailey (Creative Nonfiction, S'15) received the New England Director's Award from the academy accredited Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival for her film short The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. She is director and screenwriter for the film, which she adapted from her CNF memoir of the same title (Algonquin Books). The film is also a double finalist for the international Jackson Wild Media Awards in the categories of Audioscape and Education. A slate of 20 festivals spring through fall included summer premiers in Italy, Australia, and Poland, with many upcoming fall screenings including premiers in Canada and Germany. For more information please see wildsnailfilm.org
Lindsey Barlow's (Popular Fiction, W'19) debut novel Pivot, the first of the Jack Harper trilogy, received a rave review in Publishers Weekly: "Barlow's gorgeous writing will easily propel readers through the rest of the series." You can read the entire review here.
Peter Adrian Behravesh (Popular Fiction, W'18) appeared at Worldcon 77 in Dublin, where he presented a paper, "Mischief in Her Heart: Women's Empowerment in the Persian Fantastic," and appeared on the panels "Muslim SFF" and "Using Science in Fantasy Writing." In addition, Peter narrated Premee Mohamed's story "Willing" for the August 20 episode of PodCastle. You can listen to it here.
Carina Bissett (Popular Fiction, S'18) placed her poem "The Perils of Invisibility" in Nonbinary Review #21 The Works of H .G. Wells (Zoetic Press, June 2019). In other news, her short story "The Gravity of Grace" was a finalist in the first quarter of Writers of the Future, May 2019. This story was one of the first pieces she workshopped at Stonecoast.
Renee S. DeCamillis (Popular Fiction, W'14) is excited to announce that her debut book, The Bone Cutters, is set for publication on Sunday, September 1st through Eraserhead Press. It's a bizarro horror novella set in a dysfunctional psychiatric hospital, where you'll meet a troubled young woman named Dory who encounters a peculiar and brutal group of patients when she's sent to the wrong counseling group over and over again. Dory's introduction to this counseling group sets her on the run in an attempt to save her life from The Bone Cutters. Renee's book is available on Amazon, Indie Bound, Barnes & Noble, and at Longfellow Books. More stores to come soon. Two reviews for The Bone Cutters are already out, with more to come—one will soon be on the Cemetery Dance Reviews Blog. Here is what reviewers have to say about The Bone Cutters:
"It's actually refreshing to be able to enjoy a book so much that you were miffed when it was over. As [her] debut novella, it's a fantastic beginning to what could prove to be a career to watch. I'm giving this a solid 4 out of 5 [stars]…Considering that I've never read anything which rated a 5, I think The Bone Cutters is doing just fine." ~Ginger Nuts of Horror
"I immediately fell in love with Dory, the writing style, the story…This is a terribly heart-wrenching story with a bit of a haunted house/ghost vibe where you're also being chased by a bunch of crazy people who want to devour your bones. I didn't want to put this book down." ~Kendall Reviews
Renee is also thrilled to announce that Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine is hosting her book launch event on Thursday, September 5th, at 7:00 p.m. In addition to Renee's reading and Q&A, there will also be live music to set the mood, performed by local guitarist Shaun Church Reehl. Elizabeth Searle will also be there as Renee's MC.
September 12-14, Josh Gauthier's (Popular Fiction, S'17) 10-minute play "Expedition 3487-B" will be featured as part of the King of Crows play festival held at the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland, Maine. The festival is produced by the Crowbait Club, and you can find them on Facebook for more information.
Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S'17) has an essay, "Nice People," in the summer issue of eMerge magazine.
Kristin Leonard (Fiction, S'18) has been selected to receive the Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award to present at the 2019 Historic Writers of America Conference in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. She will be presenting a revised version of her third-semester presentation, "Discovery Through Multigenre Writing: How to Use Poetry and Playwriting to Develop Characterization, Conflict, & Plot in Fiction."
Gregory Martin's (Popular Fiction, W'17) short story "Inside" was recently published in Dark Moon Digest #36.
Mary Heather Noble (Creative Nonfiction, W'14) received news from the editors of Narrative Magazine that her personal essay "Plume: An Investigation" was selected as a finalist in this year's Spring Story Contest. She is currently working on a new collection that explores the complexities and ambiguities of family.
Renée Olander (Poetry, W'05) will read from her new collection, American Dangerous, at the Old Dominion University 42nd Annual Literary Festival in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday October 10, 4:00 p.m., free and open to the public. The entire festival schedule is available here.
Bruce Pratt's (Fiction, S'04) poem "Dead Bodies and Declaratory Judgments" is forthcoming in Main Street Rag's anthology Show us Your Papers, "The First Cold Rain Since Spring" will appear in the next Connecticut River Review, and "Lunar Eclipse" will be included in the special "Cosmos" edition of The Poeming Pigeon.
"Visionquest," a prose poem by J. Stephen (Steve) Rhodes (Poetry, W'11), will appear in the fall issue of Cimarron Review.
Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction S'08) recently judged the nonfiction entries for Tiferet Journal's annual writing contest and her flash piece "A Grave Duty," was published in the August issue of Flash Glass, part of Glassworks Magazine. She will be a keynote speaker at NJ Women Who Write's one-day conference in Madison, NJ, on September 21, and on November 23, Lisa will speak on "Revising the Memoir Manuscript" at the Philadelphia Writing Workshop. A fun piece, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," is out in Chicken Soup: Angels All Around. Lisa's editing role for Cleaver Magazine has expanded; she's now handling craft essays on both fiction and nonfiction for their "Writer to Writer" column (pitch/submit here). In late August at the HippoCamp Conference for Creative Nonfiction, Lisa presented "Become a Writer who Reads Like a Writer" and was on a parenting/writing panel; earlier in the month, she led a week-long memoir workshop in New Hampshire for Murphy Writing.
Morgan Talty (Fiction, W'19) was included in Narrative Magazine's 30 Below 30 list for 2019. His short story "The Name Means Thunder" will appear in the Fall 2019 issue of The Georgia Review.
Tagged as Aaron Hamburger, Bruce Pratt, Carina Bissett, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Elizabeth Searle, Gregory Martin, J. Stephen Rhodes, John Florio, Josh Gauthier, Kristin Leonard, Lindsey Barlow, Lisa Romeo, Mary Heather Noble, Morgan Talty, Peter Adrian Behravesh, Renee Olander, Renee S. DeCamillis, Steve Rhodes, Tom Coash, Veda Boyd Jones
by Robert Stutts | April 1, 2019 · 6:33 am
Community News & Updates April 2019
Call for Submissions: Climate Anthology
Now it is up to the artists. The scientists have warned us. They have been warning us for fifty years. But we have only 12 years to dramatically reduce our current carbon use before we cross the line into unprecedented climate catastrophe. We—Meghan Sterling and Kathleen Sullivan (Poetry, '06)—are editing an anthology of Maine poets and essayists whose writing will, we hope, wake us, stir our imaginations both for our global future and our way of life here in Maine. We are looking for writing which helps find language for the fear, guilt, and grief of this moment, and, perhaps, for the hope. Published and unpublished work sought. Littoral Press has agreed to publish the book which we hope will be in Fall, 2019. The voices of youth most welcome. Send one essay (max 1,000 words) or up to three poems to: climateanthology@gmail.com Include a short bio. Deadline is May 31. Kathleen notes that Stonecoast alums are encouraged to submit even if they don't live in Maine now.
Lauren Erin O'Brien's (Fiction) story "Atrophy," recipient of the 2018 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction from Bellevue Literary Review, has been nominated by the board of contributing editors for a Pushcart Prize. The story originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Bellevue Literary Review and can be read online here.
Tom Coash's (Playwriting, Dramatic Arts) full-length play Cry Havoc will have its European Premiere at the Park Theatre in London, March 27-April 20. His short play Kamasutra is included in The Best Ten Minute Plays of 2019 anthology (Smith & Kraus)—available now!
Audiophile named Susan Conley's (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Social Change) Elsey Come Home an Audiofile "Earphone Award Winner," given to truly exceptional titles that excel in narrative voice and style, characterizations, suitability to audio, and enhancement of the text: "At once urgent and contemplative, this new work focuses on Elsey, a painter and married mother living in China who has taken to drinking instead of creating art. Urged by her husband to find help, she attends a yoga retreat and discovers many truths, not the least of which about herself." Also, Read it Forward named Elsey Come Home one of the best novels with "Characters Who Drink Too Much": "Elsey has to face the ghosts of her past and figure out what alcohol is keeping her from confronting." Finally, Elsey Come Home was Maine's WERU-FM's Book Worm's March Book Club Pick. The live, in-studio interview, with call-ins was March 14. In their March 17th review, The Portland Press Herald called the narrator of Susan's new novel Elsey Come Home "a feisty blur of a woman, caught in the grip of her many demons, hellbent on pushing everyone, and everything, away. Elsey is that rare creation that evokes real life, defies predictability and disarms us at every turn. Conley has taken a jittery pile of loose ends and made a thing of beauty."
John Florio (Creative Nonfiction, Popular Fiction, Writing for Social Change) writes about the intersection of race, politics, and sports for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His latest piece, "The Jackie Robinson of Pool, Cisero Murphy Hustled His Way to the Top," was a March feature story for ESPN's The Undefeated. His book One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime will be re-issued in paperback on April 1. His YA book, War in the Ring: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, and the Fight Between Hitler and America, will be released by Macmillan's Children's Group on May 21, and just received this review from Kirkus.
More advance praise for Aaron Hamburger's (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) Nirvana Is Here, due out May 14th! Brando Skyhorse calls the book "A yearning, generous, coming-of-age journey… funny, painful, heartbreaking." Louis Bayard says, "A touching, finely wrought portrait of secrets lying like buried ordinance beneath ordinary lives." The review by Amos Lassen raves, "Every once in a while, a book comes along that blows me away and Nirvana Is Here is one such book…" and I Like To Read says, "Almost impossible for me to put this book down, which is rare for me these days… a beautiful, sad, coming-of-age story that is a heartily welcome addition to the LGBTQ literature pantheon." Also, a couple new tour dates added, including a stop at Word Bookstore in Jersey City on May 15th and the Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University in October. Click here for the updated schedule to see if Aaron's coming to your hometown!
Elizabeth Hand's recent reviews include Niklas Natt och Dag's The Wolf and the Watchman for The Washington Post; Mallory O'Meara's The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick for The Los Angeles Times; and Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, The Devil's Highway by Gregory Norminton, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, and Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) is happy to announce the Crossroad Press reissue of Witch-Light and Making Love, two books she originally co-wrote with the late Melanie Tem for the groundbreaking horror imprint, Dell Abyss. Making Love is a retelling of Frankenstein, and the book is dedicated in part to Mary Shelley.
Elizabeth Searle and alumna Tamra Wilson (Fiction, S'11) are bringing Idol Talk to the stage! Idol Talk: A Magical Memory Tour of Teen Idols is premiering as a theatrical event produced by Firehouse Center for the Performing Arts and Exit Dance Company as a special fundraiser. The show stars actress and author Marianne Leone (The Sopranos) and will alternate short monologue-style readings from the book Idol Talk (co-edited by Elizabeth And Tammy) with dance numbers paying tribute to idols like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Monkees, and more. The show features Stonecoast alum readers/performers Lee J. Kahrs, Kate Kastelein (whose work will be performed by Marianne Leone), Michelle Soucy, and Darlene Taylor, along with Stonecoast faculty Suzanne Strempek Shea. Performances are May 10 & 11 at 8:00 p.m. at Firehouse Center for Performing Arts in Newburyport, MA; tickets on sale soon here.
It's almost time for our 18th Writers' Day at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, MA. Suzanne Strempek Shea (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction), the university's writer in residence, is delighted to have booked speakers Jane Yolen, author of over 350 books for children and adults, discussing Writing for Younger Readers; C Flanagan Flynn, former managing editor of Brain, Child Magazine, discussing Writing and Publishing in Literary Magazines & Journals; and author and Bay Path MFA faculty member Shahnaz Habib, speaking about Writing Home, where you're from and who your are. The event will be held Sunday, April 14, at the Philip H. Ryan Center in East Longmeadow, MA. For more information or to register, go here.
The short-film adaptation of Elisabeth Tova Bailey's (Creative Nonfiction, S'15) memoir The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating has launched. The film next screens in April at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, MT, and then will screen in late May/early June at CinemAmbiente Environmental Film Festival in Turin, Italy.
Michael Beeman (Fiction, S'09) published two short stories recently: "The Shift" in Eclectica Magazine and "The Maelstrom" in Failbetter.com.
Peter Adrian Behravesh (Popular Fiction, W'18) presented his paper "Mischief in Her Heart: Female Empowerment in the Persian Fantastic" at the 40th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. He will be presenting the paper again at Worldcon 77 in Dublin in August. Peter also sold his story "The Moon and Mahasti" to the Holy C.O.W. anthology, which will be published this summer.
Carina Bissett (Popular Fiction, S'18) placed her poems "A Disappearing Act," "Snow White, Rose Red," and "Persephone's Promise" in the Spring issue of The Horror 'Zine.
Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S'13) has a short story coming out in Bill Adler Jr. and Sarah Doebereiner's The Binge Watching Cure: Horror Edition anthology in October 2019—a reprint of "Cadaver Feet" which was featured in alumna Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's Art and Words show. Jose Gonzalez Lanza's amazing artwork interpreting this piece is available for viewing at this link. This summer, Karen is teaching a 12-week online creative writing class May-August for Western Technical College—registration is now open and participants will earn transferrable college-level English credits. New or experienced poets/fiction writers world-wide are welcome in this online asynchronous class.
Jess Flarity (Popular Fiction, S'18) sold his short story about drug-fueled time traveling, "A Second's Labour," to The London Reader. This piece was workshopped during his first semester at Stonecoast with Nancy Holder. Also, he has accepted a full-tuition scholarship to the University of New Hampshire's Masters in English Studies program, where he will begin attending this fall.
Veda Boyd Jones (Fiction, S'17) will be speaking at the Authors' Fair at Crowder College in Missouri on April 27. Her topic is research for fiction, and she'll use examples from her own fiction as illustrations (spending two days at a TV station researching for a news anchor character in A Sense of Place, attending 14 Thursday nights of the Citizens' Police Academy for a policewoman character for Here's Your Trouble).
In March, The Last Woman in the Forest, the newest novel of Diane Les Becquets (Fiction, S'05), was released by Penguin Random House. Publishers Weekly said that the novel is "[an] elegantly written thriller…the story revs up, providing more than enough tension and suspense as Marian inches closer to the dangerous and disturbing truth. Eloquent, detailed descriptions of nature and of rescue dog training, survival techniques, and the peripatetic life of conservationists enrich the narrative." Diane is on a book tour, including a visit to Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH, at 7:00 p.m. on April 11th (see below for more April dates).
Susan Lilley's (Poetry, S'08) collection Venus in Retrograde comes out April 30 from Burrow Press. She is looking for a good excuse to come to New England and do some readings this summer. Reach her at susan.lilley@icloud.com. Check it out here: https://burrowpress.com/venus
On April 6, Alison McMahan (Popular Fiction, W'10) will be teaching a class, "The How-to of Deep Point of View," for the Alvin Sherman Library at Nova Southeastern University, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, 2:00-3:30. Details here. Alison's short story "King Hanuman" is now available in the the new Sisters in Crime/LA anthology Fatally Haunted (Down and Out Books, Spring 2019), edited by Rachel Howzell Hall, Sheila Lowe, and Laurie Stevens.
Ellie O'Leary (Poetry, W17) has two books accepted for publication. North County Press will publish both her memoir, Up Home Again, and her poetry manuscript, Breathe Here.
Alexandra Oliver (Poetry, W'12) is in the third year of her PhD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She has just completed an interview with CBC's The Sunday Edition (hosted by Michael Enright) concerning her work and, in particular, her most recent chapbook, On the Oven Sits a Maiden (Frog Hollow Press, 2018).
Lisa Panepinto's (Poetry, W'13) book where i come from the fish have souls was published by Spuyten Duyvil.
Bruce Pratt's (Fiction, S'04) short story "Ariel in LOve Summer" 1999 [sic] will appear in the summer 2019 edition of Valpariso Fiction Review; his poem "Looking" will appear in Gyroscope Review. Bruce will be reading from and signing copies of The Trash Detail, his new story collection from New Rivers Press, and Forms and Shades, his new poetry chapbook from Clare Songbirds Publishing, at The Bangor Public Library on Saturday, April 20, beginning at 2:30 p.m.; a Q&A will follow the reading, which is free and open to the public. For more information please call 207-947-8336. He will also be part of the annual Poets Speak event at the library that will take place on April 25; dozens of poets will read throughout the afternoon and early evening. On April 27, Bruce will join songwriters Cormac McCarthy, Stan Sullivan, and Jim Mercik for an evening of songs, stories, and a musical tribute to the late Bill Morrissey at The Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, CT. For reservations and directions please see the venues website or call 860-693-0263; the show, primarily a music event, begins at 7:30 p.m.—doors open at 7:00 and tickets are $20.00. Finally, on April 30, Bruce will join Anne Britting Oleson at the Belfast Public Library, 106 High Street, Belfast, ME, for a joint reading, book signing, and Q&A. The event is free, open to all and begins at 6:30 p.m.; additional info may be had by calling 207-338-3884.
Erin Roberts (Popular Fiction W '18) is thrilled to have two of her short stories ("Sour Milk Girls" & "Snake Season") on the 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List, which helps to determine the winners of the annual Locus Awards. She also recently had the opportunity to chat about her work as a whole on a Signal Boost episode of the Skiffy and Fanty podcast and hopefully didn't say anything too incriminating! Note: The Locus list is packed with amazing stories, books, and collections (including work by Jim Kelly and Dora Goss)—read and vote for your favorites (voting open to all, whether a Locus subscriber or not, and write-ins are allowed!).
Lisa Romeo's (Creative Nonfiction, S'08) article "Yes, You Can Write Memoir, Even if Your Memory Isn't Great" appears at the blog of The Open Center NYC, where she'll be teaching a day-long workshop on the intersection of memory and memoir writing on April 13. Her essay "Forgiving the Bully in the Pulpit" appeared recently in The Moon Magazine. In August, Lisa will lead a week-long memoir workshop at the Live Free and Write Retreat in Sunapee, NH. Closer to her home in NJ, Lisa recently marked six years teaching with The Writers Circle.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's (Popular fiction, S'13) story "Every Song Must End" appeared in the latest issue of Uncanny Magazine.
Kathleen Sullivan (Poetry, '06) has a poem coming out in next volume of Poet Lore and has had an essay accepted for publication this summer in The Stonecoast Review.
Morgan Talty's (Fiction, W'19) short story "Safe Harbor" was published in Narrative Magazine's Winter 2019 issue.
Adrienne S. Wallner's (Poetry, W '09) poem "Hydrangea" will appear in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of The Aurorean.
Tagged as Aaron Hamburger, Adrienne S. Wallner, Alexandra Oliver, Alison McMahan, Anne Britting Oleson, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Bruce Pratt, Carina Bissett, Darlene Taylor, Diane Les Becquets, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Elizabeth Hand, Elizabeth Searle, Ellie O'Leary, Erin Roberts, Jess Flarity, Jim Kelly, John Florio, Karen Bovenmyer, Kate Kastelein, Kathleen Sullivan, Lauren Erin O'Brien, Lee J. Kahrs, Lisa Panepinto, Lisa Romeo, Michael Beeman, Michelle Soucy, Morgan Talty, Nancy Holder, Peter Adrian Behravesh, Susan Conley, Susan Lilley, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Tamra Wilson, Theodora Goss, Tom Coash, Veda Boyd Jones
