in residence // 2023 VCFA Alumnx Magazine

PROGRAM LETTERS

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

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Alex Rheault (VA, '04)

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Biaina Nazari (VA, '23)

PROGRAM LETTERS

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2023

in residence F E AT U R E S

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a s u m m e r i n co lo ra d o

a more just future:

vcfa’s center for arts + social justice enters its third year

fac u lt y v i e w

Ravi Krishnaswami

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reflections on art

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life after the mfa

Mary-Kim Arnold

Hafid Abdelmoula (F ’19) Kimberly Bentley (VA ’05) Nora Shalaway Carpenter (WCYA ’12) & Rocky Callen (WCYA ’19)

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COMMUNITY FOCUS

f ro m t h e a rc h i v e s

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Collette Fournier (VA '03)

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president ’ s letter

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the music composit i o n p l ay l ist

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p ro g ra m l e t t e rs

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faculty news

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c l as s n e ws

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honorary degree

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n e ws & u p d at e s

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g i v i n g at vc fa

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report of gifts

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p r e s i d e n t ’s l e t t e r

editor, writer

Dear VCFA Community,

In July, I returned from the summer residency filled with a buzzing sense of possibility.

Inspired by the energy created by having our six programs come together on one campus to share, learn, and dive deep into creative exploration, I couldn’t help but think about future possibilities. Faculty, students, alumnx, and trustees all stopped me to express their enthusiasm for this new centralized model.

Jericho Parms (W ’12) Grace Safford (WCYA ’25) writer, fa c t - c h e c k e r Sarah Madru art director

Aldrena Hicks (GD ’16) designer

Sarah Flood-Baumann (GD ’16)

We have always been cognizant of the powerful impact our residencies have on the learning process for students in each of our programs. As a school committed to continuing to redefine what it means to be an arts college, I saw a transformation happen as we experienced what the collective VCFA could add to each individual’s growth and how that enriched experience might be translated back into greater artistic impact. Students across programs were discussing future collaborations; concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, and readings inspired students across disciplines; a student realized their creative focus would be better served by transferring to an alternate program and was able to engage with faculty and transfer.

We also began to see how, as an integrated arts community, VCFA college-wide events could enrich the residency experience. Affinity groups gathered to consider the intersections of identity and art-making; in the face of ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, we celebrated our LGBTQ+ community at our Queer Joy event; faculty and students across programs were inspired by the Center for Arts + Social Justice panel discussion with esteemed artists-activists across disciplines; our community was enriched by the wise words of poet and writer Naomi Shihab Nye, who participated in several residency events and spoke at our first ever college-wide graduation ceremony.

At VCFA, innovation and creativity have always been the driving force behind the pursuit of our mission. In 2008, we became the only arts college dedicated exclusively to graduate studies. As the only school devoted to the low-residency model, we give our full attention and resources to developing and refining that model for the benefit of our students. No one has more experience or does it better than VCFA. We are excited to explore and develop the richness of interdisciplinary inspiration, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary learning in service of students’ artistic development with the same commitment to excellence.

With the move to an integrated residency experience, we now bring the combined power of six faculties and six artistic disciplines to our mission of fostering the excellence of emerging and established practitioners and, by implication, the impact each of our graduates can have on individuals and communities across the world.

The power of the whole is even more spectacular than the greatness of each of its parts. I can’t wait to see how our community will continue to evolve and innovate as we embody this potential and continue to educate artists for the 21st century.

writers

Cameron Finch (WP ’19) Valentyn Smith (WP ’20) guest writer

Mary-Kim Arnold (W ’16) copy editor

Jessica Manley polaroid photographer

Joliet Morrill photographers

Meesh Deyden Anthony Pagani cover art

Renee Couture (VA ’10) Julian Gerstin (MC ’20) Fiona Phillips (VA ’08) Beverly Parayno (W ’09) Chachi Hauser (W ’20) Amy Veatch (VA ’23) Max Johnson (MC ’16) Alex Rheault (VA ’04) DoanPhuong Nguyen (WCYA ’19) Note: In order to make the collage, some art has been flipped, cropped, resized, and otherwise incorporated into our cover image.

in residence Vol 11 * No 1 *2023

w i t h g r at i t u d e

Vermont College of Fine Arts

Leslie Ward (W '16)

36 College Street Montpelier, VT 05602 alumnx@vcfa.edu vcfa.edu

a n d a p p r e c i at i o n ,

President

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listen while you read:

The Sounds of VCFA MFA in Music Composition residencies are gifted with their own ephemeral, live soundtracks. Original student compositions come to life in rehearsal rooms, informal gathering spaces, and, of course, on the stage. At residency, the music is nearly constant, and you can hear it practically every time a door opens. That same music, years later, still evokes memories from some of the most meaningful periods of growth and connection for those who were there to experience them.

