Mark Shultis (BA, Writing 04) has recently self-published the first of a three-book cycle via Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks, The Dawn Cluster I: Detriment, a sci-fi space opera.
Julie Marie Wade (MFA in Poetry 06) was granted tenure this past summer by Florida International University. Her newest collection of poems is Same-Sexy Marriage (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2018); The Unrhymables: Collaborations in Prose, which she wrote in collaboration with Denise Duhamel, is due out from Noctuary Press in the coming year.
Katie Homar (PhD, Cultural and Critical Studies 14) has begun a new position as an academic and technical writing specialist at North Carolina State University after teaching at Georgia Tech as a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow. Her new position involves designing writing and communication support for NC State graduate students in the Colleges of Engineering. She is thankful for her experiences at Pitt teaching writers across the disciplines in Written Professional Communication, ESL Workshop in Composition, and the Writing Center—all of which, along with her time at Georgia Tech, helped to prepare her for this new opportunity.
Robert Dorris (BA, English 1969) recently retired from teaching at Morgan Community College in Colorado, where he was named Adjunct of the Year by the administration in 2017.
Bob Hartley (MFA in Fiction 00) published his second novel, North and Central (Tortoise Books), in 2017.
John Hay (BA, English 07) is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he specializes in nineteenth-century American literature—an interest sparked when he was an undergrad taking a course with Professor Mike West. In 2017, Cambridge University Press published his first book, Postapocalyptic Fantasties in Antebellum American Literature.
In 2014, Allan Onik (BA, Writing 09) published Major Arcana, a chapbook of his writing, through Scars Publications, with whom he has published numerous pieces, including 58 stories in Scars' Down in the Dirt magazine. He has also written for maritime magazines such as Latitudes and Attitudes and Cruising Outpost.
Tikvah Feinstein (BA, Writing 82) fondly recalls publishing her first story as a Pitt junior—in what was then called the BackSpace literary journal. Since then, she has worked as a staff writer for a daily newspaper, is the author of four books, and has edited and illustrated others. Editor and publisher of Taproot Literary Review for 25 editions, Feinstein's fiction has received a 2017 Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Short Story Award; more recently, her personal essay, "Bombs and Caterpillars at Recess," is part of the Collateral Damage Anthology (Glass Lyre Press, 2018).
Lloyd Kropp (BA, English 57) recently retired as senior professor at the University of Southern Illinois Edwardsville. He is working on his next novel. His prior novels include: The Drift (Doubleday, 1969), Who Is Mary Stark? (Doubleday, 1974), One Hundred Times to China (Doubleday, 1969), and Greencastle (1987, Freundlich Books). He is an annual speaker at the American Research Center in Egypt as well as at science fiction conventions in St. Louis, Mo. He has been married to Carolyn Steine Kropp (Pitt 1956) for over 60 years.
The Sun magazine has published a compilation of essays by Caroll Susco (MFA in Fiction 96).
Under the Kaufmann's Clock: Fiction, Poems, and Photographs of Pittsburgh (Six Gallery Press, 2016) is the latest collection of work by Angele Ellis (BA, Writing 79). She has also published work in Unconditional Surrender: An Anthology of Love Poems (Low Ghost Press, 2017) and Nasty Women & Bad Hombres: A Poetry Anthology (Lascaux Editions, 2017).
Barry Gross (BA, English 80) has published one book of poetry, Coiled Logic (2015), and one collection of poetry and prose, Angled Portraits (Red Dashboard, 2017). He has read his work in New Hope, Newtown, Philadelphia, and Souderton, Penna., in Trenton, N.J., and in Bridgewater, Va., as part of the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival.
Paul Siegell (BA, Writing 00), who was an English department work-study during his undergrad years here, has worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, as well as at Philly.com. He is a senior editor at Painted Bride Quarterly. In 2015, the Penn State University's Pennsylvania Center for the Book featured one of Paul's poems on one of its Public Poetry Project broadsides. Last year, his fourth book, Take Out Delivery, was published by Spuyten Duyvil Press. Check out his videos and portfolio on the Web.