by Robert Stutts | November 1, 2018 · 11:18 am
Edible Queens, one of 85 "Edible" magazines across the US and Canada, has made Jillian Abbott's (Fiction, S'04) popular (almost 16K followers) Instagram blog into a column. The blog explores migration, memory, and what the Welsh call Hiraeth, which means "homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past" through food. Read her column on Butterfly Cakes here.
Elisabeth Tova Bailey's (Creative Nonfiction, S'15) book The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is now available in Italian. Marsilio Editore is the publisher for the Italian translation, which launched in late September.
Misconceptions, a musical and part of Allen Baldwin's (Scriptwriting, W'17) thesis, will have a three-week run at Footlights Theatre in Falmouth from November 1st through the 17th. Here's a description: "Penny and Vince have done everything right… so far. Faced with the challenge of infertility, they are now forced to reconsider their relationship and piece together a future that neither of them expected. Misconceptions is an emotional roller-coaster ride through modern relationships and romantic expectations. Irreverent but sincere, honest but hilarious, Misconceptions explores a relationship from the inside-out, as Penny and Vince struggle to stay together, finding their way back to the love that started it all. It's about what we want from our partners, what we need from our lovers, and how the ugly moments of love can, somehow, bring us closer together." Tickets available now—see www.thefootlightstheatre.com for more info.
Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S'13) was interviewed as Assistant Editor with the PseudoPod team on Writing the Rapids. She has also been narrating poetry for Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Listen to her read Ngo Binh Anh Khoa's "The Necromancer." Upcoming: Mary Soon Lee's "Between Battles." She's also been tapped to narrate a short story for HFQ and for Escape Artist's Cast of Wonders young adult podcast—links forthcoming in a future newsletter. She served as a judge for the Horror Writers Association's Dark Poetry Scholarship and very much enjoyed reading new poets. All of you should apply for HWA scholarships next year when they open again. Read about them here. She continues to be grateful for Stonecoast, the best decision she ever made.
Linda Buckmaster (Creative Nonfiction, S'11) will be having not one, but two, launch parties for her hybrid memoir Space Heart: A Memoir in Stages, published by Burrow Press, both featuring live "space music." On Sunday, November 4th from 3:00-6:00 p.m., she will be at Waterfall Arts Gallery in Belfast, Maine, with electronic keyboardist Tom Luther. On Saturday, November 10th, she will be at the Lowndes Shakespeare Theater in Orlando, Florida, starting at 7:00 p.m. The program will include Orlando Poet Laureate Susan Lilley (Poetry, '08) and Interplanetary Acoustic Team. Linda's long poem, "Northern Run," is in the current Maine Review, and her poem "Entering the Abandoned Grain Mill at Dusk" will be part of the anthology Balancing Act 2, the second collection of Maine women poets published by Littoral Books. A review of Space Heart will be forthcoming in Forward Review.
Brenda Cooper (Fiction, S'17) is pleased to announce the November 11th release of a collection of stories set in the science-fictional world of her award-winning series that begins with The Silver Ship and the Sea. The collection, Stories of Fremont's Children, includes old and new stories by Brenda, and new stories by John Pitts and Danielle Ackley-McPhail. It is published through eSpec Books in collaboration with Futuriter.com.
The hardcover edition of Julie C. Day's (Popular Fiction, S'12) debut collection Uncommon Miracles was released by PS Publishing On October 1st: "A grieving man travels through time via car crash. A family of matriarchs collects recipes for the dead. A woman gains an unexpected child in the midst of a bunny apocalypse. An outcast finds work in a magical slaughterhouse. Julie C. Day's debut collection is rife with dark and twisted tales made beautiful by her gorgeous prose. Melding aspects of Southern Gothic and fabulism, and utilizing the author's own scientific background, Day's carefully rendered settings in these eighteen stories are both delightful and unexpected. Whether set in a uniquely altered version of Florida's Space Coast or a haunted island off the coast of Maine, each story in this collection carries its own brand of meticulous and captivating weirdness. Yet in the end, it is the desperation of the characters that drives these stories forward and their wild obsessions that carry them through to the end. It is Day's clear-eyed compassion for the dark recesses of the human heart and her dream-like vision of the physical world that make this collection a standout."
Renee S. DeCamillis (Popular Fiction, W' 14) is thrilled to announce that she has signed a book deal with Eraserhead Press and is one of six in their New Bizarro Authors Series. They will be publishing her novella The Bone Cutters, with a planned release in 2019. A bizarro story about the hell of mental illness, the evil hands of drug addiction, and the horror of psych. hospitals. Are you anxious, suicidal, have some anger issues you need to work on, or maybe you have a drug addiction you need to kick? No worries. Once you've checked into this psychiatric hospital, you'll never be the same. Come, have a visit; stay as long as we need you. If you're fresh, you're in for one Hell of a ride once you meet The Bone Cutters.
Jess Flarity (Popular Fiction, S'18) is teaching a craft workshop on density at the Sag Harbor Creative Nonfiction Writer's Conference this November 1st-4th and participating in a panel on publishing. He would like to thank his former mentor Theodora Goss for this workshop's inspiration as well as everyone who worked on Stonecoast Review's Issue No. 9.
Melody Fuller's (Creative Nonfiction, S'12) article "Harvest for the World" was published in the October/November 2019 Somm Journal. Here's an excerpt:
When will there be a harvest for the world?
Today I speak cautiously and write carefully about what is means to be a black woman in white space. Today I try to make sure I do not offend, demand, scare, dare or call people out for gross conduct, damaging gossip, divisive tactics and for pushing narratives that marginalize, hurt and dismiss those who look like me. I am not doing a good job carrying all of this, while being an industry pioneer who is working to build a table, set agenda and make sure I don't get loud, pushy or rude. Well, sometimes being labeled as one or all of those descriptors happens. Being questioned and judged happens a lot especially when diversity discussions and women's agendas intersect or are used interchangeably for self-serving and deflective purposes. You know what I mean.
Clifford Royal Johns (Popular Fiction, W'18) will be on the following panels at Windycon, a Chicago area SF convention (November 9-11):
"Chicago SF Book Club: Discussing Shards of Honor and Barrayar by Bujold" — Saturday, November 10th, 1:00-2:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom H
"Streaming Services the New Movie/TV studios" — Sunday, November 11th, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Lilac C
"Modern Prison Break: Our Need to Escape?_ — Sunday, November 11th, 12:00-1:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom H
Cliff will also be moderating a section of the Windycon Writers Workshop on Saturday morning.
Jeff Kass (Fiction, S'09) has had his second full-length poetry collection Teacher/Pizza Guy accepted for publication by Wayne State University Press for their Made in Michigan Series. The poems chronicle the 2016-2017 school year, during which Jeff worked not only as a full-time high school English teacher and the Director of Literary Arts at Ann Arbor's Teen Center The Neutral Zone, but also a third job as a pizza delivery driver 2-3 nights a week. Look for the release in August or September of 2019!
On October 17th, Alan King (Poetry, W'13) was a featured performer on WPFW 89.3's "Live @ 5," which was part of the stations pledge drive. Learn more.
Alan King reading on WPFW 89.3's "Live @ 5
Orlando Poet Laureate Susan Lilley (Poetry '08) and former Belfast Poet Laureate Linda Buckmaster (Creative Nonfiction, S'11) will be reading together at the Burrow Press "Functionally Literate" event on November 10th in Orlando. Linda will be launching her new hybrid memoir from Burrow, Space Heart: A Memoir in Stages, which she started at Stonecoast. Susan's first full-length poetry collection, The Green Hand of Venus, will be published by Burrow in 2019. They'll be discussing Poet Laureate life and Satellite Beach, which just happens to be the title of Susan's first poetry collection and the town where Linda grew up.
Tom MacDonald's (Fiction, W'09) fourth crime novel, Murder in the Charlestown Bricks, was released October 1st, 2018. This is the fourth book in the Dermot Sparhawk Crime Novel Series. Private investigator Dermot Sparhawk is taking on cases no one else will touch. Born and raised in the Charlestown projects in Boston, Sparhawk fights for the underdog. He calls on his connections and physical skills to keep him from getting killed. He visits Charlestown's waterfront gill mills and AA halls and travels the Historic Route 66 in search of the truth. And the truth almost kills him.
Catharine H. Murray's (Creative Nonfiction, S'17) debut memoir Now You See the Sky will be released in November. On November 7th at 7:00 p.m., Print: A Bookstore (273 Congress Street in Portland) will host the release party. This is the launch book for Gracie Belle, Anne Hood's imprint with Akashic Books that will focus on topics of Grief and Loss. Kirkus Reviews writes, "Murray's lucid meditations and living-in-the-moment attitude serve as useful reminders to all of us that life is precious and fleeting and must be enjoyed to the fullest. It's a simple message but an important one. As much a eulogy as a testament to the joy of life, the book is a heartwarming tale of dealing with life-altering loss. A tender, love-filled story of how one woman dealt with the loss of a young child." On November 9th, Catharine will be reading with other local authors at Quiet City Books, 97 Lisbon St. in Lewiston at 6:00 p.m. And on November 15th, Murray discusses Now You See the Sky with imprint curator Ann Hood at Books on the Square, 471 Angell Street at 7:00 p.m. This is a Providence launch event for Murray's memoir.
Jenny O'Connell (Creative Nonfiction, S'17) will read "The Office of the Mayor of Miessi," her piece about living above the Arctic Circle among the wild gold miners of Finland's Lemmenjoki National Park, on November 2nd at Longfellow Books for the SLICE Magazine Maine launch. The piece, which details part of Jenny's solo walking journey across Finland in the footsteps of Lappish legend Petronella van der Moer, is currently out in the Fall/Winter "Flight" edition of SLICE, available here.
Lemmenjoki National Park: Pihlajamäki Cabin, the setting of "The Office of the Mayor of Miessi."
Anne Britting Oleson (Poetry, W'05) has been invited to read her poetry at The Harrison in King's Cross, London, as part of Elbow Room's celebration of its final issue. The party begins at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 3rd. If any Stonecoasters are in London, come on down!
The short-story collection The Trash Detail by Bruce Pratt (Fiction, S'04) is available for pre order. Booksellers may contact SPD, while individuals may order from their local bookstore, Amazon, or directly from New Rivers Press by sending an email to Nayt Rundquist at www.newriverspress.com. Bruce's new chapbook Forms and Shades is due out very soon from Clare Songbird Publishing; they may be contacted at claresongbirdspub.com
They Speak Your Language: A Poetic Bestiary, by J. Stephen Rhodes (Poetry, W'11) and illustrated by Amanda Chao Benbassat, is now available at the Amazon Books website. These poems move back forth from the significant to the silly, with drawings of counter-cultural possums to aristocratic cats.
Lisa Romeo (Creative Nonfiction S '08) will be at the BookMark Shoppe in Brooklyn, NY on November 15 to read from her memoir, Starting with Goodbye, along with Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo Woo. Lisa's guest post "Publishing with a Small (Traditional) or University Press: When it Might be Right for You and Your Book," appears on the website of the Nonfiction Authors Association. Her teleseminar on the topic aired there in October. Recently, the writing department at New Jersey City University hosted Lisa, who read and spoke to students in memoir writing and women's studies classes. On November 17th, Lisa will present memoir writing tips at the Holmdel, NJ, Barnes & Noble, and also in November, she will make author visits to libraries in Warren, Hillsborough, and Franklin Township, all in NJ. Event details are listed at her site.
Nikki Sambitsky's (Creative Nonfiction, W'18) creative nonfiction lyric essay "Penny Drop" will be published in the November edition of Longridge Review. Nikki's essay links her childhood experiences with that of her 7-year old autistic son's as they share a swing ride on their favorite amusement park attraction, "The Yo-Yo." "Penny Drop" is part of Nikki's essay collection "Perseverate, Linger," which focuses on her triumphs and trials with her husband and two autistic children.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Popular Fiction, S'13) will be interviewed at the November 12 LeVar Burton Reads Live event in Dallas, Texas, where LeVar will read her story "In the City of Martyrs." Her novelette "The Crow Knight" just came out in Beneath Ceaseless Skies' anniversary issue. Her short story "Secret Keeper" has been reprinted in Paula Guran's The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2018.
Christopher Watkins' (Poetry, W'08) poem "Emigrant Song" has been published by Harpur Palate and can be read in the current issue. Additionally, Christopher has just released his 11th album under his musical moniker "Preacher Boy." The album is called The Rumble Strip and is now available from Coast Road Records. An enhanced lyric book has been published as a companion to the album, and the collection includes the book-length poem "I-80 Blues: 96 Choruses." It is available for Kindle, or via the Preacher Boy website as a free PDF download.
Jeanne Marie Beaumont's (Poetry) poem "Yet" from Letters from Limbo has been made into a short video, which is available on YouTube and can also be viewed on her website.
Tom Coash's (Playwriting, Dramatic Arts) award-winning, full-length play, Veils, will open at Macha Theatre Works in Seattle, WA, on November 30th and run through December 16th. His short play Raghead will be produced by the Black Cat Theatre Company as part of their "Millennials #Offended" festival at the Pleasance Theatre in London on December 19th.
John Florio (Fiction, Pop Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Young Adult) writes about the intersection of race, politics, and sports for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His latest piece, "In a Year of Assassinations, an Angry Bob Gibson Pitched His Way Into the Record Books," was an October feature story for ESPN's The Undefeated. His YA book, War in the Ring: Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, and the Fight Between Hitler and America, will be released by Macmillan's Children's Group in May, 2019.
Aaron Hamburger's (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) novel Nirvana is Here is now available for pre-order, either on Amazon or contact your local indie bookstore and tell them to reserve your copy. Release date is May 14, 2019! Also, Aaron gave a talk at the Library of Congress based on his article "Seven Layers of Heaven: How to Make a Jewish Bakery Classic at Home" from Tablet Magazine. His cake, created from his own original recipe, was served and enjoyed by all!
Aaron Hamburger's talk at the Library of Congress on Seven Layers of Heaven.
Seven Layers of Heaven
On November 1st at 7:00 p.m., Amanda Johnston (Poetry, Writing for Social Change) reads with Dante Micheaux and L. Lamar Wilson in celebration of Stonecoast alum Quenton Baker's (Poetry, S'12) exhibit Ballast at the Frye Museum in Seattle, WA. Then on November 2nd at 7:00 p.m., she'll read with Dante Micheaux, L. Lamar Wilson, Anastacia-Renee and Quenton Baker for A Writers Showcase featuring Cave Canem Poets at the Hugo House in Seattle, WA. And on November 3rd at 10:00 a.m., Amanda's writing workshop Writing Public Tragedies will be at the Hugo House in Seattle, WA (registration required).
Debra Marquart (Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Writing for Social Change) was invited to perform a set of Bob Dylan songs at the Twin Cities Book Festival on October 13, 2018 to celebrate the publication of the anthology, Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan, edited by Thom Tammaro and Alan R. Davis (New Rivers Press, 2018). Marquart's poem, "Dylan's Lost Years," is one of the 100 poems included in the anthology. Her poem, "Come November," was published by Terrain.org: A Journal of Built + Natural Environments for the "Letter to America" series. 28 October 2018. Debra's essay "Buried Voices," published as a Story of the Week by Narrative Magazine on June 7, 2018, was selected by Narrative Magazine for a "Top Five Stories of 2017-2018" commendations. Stonecoast fiction writer Morgan Talty was also selected by Narrative for "Top Five Stories" honors! Her micro-essay, "Some Things About That Day," was anthologized in Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer's Guide and Anthology, edited by H.K. Hummel and Stephanie Lenox for Bloomsbury Press, 2018. Also, she delivered a plenary poetry reading entitled "True North" at the Luther College Writers Festival, September 27-28, 2018, in Decorah, Iowa.
Elizabeth Searle's (Fiction, Playwriting, Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) new CD—Tonya & Nancy: Highlights from the Rock Opera, produced and released by Broadway Records—has drawn strong reviews on Broadway World ("Tonya & Nancy Gets High Marks") and on Broadway to Vegas, which called the CD in its review "stunningly awesome" and wrote of Elizabeth's narrative: "The script covers a lot of territory and does so with the artistic skill of an Olympic champion." The CD can be purchased from Grammy-winning Broadway Records. Updates and more info: http://www.tonyaandnancytherockopera.com
Two readings from late Stonecoast alum Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo's novel The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda will be held in New England early this month. Ann Hood, Elizabeth Searle, and Suzanne Strempek Shea, all of whom mentored Elisabeth, a member of the program's inaugural class, will read from the book at 7:00 p.m. on November 1st at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA. Suzanne will join Beth's friends, fellow alums, and fellow Maine authors Morgan Callan Rogers and Jaed Coffin in a reading at 9:00 p.m. on November 5 at LFK in Portland, ME. Here's a recent Portland Press-Herald story on Beth and her book. Suzanne will be reading from Idol Talk: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations that Changed Their Lives with fellow faculty member Elizabeth Searle, and fellow Idol Talk contributors Caitlin McCarthy and Lisa Borders November 3rd at 2:00 p.m. at Worcester, MA, Public Library. Elizabeth and Stonecoast alum Tammy Wilson co-edited this major book on major crushes, which has been one of the Top Ten Bestsellers on publisher McFarland's long list of pop culture books every month since July. There'll be a special appearance at this event by and idol-themed tunes from Stonecoast's personal DJ, DJJH.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, Elizabeth Searle and Jaed Coffin at the Portland Book Launch for The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda by beloved Stonecoast alum Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo
The final 2018 event in the Local Writers Read series will be held on Friday, November 9th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Quiet City Books in Lewiston, Maine. Offering multi-genre work organized around the theme of Order/Chaos, the list of readers includes four Stonecoast alumni: Nancy Brown (Fiction, S'08), Josh Gauthier (Popular Fiction, S'17), Catharine Murray (Creative Nonfiction, S'17), and Bill Stauffer (Fiction, W'17). Celebrating writing and community, the event is free and open to the public. Full details can be found on the Facebook event page.
Stonecoast MFA faculty member Elizabeth Hand will be the Guest of Honor at Boskone 56, New England's longest running science fiction and fantasy convention. Boskone takes place in Boston, MA, from February 15-17, 2019, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel. In addition to Liz Hand, Boskone will also feature several Stonecoast faculty members, students, and alumni on the programme, including James Patrick Kelly, Theodora Goss, Robert Redick, Julie C. Day, Erin Roberts, and Erin Underwood. There will be a Stonecoast Community gathering and programming at the con. Memberships are required to attend, and more information is available online at www.boskone.org.
Tagged as Aaron Hamburger, Alan King, Allen Baldwin, Amanda Johnston, Ann Hood, Anne Britting Oleson, Bill Stauffer, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Brenda Cooper, Bruce Pratt, Catharine H. Murray, Christopher Watkins, Clifford Royal Johns, Debra Marquart, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo, Elizabeth Hand, Elizabeth Searle, Erin Roberts, Erin Underwood, Jaed Coffin, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Jeff Kass, Jenny O'Connell, Jess Flarity, Jillian Abbott, Jim Kelly, John Florio, Josh Gauthier, Julie C. Day, Karen Bovenmyer, Linda Buckmaster, Lisa Romeo, Melody Fuller, Morgan Callan Rogers, Nancy Brown, Nikki Sambitsky, Quenton Baker, Renee S. DeCamillis, Robert Redick, Steve Rhodes, Susan Lilley, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Tammy Wilson, Theodora Goss, Tom Coash, Tom MacDonald