Genre, instrumentation, and tone vary dramatically in the VCFA Music Composition program, but each completed piece has two things in common: 1) the skillful and courageous writing that goes into its creation, and 2) the generosity and care with which it is received. At concerts, an earnest energy can be felt between audience members and performers. As each piece ends, those in attendance wait silently, absorbing the last echo of sound, celebrating their fellow composers only once it has faded and the musicians breathe and relax.

In the 2023 edition of in residence, we are excited to share a wide-ranging playlist of compositions that were performed live at past MFA in Music Composition residencies. Perhaps it can be your soundtrack as you read the rest of the magazine, or as you go about your day. Perhaps the music will inspire you as you create your own art. However you choose to listen, thank you for being part of our audience. We hope you enjoy the music!

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

a summer in

C OL O R A D O A Reflection on VCFA’s first Residency in Colorado Springs IN THE SUMMER OF 2023, the Vermont College of Fine Arts redefined what it means to be a graduate arts institution. From July 21 to 29, VCFA’s current students, staff, and faculty united on the Colorado College campus and remotely “in the cloud” for a nine-day summer residency packed with lectures, screenings, performances, readings, workshops, and exhibitions. Not only did this residency mark a new semester, it introduced a history of firsts: VCFA’s first time converging as six programs on one campus, VCFA’s first exposure to interdisciplinary study and collaboration, and VCFA’s first time hosting a college-wide convocation and commencement.

In her remarks to the VCFA community at commencement on July 21 in Shove

Chapel, VCFA President Leslie Ward (W

’16) noted the pure magic of seeing all six

of our MFA programs together. “We begin together a new chapter for VCFA. A new chapter that has its roots in our rich history, and takes its inspiration from our mission statement,” stated Ward. “This new chapter pulls on the strength of our history and celebrates the rich individuality and diversity of each of our programs, and also the power of connection and collaboration within our collective community. … The possibilities of inspiration, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary learning are limitless.”

Throughout the week, these possibilities came to fruition. On Colorado College’s 92-acre campus, our current student body had the space and opportunity to connect.

PROGRAM LETTERS

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Leah Chutz (GD ’23)

For the first time, Writing students could be found wandering Visual Art and Graphic Design gallery spaces. Film and Writing for Children & Young Adults students were spotted in the crowd at Music Composition showcases. In the Rastall Dining Hall, faculty members were always available and ready to talk craft to the first student who claimed the empty cafeteria chair next to them.

Beyond the excitement of cross-disciplinary engagement, programs were thrilled to bring new opportunities and artists to their students during residency.

In the MFA in Film program, New Zealand stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell— whose stunt work you might recognize from classics such as XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS and KILL BILL Vol 1 and Vol 2—wowed students with her industry insights during her time on campus.

Artist-in-Residence Mercedes Teixido wove on a loom with Visual Art students in the Worner Campus Center. Students, staff, and faculty in the MFA in Graphic Design program took their learning off campus in an excursion to the Garden of the Gods national park.

While covering new ground, the summer 2023 residency honored many long-standing VCFA traditions. The MFA in Writing program’s poetry vs. prose softball game found its home on the lawn of the Tutt Library, the WCYA faculty advisor list was taped proudly to the fireplace in Bemis Hall, the Graphic Design Pinup exhibition and party truly took over the Cornerstone Arts Center, Music Composition’s beloved Songwriting Showcase opened its doors

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to eager listeners, and VCFA added not one, not two, but three new ghosts to our history of hauntings. (Tip: Only artists can enter the Cossitt dance studio—the ghost of Dorothea Cornick might haunt you otherwise.)

And as tradition came with the college onto our new campus, so did our alumnx.

Chachi Hauser (W ’20), Damon Davis (F ’20), and kei slaughter (MC ’13) came to residency as a visiting writer, filmmaker, and musician respectively. Across programs, a number of graduate assistants helped to make residency possible, including our exhibition coordinators who were vital in helping the Graphic Design and Visual Art programs transition to new gallery spaces.

In the Writing for Children & Young Adults program, Karen Krossing (WCYA ’20) and Laura Obuobi (WCYA ’21) became the inaugural Teaching Assistants for the program, leading their own workshops and lectures throughout the week.

“I was excited to return to an in-person residency after completing my degree online, due to the pandemic. This time, I was returning to the VCFA WCYA community as a Teaching Assistant, and not as a student, so that was extra special,” recalls Laura Obuobi of her time as a TA this summer in Colorado. “I didn’t know what to expect in terms of experiencing residen-

“The possibilities of inspiration, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary learning are limitless.”