Mike Good (BA, Writing 11) holds an MFA degree from Hollins University and recently joined Pittsburgh-based Autumn House Press as managing editor. In February of 2018, his poem "Bright Blue Muscle Car" was an Editor's Choice pick in the Rattle magazine Ekphrastic Challenge.
Robert Tally, Jr. (MA, Literature 93; PhD, Critical and Cultural Studies 99) is currently a full professor at Texas State University. His most recent book, Topophrenia: Place, Narrative, and the Spatial Imagination, was published this past fall by the Indiana University Press. Other books he has authored include Fredric Jameson: The Project of Dialectical Criticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), Poe and the Subversion of American Literature (Bloomsbury, 2014), Spatiality (Routledge, 2013), Utopia in the Age of Globalization (Palgrave Macmillan 2018), Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel: A Postmodern Iconography (Continuum, 2011), and Melville, Mapping, and Globalization (Bloomsbury, 2009). Tally has edited numerous collections as well, particularly in the areas of geocriticism and spatial literary studies, where he is an authority, serving as Palgrave Macmillan's general editor for scholarship on these topics. Among the collection titles of which Tally has been an editor or co-editor are Teaching Space, Place, and Literature (Routledge, 2018), The Routledge Handbook of Literature and Space (2017), Ecocriticism and Geocriticism: Overlapping Territories in Environmental and Spatial Literary Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), The Critical Legacies of Edward Said (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and other collections.
Hannah Aizenman (BA, Writing 12) began working as the poetry coordinator for The New Yorker after completing her MFA in poetry at New York University. She has poems published or forthcoming in BOAAT, Sycamore Review, Black Warrior Review, and Gigantic Sequins.
Shannon J Gregg (BA, EngLit 97) has an MBA under her belt and is currently pursuing a PhD in Community Engagement at Point Park University. Having consulted extensively in sales productivity, Gregg is an expert on time management; in 2017, she published, with co-author R. Shawn McBride, the book It's About Time: How to Do More of What Matters in the Time You Have.
Gary Fidel (BA, English 72) began writing the first novel in his Rick Sands legal suspense series in 2012, when he retired from a 30+-year career as a legal prosecutor in New York City. Last spring, the fourth in the series, Sands Key, was published. He credits the fiction writing courses he took at Pitt for his ongoing development as a novelist.
Nour Abdelghani (BA, Writing 10) recently completed a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Miami, Fla., where she works in infant mental health. She specializes in attachment-based therapy using play with young children and their caregivers. She says that she draws on her writing background every day as a therapist.
Zachary Harr (BA, Writing13) graduated in May 2018 from the Masters in Public Administration program in the New York University Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.
Peter Germain (BA, EngLit 81), chief legal officer and executive vice-president for Federated Investors, writes: "As I reflect on my time at Pitt, I am struck by how truly great my English Lit classes were. Whether it was Professor Searle's Rational Nightmare class or Professor Austin Flanders' class on dystopian literature, they were always stimulating and thought provoking [editor's note: both Professors Searle and Flanders have passed away in recent year]. I came to view my lit classes as a welcome break from an otherwise tedious curriculum. In the end, having to write essays for my final exams for English lit proved to be an advantage in law school, where solid reasoning and clear expression are so important." Peter is active in the community, having served on the boards of the Pittsburgh Opera, the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and the Holy Family Foundation; he is an adjunct professor at the Duquesne University School of Law and teaches a course in Investment Management Regulation.
Spencer Borisoff (BA, Writing 91) began his post-graduation career as a staff writer and reporter for The South Hills Record in suburban Pittsburgh. After four years of reporting, he began a career in corporate sales. In his words, "What followed was two and a half decades of nausea and regret in corporate America." This experience is the impetus behind his book, Work Sucks!: A Funny View of a Serious Problem, dedicated to "the millions of Americans who want to suck on an exhaust pipe when their feet hit the floor on Monday mornings."