Product Etcetera is a San Diego based design studio and brand. When not designing for their clients, they can be caught producing artwork, stirring up passion projects for their San Diego community, and designing merchandise under their PRDTetc™ label.
Since launching their first line of product in June of 2010, Product Etcetera has developed pop-up shops in boutique retailers throughout the West Coast and has collaborated with other high profile brands, stores and organizations to produce exclusive projects and events.
Product Etcetera's influences range from sports pageantry, corporate identity, religious iconography, national symbolism, gang graffiti, and general study of semiotics.
Product Etcetera is a San Diego based design studio that specializes in full service design and branding. Operating in all forms of visual communication (web, print, broadcast, and the fine arts) their client projects widely range from brand development for small business to institutional identity systems.
When not designing for their clients, Product Etcetera can be caught producing artwork, stirring up passion projects for their San Diego community, and designing merchandise under their PRDTetc™ label.
Originally born in 2004 as a place to house Jordan Stark's portfolio online, it wasn't until he teamed up with Tony Martinez in May 2009 that Product Etcetera officially launched as a commercial design studio. A year later, after developing an exclusive project for a high-profile New York boutique retailer, they launched their PRDTetc™ label and first line of graphic T-shirts and hats.
Since launching their first line of product in June of 2010, Product Etcetera has developed pop-up shops in boutique retailers throughout the West Coast and has collaborated with other high profile brands, stores, and organizations to produce exclusive projects and events. In March of 2011, Product Etcetera organized and launched the Bring Back The Brown campaign, which is an on-going campaign created with the grand objective of fostering a stronger loyalty to San Diego and its sports culture.
People pay us to problem solve. People pay us to make problems. We often do both without being hired.