VCFA President Leslie Ward (W ’16)

cy with the other programs at VCFA; however, once I was on campus, it was great to interact, if only briefly, with members of the other programs in the cafeteria. I particularly enjoyed getting to meet a few writers in the adult Writing program.”

Obuobi further expressed, as did many excited members of the VCFA community, an interest in creating even more time and opportunities for cross-disciplinary events at residency—a prospect VCFA staff and faculty members are already examining for future winter and summer residencies.

The alumnx community was further represented on the Colorado College campus

by VCFA’s new Alumnx Advisory Council (read more about the council and their developing role at VCFA on page 52). This residency, Natasha Fisher (WCYA ’21), Paul Tonnes (VA ’13), Sammi Labue (W ’17), and Victoria Wells Arms (WCYA ’19) represented the council on campus, and Anne Gimm (W ’19) and Jessica Muniz-Collado (MC ’14) joined remotely.

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Sammi Labue, who led generative writing workshops on campus in the mornings while also serving on the Alumnx Advisory Council, noted that while the community was on a new campus, each program brought an undeniable VCFA spark to residency. “I was really blown away by the feeling of our preserved culture on campus,” says Labue. “As an alumnx of both Colorado College and VCFA, I can say that while the campus made me nostalgic for my undergrad years, it was never a question to me whether or not we were at a VCFA residency. The hustle from talk to reading to event and the enriching artistic conversations in between had VCFA’s DNA all over it.”

“Our alumnx have always contributed to the richness and success of our program residencies, returning as guest artists and presenters and offering invaluable support as graduate assistants and exhibition coordinators. The presence of alumnx at this first summer residency in Colorado was inspiring,” adds Vice President for Institutional Advancement Jericho Parms (W ’12). With VCFA’s expanded opportunities in terms of space, accommodations, and interdisciplinary study, the Office of Institutional Advancement is already spearheading conversations about how the college can invite even more alumnx back to future residencies, whether it be in the cloud or on campus.

“That sense of belonging is so crucial to the process of making art,” Labue continues.

“Fostering that in Colorado Springs has become my main mission in my continued involvement with VCFA, and our goal as the Alumnx Advisory Council as a whole also speaks to that: to spearhead lifelong support and engagement for graduates.”

As we continue the process of reflecting upon this residency, one item we gained has already made itself more than evident: a new definition of what “community” means to VCFA. With our new definition in hand, we start on the path towards our winter 2024 residency in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna University campus.

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

Program Letters In honor of VCFA’s next chapter, we asked our six MFA program teams to turn the page with us and bring a new voice to our longstanding “Program Highlights” section.

Each letter is a reflection and a celebration.

In their words, you might find new voices, amazing events from the past year, and expressions of excitement for what is to come. We hope you enjoy these letters.

MFA in

Film The MFA in Film program has spent the past year honoring our roots and transforming our foundation. This year, we welcomed alumnx and longtime VCFA community member Rafael Attias (F ’15) into his new role as Program Director. The program is thrilled to have Rafael’s expertise and creative mindset guiding us into this next installment of the VCFA story. Additionally, the program continues to be eternally grateful for Kristin Humbargar and the outstanding work she has done for the program as Assistant Director.

In these past few months, the Film program found new ways to connect— with each other and the VCFA community as a whole. We hosted amazing virtual events with alumnx, such as Tamara Perkins (F ’19), Damon Davis (F ’20), Jason Ledford (F ’21), and

Tommy Caamano (F ’20). Our residency

schedule shifted, meeting the rest of our MFA programs in the mountains of Colorado at Colorado College. In our summer semester, we screened core faculty Jessica Gorter’s newly released film, THE DMITRIEV AFFAIR, and we welcomed visiting faculty members Dominga Sotomayor and Damon Davis (F ’20). Finally, this winter, we’re anticipating meeting once again as a community in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, at Susquehanna University.

To our alumnx, we want to express how excited we are to jump into this next stage of the MFA in Film program with all of you. There is so much we can do together, and we’re only at the beginning of it all.

Looking forward to the future, The MFA in Film Program

PROGRAM LETTERS

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MFA in

Music Composition

MFA in

Graphic Design Greetings, Graphic Design Alumnx!

We last saw many of you at our Alumnx Weekend in October 2022 during the final GD residency at the Montpelier campus. We are grateful to Chris Previte (GD ’15), Mike Scaringe (GD ’15), and Matt Barnes (GD ’17) for developing this incredible mini-residency that allowed generations of GD students to reunite.