Elaine Vitone (MFA in Nonfiction Writing 06) has been awarded the National Association of Science Writers inaugural Excellence in Institutional Writing award for a feature she did on Pitt psychiatrist Lisa Pan's work with severe cases of depression; the feature, "Cut Off: A Bereft Nervous System May Eat Away at the Will to Live," was published in Pitt Med magazine in the summer of 2017
Head Wounds (Poisoned Pen Press 2018), the fifth installment in the Daniel Rinaldi thriller/suspense series by Dennis Palumbo (BA, Writing 75), was a nominee for Suspense Magazine's Best of 2018 awards. You can watch him talk about the novel on this broadcast of Between the Lines, the PBS show. A Hollywood-based psychotherapist, former screenwriter, and novelist, Dennis has mined the interface in an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine blog post on how therapists are depicted in mysteries. Last year, he also contributed to the noted mystery blog Femmes Fatales.
Marc Harshman (MA, Writing 78) has published a new book of poetry, Woman in Red Anorak (Lynx House Press, 2018), which was the winner of the 2017 Blue Lynx Prize. His fourteenth children's book, Fallingwater, co-written with Anna Smucker and published by Roaring Brook/Macmillan in 2017, has been an Amazon Book of the Month choice, as well as a Junior Library Guild selection.
Greg Camphire (BA, Writing 98) works as an editor/writer for California State University, Long Beach. He also is deeply involved in an exciting community initiative. Greg writes: "My wife, Marytza Rubio, is also a writer, and we currently live in her hometown of Santa Ana, Calif., which has only one full-service library for over 340,000 residents. In May 2017, we opened the doors to Makara Center for the Arts, a nonprofit lending library with over 1,000 specially curated books that are free for Santa Ana residents. We are also a creative hub for workshops, performances, and accessible programs that encompass a global view of arts and culture. My wife is the founder/executive director, and I am Makara's director of communications. The Makara library specializes in books that promote a variety of perspectives, including narratives by people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and other underrepresented groups. Inclusive children's literature, accessible arts programs, and citizen journalism are top priorities. Makara is committed to providing our neighbors with opportunities to explore their curiosity and expand their imagination. We believe that reading empowers individuals and access to knowledge is key to a healthy society. Visit our Web site or Facebook page to view our current and upcoming events. Last year, we sponsored 'FrankenRead 2018: Santa Ana Reads Frankenstein,' a year-long celebration of the novel's 200th anniversary and the continuing influence of Mary Shelley. In addition to giving away copies of the book and promoting discussions of its themes, we hosted related writing workshops, science presentations, art shows, and a live score of the 1931 Frankenstein film. In honor of Shelley, we are also recognizing other visionary female artists through programs on surrealist painter Leonora Carrington and musician/composer Alice Coltrane."
Pitt was well represented at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Convention (AWP) in Tampa, Fla., last spring. Pitt Writing faculty and grad students staffed the Pitt table at the gargantuan book fair, greeting alumni and friends as they came by to pick up swag and find out what's going on in the department. On the left, novelist and MFA grad Jeffrey Condran (l) mugs for the camera with Writing Director Peter Trachtenberg. Condran is currently an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. On the right, two Pitt undergrad writing alumnae—Melissa Dias-Mandoly (l) and her bud, Alicia Salvadeo—visit the Writing table. Dias-Mandoly works in the production and editorial departments of the University of Pittsburgh Press, and Salvadeo is completing an interdisciplinary MFA degree at Bard College. Several faculty presented talks at the conference.
We publish alumni news in the Fall/Winter issue, but welcome news year-round. Please update us on what is happening here. Faculty, staff, and grad students can keep us posted on publications, promotions, prizes, projects, and other news here.