text:
info@hmtsanctamaria.org
Ffynone Road, Swansea SA1 6DF
Dr Shaheena Sadiq
Dr Shaheena Sadiq is an NHS consultant who also works at Sancta Maria. Her main field is Neuroradiology.
Imaging of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain tumours, headache and dementia.
BSc Hons, MBBS, FRCS, FRCR
Dr Shaheena Sadiq qualified in Medicine at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School in 1993, and obtained fellowship of both Royal College of Surgeons (1998) and Royal college of Radiologists (2003). She completed Neuroradiology training in University Hospital, Cardiff (2005), and has practiced as a neuroradiologist in Swansea since then. She is currently lead Neuroradiologist for Swansea Bay University Health Board experienced in imaging of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain tumours, headache and dementia as well as neurological and degenerative diseases of the spine.
Dr Sadiq has a sub-speciality interest in head and neck imaging, with expertise in neck ultrasound (including thyroid scanning) with specific reference to cancer scanning, being part of the South West Wales head and neck cancer multidisciplinary team. She has many years experience in interpretation of CT and MRI relating to ENT and Maxillofacial diseases.
Other Radiology consultants
Dr Toby Wells
MBBS BSc MRCP FRCR
Dr Simon Davies
MB Bch, DMRD, MRCP, FRCR
Dr Suresh Dalavaye
MS, MRCS, DNB, FRCR
Affordable healthcare you can trust.
© 2020 The Healthcare Management Trust | Registered Charity No. 292880 | Registered in England No. 1932882
Crafted by MGB