Since then, it has been a time filled with transition and change for the program.

In the fall, our beloved Program Director, Danielle Dahline, left VCFA and returned to her love of teaching young children. We sent her off with best wishes and lots of gratitude for serving as the heart of our program for five years. We are deeply grateful for our GD alumnx Mary Hanrahan (GD ’13) and Lorilee Rager (GD ’21), who stepped in as Interim Program Directors to serve as a bridge for students and faculty over the winter. In March, we welcomed our new Program Director, Renata Baptista, to the program. Then, for the first time in 12 years, we didn’t host an April residency, and instead we looked forward to our time together at Colorado College for summer residency in July.

While it felt strange to spend April apart, our Graphic Design Alumnx Talk in late May with Heather Snyder Quinn (GD ’18), Ryan Slone (GD ’21),

and Olivia Schneider (GD ’21) brought a vibrant sense of community. Once we gathered at Colorado College for summer residency, we found a truly modern campus set amid the inspiring Rocky Mountains. Now, we are looking forward to winter at Susquehanna University and approaching a January residency as a new design challenge. We are already working on generating solutions and dreaming about the possibilities ahead.

From the hills of Montpelier to the mountains of Colorado Springs and soon the countryside of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, we are facing each change with excitement for the new VCFA 2.0.

We are grateful to all of you for your continued support of our program, our students, and our community!

With VCFA love, Renata Baptista and Mary Hanrahan, Program Director and Assistant Director, MFA in Graphic Design

Over the seven years I’ve taught here, I’ve been continuously inspired by the transformations I’ve seen in our students.

The many diversities within our community inspire us to connect in ways that go deeper than our aesthetic affinities. The sense of connection that the program nurtures is a profound part of the experience for everyone involved—staff, students, alumnx, and faculty alike. I have seen people gain technical, musical, and personal confidence.

I’ve seen people who, upon arrival, think that perhaps they don’t belong at an MFA program but go on to walk across the stage at graduation with not only their diploma but a deep sense of agency as both composers and community members.

As a musician whose career has been somewhat unconventional, I am really passionate about this program. It is anything but a cookie-cutter music factory, and the students who come through it all leave energized in their creative mission with a sense of both grounding and inspiration. And now, VCFA is opening a new chapter with our residencies happening in multiple locations. The six programs that make up the school will become a Moveable Feast!

Perhaps most exciting is that for the first time in our history, all of our programs are in residence together, side by side, allowing for a new kind of interconnectivity and potential collaboration.

No matter what we create together next, our students will continue to speak their musical truths, and we will always be committed to helping them find their voice and speak efficiently and eloquently in whatever musical language that may be.

Yours, Carla Kihlstedt,Faculty Co-Chair, MFA in Music Composition

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

MFA in

Visual Art

The MFA in Visual Art has wrapped up yet another year of successful residencies.

In the winter of 2023, Corey Picket (VA ’17) and Geno Luketic (VA ’18) were the artists-in-residence; Việt LêLê, Judy Walgren (VA ‘16), and Xtine Burrough (VA ’01) were the visiting scholars; and Christophe Barbeau, Tannaz Farsi, and Mari Spirito were the visiting artists. For our first summer residency in Colorado, we welcomed Mercedes Teixido as the artist-in-residence and Dr. Nasrin Himada and Kristen Ghodsee as guest scholars.

Finally, the program is grateful for the work Jana Markow has done in the past year as she stepped in as our Interim Director and then our Interim Assistant Director. Jana became our official Assistant Director in the summer of 2023.

In the spring of 2023, VCFA welcomed Katrine Trantham as the new Program Director for the MFA in Visual Art. To our readers, Katrine says, “I’m so excited to join this creative community!”

Excited for what’s next, The MFA in Visual Art Program

* “We’re working on our program the way we work on our manuscripts, courageously and with an eye on something ever better for all of us.”

Liz Scanlon Writing for Children & Young Adults

PROGRAM LETTERS

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MFA in

Writing Since joining VCFA at the start of the year, it’s been a blur of activity as we wrapped up a successful semester and joined fellow MFA program communities at our first summer residency on the campus of Colorado College. The MFA in Writing welcomed incoming students and continuing students to the residency both in person and remotely, and we celebrated a graduating class of 42 writers. The MFA in Writing also welcomed visiting writers Chachi Hauser (W ’20), Samantha Hunt, and Bianca Stone at the summer residency. Beyond our residencies, our alumnx community has continued to stay engaged, returning as graduate assistants and showing up for a range of postgraduate opportunities and events that support and celebrate our writing community.

I can honestly say that the hard work, understanding, and kindness shown by the program and the VCFA community have been our greatest assets. Those same qualities will truly prove to be our fuel as we launch into new areas of growth and development and plan for our winter residencies both on the campus of Susquehanna University and abroad.

I can’t help but feel a great sense of pride in being a part of such a highly regarded and respected program. The success and accomplishments of our students, faculty, and alumnx community have set a high standard and propelled its progress. The continued openness, curiosity, courage, and creativity of the VCFA writing community is at the heart of that progress, and I look forward to playing a part in shaping a bright new future!

Onward and upward, Mike Rivas Program Director, MFA in Writing

MFA in

Writing for Children & Young Adults This past year, at least 16 WCYA faculty and more than a dozen alumnx launched a new book—or more than one! These publications received multiple starred reviews and landed on the National Book Awards Longlist, the NYT Best Seller list, and numerous prestigious end-of-year lists.

An odd counterpoint: a third of our faculty have had books banned, sad evidence that our work is both relevant and resonant.

In the meantime, the program welcomed 33 new students in 2023, graduated 50 more, and settled more fully and joyfully into our dual Cloud-Campus residencies.

We launched an exciting, new TA program (serving both current students and alumnx

alike), added to our Core Topics, dug into eight community reads via our Reading Like a Writer program, and developed new standards and terminology for “graduate-level work.” Plus, we have evolved our long-standing awards program to make it more transparent and equitable. Next up— faculty bias and DEI training sessions.

We’re working on our program the way we work on our manuscripts, courageously and with an eye on something ever better for all of us.

Warmly, Liz Scanlon, Faculty Co-Chair, MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

a more just

FUT

URE

VCFA’s Center for Arts + Social Justice Enters Its Third Year

During a period of transition, the Center for Arts + Social Justice has continued to develop and grow with a focus on deepening its core Academic Fellowship Program and reaching more audiences with the Center Event Series. After such a dynamic Fellowship Program In the fall of 2022, the annual Center for Arts + Social Justice Fellowship Grants were awarded and full year, the to a second cohort of VCFA artists across disciplines and included Ty Chapman (WCYA Center would like to share just a few ’24), Christopher Cobley (MC ’23), Callie Newsom Doyle (F ’24), Jen Gilomen (F ’23), Ray Masaki (GD ’23), Vanessa Miranda (VA ’23), Ethan Sudan (MC ’23), and LiAnne Yu (W ’24). developments Like the previous cohort, these eight Fellows were selected based on the quality of their creative and updates work and in recognition of their commitment to social justice. With a common recognition of with our VCFA the ways in which social identities shape how we move through the world, the work of these Fellows explores, in uniquely vibrant forms, themes of trauma, mental health, environmentalism, community. the maternal health crisis disproportionately affecting Black communities, transgender rights, and critiques of “the dark side of academia” and forms of cultural elitism.

​​ “Honestly, [the Center Fellowship] helps my self-esteem,” said Center Fellow Callie Newsome Doyle on joining the Fellowship program in an interview with the Center. “It means some people see value in this. It’s a reaffirmation that this is the right direction that I should be going in. That my efforts are not fruitless, that people are seeing what I’m doing and valuing it, and it’s just very uplifting.”

Center Thesis Fellow Christopher Cobley echoed Newsom Doyle in his own interview, saying “The Center for Arts + Social Justice has genuinely redirected the trajectory of my life.

It’s provided me the opportunity to continue doing what my dream is, which is to help others through music making and education.”

Beginning in the summer of 2023, Mary-Kim Arnold, VCFA's Interim Academic Dean, took over the direction of the Center’s Fellowship program and the Center’s related programming and events. Since joining VCFA in early 2023, Arnold has been collaborating with the Office of Institutional Advancement and an external consultant to develop a strategic plan for the next stage of the Center’s growth. With the 2024 Fellowship application opening in the fall of 2023, the Center looks forward to announcing a third cohort of Fellows in early 2024.

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Ethan Sudan (MC ‘23) Ty Chapman (WCYA ‘24) Callie Newsom Doyle (F ’24) Christopher Cobley (MC ‘23) Vanessa Miranda (VA ‘23) LiAnne Yu (W ‘24) Ray Masaki (GD ‘23) Jen Gilomen (F ‘23)

Center Event Series The Center for Arts + Social Justice hosted an evening of special events during the summer 2023 residency.

In a panel discussion titled “Imagined Futures: On Art + Social Change,” panelists presented their work at the intersection of art and social change. The panelists included Naomi Shihab Nye (author, poet, and VCFA’s Summer 2023 Honorary Degree Recipient), kei slaughter (Music Composition Alumnx), Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton (Graphic Design Faculty), and Damon Davis (Film Faculty and Alumnx). Following the presentations, panelists participated in a Q&A moderated by Mary-Kim Arnold.