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
import json
import os
import platform
import sys
import warnings
from ssl import SSLContext
from typing import Dict, Union, Optional, Any, Sequence
from urllib.parse import urljoin

from slack_sdk import version
from slack_sdk.errors import SlackRequestError
from slack_sdk.models.attachments import Attachment
from slack_sdk.models.blocks import Block

def convert_bool_to_0_or_1(
    params: Optional[Dict[str, Any]]
) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
    """Converts all bool values in dict to "0" or "1".

    Slack APIs safely accept "0"/"1" as boolean values.
    Using True/False (bool in Python) doesn't work with aiohttp.
    This method converts only the bool values in top-level of a given dict.

    Args:
        params: params as a dict

    Returns:
        Modified dict
    """
    if params:
        return {k: _to_0_or_1_if_bool(v) for k, v in params.items()}
    return None

def get_user_agent(prefix: Optional[str] = None, suffix: Optional[str] = None):
    """Construct the user-agent header with the package info,
    Python version and OS version.

    Returns:
        The user agent string.
        e.g. 'Python/3.6.7 slackclient/2.0.0 Darwin/17.7.0'
    """
    # __name__ returns all classes, we only want the client
    client = "{0}/{1}".format("slackclient", version.__version__)
    python_version = "Python/{v.major}.{v.minor}.{v.micro}".format(v=sys.version_info)
    system_info = "{0}/{1}".format(platform.system(), platform.release())
    user_agent_string = " ".join([python_version, client, system_info])
    prefix = f"{prefix} " if prefix else ""
    suffix = f" {suffix}" if suffix else ""
    return prefix + user_agent_string + suffix

def _get_url(base_url: str, api_method: str) -> str:
    """Joins the base Slack URL and an API method to form an absolute URL.

    Args:
        base_url (str): The base URL
        api_method (str): The Slack Web API method. e.g. 'chat.postMessage'

    Returns:
        The absolute API URL.
            e.g. 'https://www.slack.com/api/chat.postMessage'
    """
    return urljoin(base_url, api_method)

def _get_headers(
    *,
    headers: dict,
    token: Optional[str],
    has_json: bool,
    has_files: bool,
    request_specific_headers: Optional[dict],
) -> Dict[str, str]:
    """Constructs the headers need for a request.
    Args:
        has_json (bool): Whether or not the request has json.
        has_files (bool): Whether or not the request has files.
        request_specific_headers (dict): Additional headers specified by the user for a specific request.