A special performance followed the panel. This solo performance ritual, “Come As You Are: Musical Space-Making,” featured New Orleans-based flutist and singer-songwriter kei slaughter, who presented an interactive set of improvised compositions exploring queer Black lifeworlds, ancestral memory, and beyond.

Slaughter created a living musical space during the performance, inviting the audience to engage in the creative experience. Slaughter dedicated their performance to the late Diane Moser, an incredible jazz pianist, composer, and cherished member of the VCFA community.

After hosting its first college-wide residency events this summer, the Center is looking forward to even more connective programming at VCFA’s winter 2024 residency.

Visit the Center for Arts + Social Justice Online!

With generous support from a Digital Capacity grant from the Vermont Arts Council in 2022, the Center for Arts + Social Justice is pleased to announce the launch of its new website this fall. In a touchstone project for the Center, the college hopes to broaden the scope and visibility of our Fellows’ work through this dedicated virtual space. Visit the site at the QR code to keep up with more news and events from the Center, including a full announcement of our 2024 Fellows!

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

fa c u lt y v i e w

If you’ve ever been to a VCFA Music Composition residency, it’s more than likely you’ve bumped into Faculty Co-Chair Ravi Krishnaswami—whether he was on his way to a rehearsal, a oneon-one meeting with a student, or a master class. As a founding faculty member of the MFA in Music Composition, Ravi Krishnaswami has been mentoring students in scoring for media and songwriting at VCFA for over a decade.

The Score of a Decade

A Conversation with Ravi Krishnaswami, MFA in Music Composition

If you don’t know Krishnaswami from VCFA, you might know him as an award-winning composer, songwriter, and sound designer who has scored everything from Super Bowl ads to top-rated apps to iconic television themes. He has written and recorded three albums with his longtime band, Charming, and is a founding member of the highly acclaimed Smiths tribute band The Sons & Heirs. In his professional portfolio, you can find brand names such as HBO and ESPN, and video games such as Fallout, Dishonored, and Tetris. Alongside his projects are awards from Cannes Lions, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), Association of Music Producers (AMP), London International Awards, Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards, and the Game Marketing Awards.

But like many of the musicians and composers who have come through VCFA, Krishnaswami’s musical journey didn’t start with a chock-full portfolio. It started with passion, and maybe even a bit of hope. As a young person, Krishnaswami didn’t begin his studies in music but in electrical engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA). “I started on an alternate path as a mediocre engineering student,” recalls Krishnaswami. “I always dreamed of being a musician, but at the time, I could only imagine being a rock star. … I was a hobbyist in high school, writing songs

for myself on a cassette four-track. … At UVA, I spent my first three semesters as an electrical engineer, thinking my vocation might be making guitar pedals rather than using them. All within my second year, my father died, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I transferred out of engineering. At some point, I had started a band, and amid the chaos of getting a bunch of musicians to move in the same direction and write songs, I realized that I was very comfortable with that particular chaos. I thrived on it. When my medical leave was over, I had a sense of purpose and sense of who I was. I graduated with a music major.”

Upon moving to New York after graduation, he landed a role with the advertisingfocused music production studio Sacred Noise. For the next 10 years, Krishnaswami would go on to score national spots for brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, GE, Pfizer, Volvo, and Cadillac before starting his own creative studio, COPILOT, in 2008 with his longtime producer, Jason Menkes. As founding partner, creative director, and lead composer at COPILOT, Krishnaswami’s client list expanded into names such as Visa, Verizon, and the World Wildlife Fund.

At VCFA, he has brought his years of experience in the industry into his mentorship. “One thing I’ve always tried to do is give students a bit of a feel for what it’s like working in industries such as advertising and games, where feedback is relentless and

FAC U LT Y V I E W

revisions make or break projects,” explains Krishnaswami on what he brings to his educational philosophy. “That means giving feedback and asking for it to be executed, whether they agree or not. There is always space for students to push back or follow their own muse, but I think my experience in collaborative, high-pressure projects is the most unique and honest thing I can offer students. And related to that perspective, I often ask students to articulate what exactly they wanted the listener to feel or think of. This sounds fairly simple, but for some process-focused artists, it can be really transformational to be asked this question and have to answer it.”

These practices have informed and shaped years of Music Composition current students and alumnx. This year alone, Oscar Suh-Rodriguez (MC ’22), Vanessa Littrell (MC ’19),

and Steven Sanford (MC ’17) all mentioned Krishnaswami and his influence on their work and process in their Class News submissions for in residence. When asked about the impact Krishnaswami had on their time studying at VCFA, Bradley Turner (MC ’17) and Garrett Steele (MC ’16) jumped at the chance to share a few words about Krishnaswami’s mentorship.

“A majority of the time, in the world of commercial music, the composer receives raw, unfiltered (and highly subjective) criticism from clients. ... And the composer, if they want to be successful, has to figure out how to then revise their work to address that feedback,” says Turner. “Working with Ravi got me prepared for so much of the work I do now and got me comfortable with receiving honest feedback without getting defensive.

And over time, as Ravi became one of my strongest advocates and supporters, it really meant something to me to know I could believe what he was saying.” “[Ravi] excels at meeting his pupils where they are and drawing their best work out of them in a way that’s unique to their strengths and perspective,” adds on Steele. “After I

graduated, Ravi helped me find an incredible opportunity as a composer—a song that the client still uses to this day. He said: ‘It just feels like your kind of nonsense.’ And he was right, because he knows me, and he knows exactly what my kind of nonsense is.”

In his own study, Krishnaswami is, as of the writing of this article, a PhD candidate at Brown University. “My current research is in automation and AI in music for media,” says Krishnaswami. “What I want people to know is that these new tools are neither completely beneficial nor completely harmful to professionals.” In addition to investigating the evolving relationship between technology and music, Krishnaswami has a background from his undergraduate days in ethnomusicology, and is currently looking into the roots of rock. “My other interest in South Asian music and its interactions with the West has led me to a specific line of inquiry about the unacknowledged role of Hindustani music in rock,” explains Krishnaswami. “I think previous scholarship has focused on the easily made arguments about exoticism while ignoring the fact that people actually did learn from each other.”

Whether he’s working on his own music or thinking over a composition with a current student, Krishnaswami makes a mark on the MFA in Music Composition year after year.

As the college looks toward our first winter residency at the Susquehanna University campus, Krishnaswami’s focus will be, as it always is, on fostering community in the MFA in Music Composition program.

“The Music Composition program has a really strong sense of community, and I feel that my biggest job is to do whatever I can to protect that as we get repotted into new soil,” concludes Krishnaswami. “There will be new gear, new people, and new musicians.

The ensemble process, where students write for resident musicians, leading to a concert during residency, is the most sacred experience for our program. It’s invaluable. So I’ll be extra vigilant to make sure things go smoothly.”

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learn more about ravi krishnaswami , his music , and his previous works at ravimusic . com .

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

Faculty News Martha Brockenbrough (WCYA) published the

middle grade novel To Catch a Thief with Scholastic in 2023. A second chapter book series starring Brockenbrough’s “Frank the Cat” came out in April of 2023 and won a Maryland State Book Award and has been selected as a School Library Journal pick. A 2022 release, I Am an American—a picture book about Wong Kim Ark and the 14th Amendment— won the Carter Woodson Award, a School Library Journal Gold Standard winner, and was a finalist for the Jane Addams Award. In 2024, Brockenbrough will publish Future Tense, a nonfiction book for young adults about artificial intelligence.

Rick Baitz’s (MC) “Music

for a Sacred Space”— composed for violinist Cornelius Dufallo— premiered at The Juilliard School in 2022. He is currently preparing an album release containing “Music for a Sacred Space” and several other electro-acoustic compositions.

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Magazine, one poem in Michigan Quarterly Review, one poem in Symposium, and two poems in Brilliant Quarters.

Jackson additionally released two poetry books, Dispatches: Prose Poems (Wet Cement Press, 2022) and The Heart as Framed: New and Select Poems (Press 53, 2022). Lastly, Jackson read for Cutthroat Magazine at AWP 2023.

Liz Garton Scanlon (WCYA)

has been inducted into the prestigious Texas Institute for Letters, and her novel Lolo’s Light was named an honor book for this year’s Deirdre Siobhan Flynn Bass Award for Best Middle Grade Book.

In 2023, she welcomed two new picture books into the world with Putnam/Penguin: Full Moon Pups and The World’s Best Class Plant.

Corey Ann Haydu (WCYA)

saw the publication of her novel The Widely Unknown Myth of Apple and Dorothy with HarperCollins in 2023.

She additionally has a picture book coming out in 2024, A Place for Feelings. It will be her first picture book.

In 2023, Annie Howell (F) was awarded a writing residency at Catwalk in Catskill, New York. There, she worked on a new feature screenplay as well as the book for a stage musical.

Richard Jackson (W) recent-

ly published three poems in Waterwheel Review, one poem in North American Review, one poem in AWP’s newsletter, one poem in Cutthroat

Amy King (WCYA) released

Attack of the Black Rectangles with Scholastic in 2022.