    Returns:
        The headers dictionary.
            e.g. {
                'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=utf-8',
                'Authorization': 'Bearer xoxb-1234-1243',
                'User-Agent': 'Python/3.6.8 slack/2.1.0 Darwin/17.7.0'
            }
    """
    final_headers = {
        "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    }
    if headers is None or "User-Agent" not in headers:
        final_headers["User-Agent"] = get_user_agent()

    if token:
        final_headers.update({"Authorization": "Bearer {}".format(token)})
    if headers is None:
        headers = {}

    # Merge headers specified at client initialization.
    final_headers.update(headers)

    # Merge headers specified for a specific request. e.g. oauth.access
    if request_specific_headers:
        final_headers.update(request_specific_headers)

    if has_json:
        final_headers.update({"Content-Type": "application/json;charset=utf-8"})

    if has_files:
        # These are set automatically by the aiohttp library.
        final_headers.pop("Content-Type", None)

    return final_headers

def _set_default_params(target: dict, default_params: dict) -> None:
    for name, value in default_params.items():
        if name not in target:
            target[name] = value

def _build_req_args(
    *,
    token: Optional[str],
    http_verb: str,
    files: dict,
    data: dict,
    default_params: dict,
    params: dict,
    json: dict,  # skipcq: PYL-W0621
    headers: dict,
    auth: dict,
    ssl: Optional[SSLContext],
    proxy: Optional[str],
) -> dict:
    has_json = json is not None
    has_files = files is not None
    if has_json and http_verb != "POST":
        msg = "Json data can only be submitted as POST requests. GET requests should use the 'params' argument."
        raise SlackRequestError(msg)

    if data is not None and isinstance(data, dict):
        data = {k: v for k, v in data.items() if v is not None}
        _set_default_params(data, default_params)
    if files is not None and isinstance(files, dict):
        files = {k: v for k, v in files.items() if v is not None}
        # NOTE: We do not need to all #_set_default_params here
        # because other parameters in binary data requests can exist
        # only in either data or params, not in files.
    if params is not None and isinstance(params, dict):
        params = {k: v for k, v in params.items() if v is not None}
        _set_default_params(params, default_params)
    if json is not None and isinstance(json, dict):
        _set_default_params(json, default_params)

    token: Optional[str] = token
    if params is not None and "token" in params:
        token = params.pop("token")
    if json is not None and "token" in json:
        token = json.pop("token")
    req_args = {
        "headers": _get_headers(
            headers=headers,
            token=token,
            has_json=has_json,
            has_files=has_files,
            request_specific_headers=headers,
        ),
        "data": data,
        "files": files,
        "params": params,
        "json": json,
        "ssl": ssl,
        "proxy": proxy,
        "auth": auth,
    }
    return req_args

def _parse_web_class_objects(kwargs) -> None:
    def to_dict(obj: Union[Dict, Block, Attachment]):
        if isinstance(obj, Block):
            return obj.to_dict()
        if isinstance(obj, Attachment):
            return obj.to_dict()
        return obj

    blocks = kwargs.get("blocks", None)
    if blocks is not None and isinstance(blocks, list):
        dict_blocks = [to_dict(b) for b in blocks]
        kwargs.update({"blocks": dict_blocks})

    attachments = kwargs.get("attachments", None)
    if attachments is not None and isinstance(attachments, list):
        dict_attachments = [to_dict(a) for a in attachments]
        kwargs.update({"attachments": dict_attachments})

def _update_call_participants(
    kwargs, users: Union[str, Sequence[Dict[str, str]]]
) -> None:
    if users is None:
        return

    if isinstance(users, list):
        kwargs.update({"users": json.dumps(users)})
    elif isinstance(users, str):
        kwargs.update({"users": users})
    else:
        raise SlackRequestError("users must be either str or Sequence[Dict[str, str]]")

def _next_cursor_is_present(data) -> bool:
    """Determine if the response contains 'next_cursor'
    and 'next_cursor' is not empty.

    Returns:
        A boolean value.
    """
    # Only admin.conversations.search returns next_cursor at the top level
    present = ("next_cursor" in data and data["next_cursor"] != "") or (
        "response_metadata" in data
        and "next_cursor" in data["response_metadata"]
        and data["response_metadata"]["next_cursor"] != ""
    )
    return present

def _to_0_or_1_if_bool(v: Any) -> Union[Any, str]:
    if isinstance(v, bool):
        return "1" if v else "0"
    return v

def _warn_if_text_is_missing(endpoint: str, kwargs: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
    missing = "text"
    attachments = kwargs.get("attachments")
    # Note that this method does not verify attachments
    # if the value is already serialized as a single str value.
    if attachments is not None and isinstance(attachments, list):
        # https://api.slack.com/reference/messaging/attachments
        # Check if the fallback field exists for all the attachments
        if all(
            [
                isinstance(attachment, dict)
                and len(attachment.get("fallback", "").strip()) > 0
                for attachment in attachments
            ]
        ):
            # The attachments are all good
            return
        missing = "fallback"
    else:
        text = kwargs.get("text")
        if text and len(text.strip()) > 0:
            # Note that this is applicable only for blocks.
            return

    message = (
        f"The `{missing}` argument is missing in the request payload for a {endpoint} call - "
        f"It's a best practice to always provide a `{missing}` argument when posting a message. "
        f"The `{missing}` argument is used in places where content cannot be rendered such as: "
        "system push notifications, assistive technology such as screen readers, etc."
    )
    # for unit tests etc.
    skip_deprecation = os.environ.get("SKIP_SLACK_SDK_WARNING")
    if skip_deprecation:
        return
    warnings.warn(message, UserWarning)

def _build_unexpected_body_error_message(body: str) -> str:
    body_for_logging = "".join(
        [line.strip() for line in body.replace("\r", "\n").split("\n")]
    )
    if len(body_for_logging) > 100:
        body_for_logging = body_for_logging[:100] + "..."
    message = f"Received a response in a non-JSON format: {body_for_logging}"
    return message

def _remove_none_values(d: dict) -> dict:
    # To avoid having null values in JSON (Slack API does not work with null in many situations)
    #
    # >>> import json
    # >>> d = {"a": None, "b":123}
    # >>> json.dumps(d)
    # '{"a": null, "b": 123}'
    #
    return {k: v for k, v in d.items() if v is not None}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I've been trying to avoid shopping as much as possible this month, but it's so hard whenever holiday sales pop up. I was able to limit myself to just one item this past Easter weekend. BUT my minimal shopping wasn't due to self restraint, it was mainly because everything on my wishlist was sold out in my size. Lol 😝 My fiancé has been suggesting that I read personal finance books whenever my shopping cravings kick in🙄 How does everyone else solve their cravings??


Through much of the twentieth century, philosophical thinking about works of art, design, and other aesthetic products has emphasized intuitive and reflective methods, often tied to the idea that philosophy's business is primarily to analyze concepts. This "philosophy from the armchair" approach contrasts with methods used by psychologists, sociologists, evolutionary thinkers, and others who study the making and reception of the arts empirically. How far should philosophers be sensitive to the results of these studies? Is their own largely a priori method basically flawed? Are their views on aesthetic value, interpretation, imagination, and the emotions of art to be rethought in the light of best science? The essays in this volume seek answers to these questions, many through detailed studies of problems traditionally regarded as philosophical but where empirical inquiry seems to be shedding interesting light. No common view is looked for or found in this volume: a number of authors argue that the current enthusiasm for scientific approaches to aesthetics is based on a misunderstanding of the philosophical enterprise and sometimes on misinterpretation of the science; others suggest various ways that philosophy can and should accommodate and sometimes yield to the empirical approach. The editors provide a substantial introduction which sets the scene historically and conceptually before summarizing the claims and arguments of the essays.
Greg Currie taught for many years in New Zealand and Australia. He now teaches at the University of York. His most recent book is Narratives and Narrators (OUP, 2010) and he is now working on a book on literary representations of mind.
Matthew Kieran is Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at the University of Leeds. He is the author of numerous articles and books such as Revealing Art (2005) which has been translated into various languages including Chinese and Korean. His wider philosophical interests include creativity, art, psychology, and ethics.
Aaron Meskin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leeds. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on aesthetics and other philosophical subjects. He co-edited Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) and The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).
Jon Robson is a teaching associate at the University of Nottingham, having previously served as a postdoctoral fellow on the AHRC project 'Method in Philosophical Aesthetics: the Challenge from the Sciences'. He has published papers in a range of subjects including the epistemology of aesthetic judgements, the philosophy of videogames, and the beauty of God.


text:
UK post-hardcore band They Say Fall release Dexter-inspired new single 'Darkly Dreaming'
Post-hardcore rockers They Say Fall are proud to release their new single 'Darkly Dreaming'. Inspired by smash crime series Dexter, the video is a compelling and entertainingly unusual watch.
Premiered on Punktastic, watch 'Darkly Dreaming' here: https://youtu.be/UpzDGLAdwhI
An infectious hook-led track and impressively multi-varied, 'Darkly Dreaming' is a song that grabs your ears and refuses to let go. From the off-kilter verses to the atmosphere of the build to the final chorus, this is an impressively three-dimensional song.
'Darkly Dreaming' is another chapter in the story of a young band who've already achieved an impressive amount in their relatively short history. Having previously supported Madina Lake, While She Sleeps, Mallory Knox and more, They Say Fall's previous single 'Deadlights' was named as one of Scuzz Underground's Best Of 2015.
With a new album in the pipeline the future's bright for this creatively inspiring band.
See They Say Fall live at the following and live on tour this Winter (dates TBA):
Kill The Festival | Leeds | 6th of August
West Street Live | Sheffield | 14th of August
http://www.facebook.com/theysayfall
https://www.youtube.com/c/theysayfall
http://www.twitter.com/theysayfall
http://theysayfall.bandcamp.com


Long Description:Greenware cold drink cups and lids are a line of crystal clear, American made premium serviceware manufactured from Ingeo™ biopolymer, a resin derived entirely from plants. Ranging in sizes from 7 to 24 ounces, Greenware products are a sustainable solution in foodservice packaging. Sturdy and stylish, Greenware cups feature a rolled rim for drinking comfort and leak-resistant lid application. Five most popular sizes fit only two lid series. Straw-slotted and dome lids provide many merchandising options. These biopolymer lids create 100 natural package.


The Denver Performing Arts Complex (DPAC) is the largest performing arts complex under one roof, and the second-largest center of its kind in terms of number of venues and seating capacity. DPAC houses ten performance spaces on its four-block, 12-acre site.
Group Activities Description: Guided tours showcase rarely seen areas including Actor's Alley, where door-size, hand-painted replicas of Broadway show posters adorn the walls and feature cast autographs; theatre design and construction facilities where props, costumes, lighting and scenery are created and stages, dressing rooms and rehearsal studios. These 90-minute tours begin in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex at Speer and Arapahoe. Due to performance related activities, theatre access changes daily and access may not be available for all spaces. Tours are $8 and $10 during the holiday season.
Green Practice Desc: The Denver Performing Arts Complex has been ISO 14001 Certified as part of the City of Denver since 2009. Goals are set and tracked annually in support of the City of Denver's 2020 Sustainability goals, and through our own initiatives. Denver Arts & Venues cultivated SMARTER Sustainable Arts & Venues developing the goals for all of our facilities to reduce our environmental impact in the following areas: Energy, Food, Water, Waste, and Materials.


text:
Menu Ian Lauer Astro 0
Stargazing Tours & Workshops
Astrophotography Tutorials
Ian Lauer Astro
ABOUT KENNY & IAN
Kenneth LeRose
Kenneth LeRose is a nomadic full time traveler who specializes in Astro/Landscape Photography. Roaming the US in his tiny little Airstream (travel trailer) with his best furry friend Sabu. To make his work to stand out from the crowd, he writes thought provoking poems tailored to the mood of each of his images.
Consistently finding new ways to provide value to his fellow photographers, he has developed dozens of workshops all over the world. Kenneth is able to leverage his years of knowledge and experience to teach and create these epic 3-7 day Workshop adventures. Most of these workshops revolve around astrophotography. To him, It is crucial to get people excited about the night sky. "The more people that fall in love with our twinkling stars, the more awareness we can spread to the importance of persevering our night sky and minimizing light pollution", says Kenneth.
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Ian Lauer
Ian Lauer is an astronomer, astrophotographer, adventurer, and public speaker with a passion for sharing the wonders of the night sky. With a background in astrophysics, he has worked with the top telescope manufacturers and retailers in the world, building telescope systems for private & professional observatories, astrophotographers, government projects and educational institutes.
His feel-good commentary and passion for the stars are infectious. Whether it's speaking in front of thousands of people or 1-on-1, the joy and energy will always be there. With his ability to transform complex subjects into entertaining discussions, he has shared this love of the stars through multiple mediums such as podcasts, stage talks, films, and TV shows.
Product Shipping Policy
Sign up to be the first to know about new workshops, stargazing adventures, print sales, and more!
© 2022 Ian Lauer Astro.


There are many skills in which people want to get better, with photography leading the pack. Being able to make photos look better is a way to make memories shine more vividly, and if you want to make a career from capturing the beauty of our world, sharpening your photo-taking skills is a must.
John Kleinheinz Fort Worth took his passion for photography and turned it into a career recently. By harnessing his free time away from work to improve his capabilities, he was able to make his dreams come true.
Want to make a career out of taking photos? Or do you just want to make your vacation pictures pop? Either way, the steps below will move you towards becoming an awesome photographer.
Want to shoot incredible pictures time and time again? Don't just point and shoot – think about what you want in the shot before you commit to pressing the shutter button.
Many people see an amazing natural sight and just take loads of photos of roughly the same vista, hoping to get the miracle shot that looks incredible. However, if you want to get skilled at capturing these moments, you can't leave things up to dumb luck.
See something you like? Instead of spamming the trigger, take a few moments to contemplate what looks good and what would take away from its power. This way, you'll have killer photos that won't need much additional editing to look sharp.
Most people think that having the main subject in the center of the shot is what one should aim for. In actuality, having key elements in the upper, lower, left, or right third of the photo is what makes amazing photos look compelling.
This phenomenon is known as the rule of thirds. It posits that subjects placed along vertical and horizontal third lines give a photo more gravity.
When you take your next picture, set it up so that your main focal point runs along the lines mentioned previously.
Look in your camera settings, as many have grid functions that makes this task easy, but eyeballing it shouldn't be that hard, either.
Additionally, there are often grid lines in cropping functions, so you should be able to get your photos looking awesome when you edit them as well.
Getting up for sunrise is difficult, especially when you are accustomed to waking up near noon. However, light at midday sits directly overhead, making it a chore to make any pictures look good.
There are tons of people around during the middle of the day, which can take away from the pristine atmosphere you are trying to convey.
To get the best light of the day and as few humans as possible in your shots, there's little choice but to bite the bullet and wake up with the birds. After all, you can just go back to sleep when you are done.


An Arizona dad has created a drone to monitor pools after he was saddened by recent news stories of local children drowning over the summer.
Lee Kambar, of Phoenix, is the inventor of the Morningstar, a drone that floats on the surface of the pool.
Using 360-degree cameras, one positioned above the surface of the water and one below, and facial recognition software, the drone sends a notification and live stream through an app when it detects activity in the pool.
The minute they approach the pool, it will send you a notification saying [someone is] by the pool, Kambar told KPHO. Then you get a second notification from the bottom camera showing you a live image inside the pool of your kid dealing with a crisis.
If the image shows someone in trouble, he can easily contact emergency responders by sending a picture and alert through the app.
While Morningstar is not a substitute to constant supervision, Capt. Jake Van Hook of Phoenix Fire said it can make a difference when it comes to their response to drownings.
Every second counts in these situations, Van Hook said.
Aside frombirth defects, drownings are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and4, according to the CDC.
Van Hook explained there havebeen 27 drowning calls and sixdeaths in Phoenix this year.
There's a certain level of emotion that's stirred when you know you're going to a drowning and it's a child, Van Hook said. It takes an impact on you. You feel that you sense that loss.
Thats when Kambar decided to take action.
A light bulb went off in my head; there's a problemlet's find a solution to it, he said. Our kids are the most valuable thing to us as parents, and for such a tragedy to occur, it's unnecessary.
Kambar estimates the Morningstar, priced at less than $1,000, will hit the market by the end of the year.


Seeing as tomorrow is the start of Banned Books week, I decided to use this post to highlight the top ten books that were banned in the year 2011 as reported by the ALA and the Office for Intellectual Freedom.
"an epistolary novel entirely out of IM transcripts between three high-school girls"
"A trilogy about a girl coming of age, set in the vibrant, beautiful landscape of pastoral Korea"
"Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?"
"Elizabeth's mom is having a baby, and the whole family is involved. Elizabeth learns all about the baby's development, and she traces his growth, month by month."
"Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live."
"Alice McKinley is about to become a teenager, but she doesn't know how. Her mother has been dead for years, and what do her father and her nineteen-year-old brother, Lester, know about being a teenage girl?"
"Aldous Huxley's tour de force, "Brave New World" is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order."
And, okay, my third love, too."
"Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep--sometimes with each other."
"Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos."
To learn more about Banned Books week, check out http://bannedbooksweek.org/.
ooh there's a few on here that I haven't read that sound super interesting. Especially that first one!
Yeah, I think I read ttyl back when I was in high school or shortly there after. It wasn't bad and the concept pretty cool.
It makes me crazy that there are so many great titles here that are deemed "unfit" for reader consumption. Thanks for firing me up for Banned Book Week.
I know it is so frustrating!
I always love Banned Books Week. Somehow I always discover a good book or two each year.
That is true! It's sad that we have to do it though ... but happy that we find good books to read!
Wow. The Alice series is banned? That seems CRAZY to me. I absolutely love Alice and all her crazy antics, but at the core, it's a totally innocent book series. I just saw my copies yesterday... and oh, now I feel like reading them again.


text:
It would have been a disaster for Britain to join the euro.
— Jack Straw
Higher, Faster, Further
A New Concept of Growth
More and more economists demand that GDP should not be the sole parameter for the calculation of economic growth. The alternatives? Bhutan's "Gross Happiness Product" or the well-being index of the British government. But what do these alternatives offer - and how can they be measured?
The Measure of Things
We generally use per-capita income to measure prosperity. In Germany, per-capita income has increased by the factor twenty between 1950 and 2001, and it has increased fivefold if corrected for inflation. But has our wealth increased as well? This question touches two overlapping problems: The meanin
On the 25 November 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and National Statistician Jil Matheson launched a national debate about measuring well-being in Britain. New measures are being developed after increasing understanding that Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while an important indicator of economi
Kicked Out of Paradise
There is evidence in the archaeological record going back 6000 years that indicates societies geared towards hyper-consumption and overextension have a tendency to dominate and overwhelm more 'conservationist minded' neighbors. Deliberate overextension that leads to risk and war can be a practical
Contagious Wires
An Internet Revolution?
The idea of a twitter-revolution is catching on -in Tunisia and Egypt. Social media are changing the information flow and help to bypass monopolies of power. But change and freedom are still fought for in the streets.
A Network of Networks, Unfazed by Censorship
It is hard to turn on the news these days without hearing a discussion of the role of social media in the recent events in the Middle East. But what our research tells us, first and foremost, is that we won't have a clear picture of this until the dust settles, and the data is collected and analyz
On Twitter, An Energized Public Sphere
Some Western pundits have disparaged the importance of social media as a vehicle for reform in the Middle East and North Africa. However, observers must be careful not to examine the socio-political conditions in the region through a Western prism. Studies of social media's penetrability and impac
Blood, Sweat and Tear Gas
All too often, Western pundits talk about digital activism in developing countries as if it were some phenomenon bestowed upon poor young foreigners by the moguls of Silicon Valley or worse, the US government. To listen to the recent speech of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, you'd think they were
Trapped in the Net
It's not surprising that a disaffected population under a repressive or corrupt regime would find an ally in Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks. These online applications are now an essential part of how the world communicates, particularly on Smart Phones, which are fast becoming the pla
Fishing for Fear
Europe's Far Right
Right-wing parties have expanded their voting base throughout Europe: Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Jimmie Akesson in Sweden, the FPÖ in Austria. What unites them is the abandonment of classical nationalism and the exploitation of popular fears.
Farewell To A World Of Black and White
9/11 was yesterday. Since the 9/11-attacks the antagonism between "we" and "they" has classified the debate on Islam: We, the West. They, the Muslims. Democracy and liberty here, jihad and oppression there. That confrontation used to be the foundation on which critics and right-wing demagogu
Us Against Them
Roma in France; Sami in Sweden; Albanians in Italy. The far right mobilises support through fear of 'the Other'. Who that Other is depends upon time, place and contingency. Historically, fascism identified Communists and Jews, amongst others, as the enemy within, with horrifying results. Whilst
Right-wing populist parties have recently gained new political momentum in Europe by mobilizing against the perceived 'Islamization of Europe' and promoting themselves as defenders of 'Western European cultural identity' against a culture they consider inferior, inassimilable and therefore d
Merchants And Mercenaries
Arms Trade and Export Regulations
Every year, Western nations export small arms and large weapons systems to countries around the globe. Tight export regulations are designed to prevent misuse and ethically questionable deals. But how effective can they be? The Libyan example demonstrates the limits of regulations and oversight.
With Our Arms Wide Open
When the European Union released its XII Report on control of exports of military technology and equipment on 13 January it received no media attention. The suppression of peaceful protesters with weapons supplied by EU states exposed the reality behind the 400-pages of data. EU arms exports to the
Arms Exports, A Menace of International Aid-Giving
Whenever acute, heavy conflict arise in a region, arms embargoes are usually established reasonably quick. Generally, this decision is heralded. Yet what about the time before and after such measures? Unfortunately, hypocrisy, double standards and business deals dominate this subject matter in Europ


text:
Stefano Zambelli
stefano.zambelli[at]unitn [dot] it
Cambiamento tecnologico
Ciclo economico
Dinamica economica
Economia comportamentale
Economia computazionale
Integrazione economica
Integrazione economica europea
Scienze sociali algoritmiche
10/06/1976 American High School Diploma, Verdugo Hills High School, Los Angeles, USA (AFS – Scholarship)
21/07/1977 Diploma in Nuclear Physics, Technical Institute Fermo Corni, Modena, Italy.
11/07/1985 Graduation cum lauda from the University of Modena, Department of Economics, Degree in Economics
01/01/1986 – 30/04/1989 Researcher – Research Department of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, Milano, Italy – Member of the Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy Research Group cooperating with the Economists of the Bocconi University.
01/01/1987 – 30/06/1987 Visiting Scholar – Department of Economics, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA.
Positions & Honours
01/05/1989 – 31/07/1992 Assistant Professor – Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University, Denmark.
01/01/1991 – 30/06/1991 Visiting Professor – Center for Computable Economics, Department of Economics, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
01/03/1992 – 30/06/1992 Visitnig Professor – Center for Computable Economics, Department of Economics, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
01/08/1992 – 31/08/2005 Associate Professor – Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University, Denmark.
01/01/1993 – 31/03/1993 Visiting Professor – Department of Statistics, Bologna University, Italy.
01/01/1993 – 01/01/1995 Member of the Economics Study Board, Social Sciences Faculty, Aalborg University.
31/03/1993 – 31/06/1993 Visiting Professor – Department of Economics, Modena University, Italy.
01/01/1996 – 01/02/2008 Elected member of the Governing Board of the Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University.
01/02/1997 – 31/12/1997 Member of the Commission for the evaluation of the Danish participation to IIASA – International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis.
01/01/2000 – 31/12/2003 Danish Social Science Research Council. Project on "Economics theory and methods: bounded rationality, heterogeneous agents, computer simulations and experiments".
01/09/2005 – 29/02/2008 Professor of Economics - Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University, Denmark.
01/09/2006 – 30/06/2007 Visiting Professor – Department of Economics (CIFREM - Interdepartmental Centre for Research Training in Economics and Management) – Trento University, Italy.
01/09/2006 – current Staff member of the PhD School - Interdepartmental Centre for Research Training in Economics and Management (CIFREM)
01/02/2008 – current Professor of Political Economy, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italy.
01/01/2010 – current (Founding) Member of the Algorithmic Social Sciences Research Unit (ASSRU www.assru.economia.unitn.it), Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italy.
01/11/2010 – 11/04/2011 Head of Department, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italy.
01/01/1986 – 30/04/1989 Research Department Banca Commerciale Italiana, responsible of the teaching of Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy to both selected employees of the bank and visiting students coming from Japan and several African nations.
01/05/1989 – current date Teaching responsibilities that cover a wide spectrum of a university employee's teaching obligations.
Bachelor Level: Macroeconomics taught at the 5th or 6th semester (Supervisor for circa 30 Bachelor dissertations).
Graduate Level: Macroeconomic Dynamics, Business Cycle Theories, Growth Theories, Sraffian Economics, Monetary Economics, Advanced Macroeconomics, Keynesian Macroeconomics, Computational and Computable Economics (Supervisor of circa 70 Master Dissertations and 5 PhD dissertations).
PhD Level: Macroeconomics, Computational Economics and Computable Economics.
Curriculum_Vitae_-_Stefano_Zambelli_120912.pdf (43,06 KB)


text:
package entity

import (
	//	"github.com/quintans/goSQL/db"
	. "github.com/quintans/toolkit/ext"
	"github.com/quintans/toolkit/web/app"
)

type EntityAudit struct {
	app.EntityBase

	Creation           *Date  `json:"creation"`
	Modification       *Date  `json:"modification"`
	UserCreationId     *int64 `json:"userCreationId"`
	UserCreation       *User  `json:"userCreation"`
	UserModificationId *int64 `json:"userModificationId"`
	UserModification   *User  `json:"userModification"`
}

func (this *EntityAudit) Copy(entity EntityAudit) {
	this.EntityBase.Copy(entity.EntityBase)

	this.Id = CloneInt64(entity.Id)
	this.Creation = CloneDate(entity.Creation)
	this.Modification = CloneDate(entity.Modification)
	this.UserCreation = entity.UserCreation
	this.UserCreationId = CloneInt64(entity.UserCreationId)
	this.UserModificationId = CloneInt64(entity.UserModificationId)
	this.UserModification = entity.UserModification
}

const ATTR_USERID = "_userid_"

/*
func (this *EntityAudit) PreInsert(store db.IDb) error {
	this.Creation = NOW()
	uid, _ := store.GetAttribute(ATTR_USERID)
	if uid != nil {
		this.UserCreationId = uid.(*int64)
	}
	return nil
}

func (this *EntityAudit) PreUpdate(store db.IDb) error {
	this.Modification = NOW()
	uid, _ := store.GetAttribute(ATTR_USERID)
	if uid != nil {
		this.UserModificationId = uid.(*int64)
	}
	return nil
}
*/


text:
SOURCE: Independent
Female Pirate Lovers Whose Story was Ignored by Male Historians Immortalized with Statue
tags: public history, LGBTQ history, Piracy
Two female pirates famed for leaving a stream of "looted treasure" and "treacherous ex-lovers" behind them have been commemorated with a new statue.
Figures of Anne Bonny and Mary Read have been unveiled at Execution Dock – where pirates and smugglers were executed for more than four centuries – in Wapping, east London.
The statue of Bonny and Read will be taken to Burgh Island, off the south Devon coast which saw pirates come and go for centuries, after Wednesday's London preview.
Professor Kate Williams, a prominent historian, told The Independent it was critical to unearth the "hidden voices and histories" of women and LGBT+ people. She noted history books have scant information about the pair – despite them being two of the most famous pirates in the 18th century.
Professor Williams added: "They broke gender boundaries and stunned people at the time. They were trailblazers in an incredibly male-dominated society who forged their own way. They were lovers and both fluid – moving between living as men and living as women and it is true, they have been forgotten from history.
"They lived determinedly and followed their hearts – both in being pirates and seeking their own destiny but also following their desire to love each other – when society demanded marriage.
Read entire article at Independent