In 2023, King edited and published with Dutton The Collectors, a YA anthology “of stories about remarkable people and their strange and surprising collections.” She is working on her next YA novel, a surrealist poetry collection, and an idea for her next middle grade novel. In her community, she continues to run groups for suicide loss survivors and support queer youth in rural or conservative areas.

Jane Kurtz (WCYA) in 2023

published two nonfiction dinosaur picture books, The Bone Wars: The True Story of an Epic Battle for Fine Dinosaur Fossils (Beach Lane/S&S) and The Clues are in the Poo: The Story of Dinosaur Scientist Karen Chin (Reycraft Books).

Kurtz additionally just sold a third dinosaur-related picture book to Beach Lane.

Martine Leavitt (WCYA)

saw the publication of her historical novel Buffalo Flats with Holiday House in early 2023.

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Faculty News Cynthia Leitich Smith (WCYA) published Harvest

House, a YA Indigenous ghost mystery, with Candlewick Press in 2023. Her imprint Heartdrum at HarperChildren’s released nine new books this year: the picture books Just Like Grandma, A Letter for Bob, and Rock Your Mocs; the chapter book Jo Jo Makoons: Snow Day; and the novels Heroes of the Water Monster, Two Tribes, We Still Belong, Rez Ball, and Those Pink Mountain Nights.

In 2023, Ian Lyman (GD) published with Set Margins’ publications The Failed Painter. Or: Unchained by Material Anxiety, a collection of essays on design and art.

Cory McCarthy’s (WCYA)

trans manifesto and YA novel, Man o’ War, received the Stonewall Honor Book Award from the American Library Association. The novel was also named the best YA Book of 2022 by BookPage and a Best of 2022 by Kirkus, Autostraddle, Buzzfeed, Chicago Public Library, and Bank Street. McCarthy is currently finishing a middle grade sci-fi trilogy, launching

a space fantasy series with Candlewick, and finishing one more solo YA book for Penguin Random House.

Anna-Marie McLemore’s (WCYA) queer historical

YA novel, Self Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, made the longlist for the National Book Awards. This is their third book to make the longlist.

In 2023, they published the YA fantasy novel Venom & Vow with Macmillan. Venom & Vow was co-written by McLemore and their spouse, Elliot McLemore.

In May of 2023, Silas

Munro (GD) and their

design studio, Polymode, designed both the exhibition design and environmental graphics for Cooper Hewitt’s (the Smithsonian Design Museum) “Deconstructing Power: W.E.B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair.” In June of 2023, Munro gave the talk “Design and Text Plenary: On the Consideration of a Black Grid” at the New School in New York City.

Finally, they published the book Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest with Letterform Archive in late 2022.

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Michel Negroponte’s (F)

Laura Shovan (WCYA)

new film, HERD, screened at the New Jersey International Film Festival on June 5, 2023, and was available for a limited time to stream.

published in early 2023 the illustrated children’s poetry book Welcome to Monsterville with Apprentice House Press.

Additionally in 2023, Shovan published with Writer’s Digest the piece “How the Neuroscience of Surprise Can Improve Your Poetry Practice.”

Sue William Silverman (W)

will release in early 2024 Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul with University of Nebraska Press. Acetylene Torch Songs provides that spark for memoirists and essayists seeking mentor-based instruction and inspiration.

SJ Sindu (W) released in

May of 2023 with HarperCollins Shakti, a middle grade, fantasy graphic novel.

In October of 2023, Sindu published the short story collection The Goth House Experiment with Soho Press.

Nance Van Winckel (W) saw the publication of Sister Zero with Slant Books in late 2022.

Her latest graphic story was published with Solstice Literary Journal in 2023.

Roger Zahab (MC) recently

released the album Seven Duos and had his new work “The Woods so Wild” commissioned by its soloist, flutist Lindsey Goodman, for performance with the Ashland University Band. Zahab gave the world premiere of composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin in 2022, which had its New York premiere with the Experiential Orchestra.

Finally, in 2023, Zahab released the album at the piano, an overview of his piano music written from 1982 to 2014 (performed beautifully

by Robert Frankenberry).

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20 by mary-kim arnold

reflections on art

At a Time like this Reflections on Art in Times of Crisis “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.

We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” toni morrison, 2015

VCFA is delighted to introduce Reflections on Art, a new recurring section in our annual publication. In this segment, we ask VCFA staff members to offer their thoughts on topics such as creative practice, pedagogy, influence, voice, and any ruminations on the current moment we face as artists and members of a global community.

This issue, Interim Academic Dean Mary-Kim Arnold (W ’16) lends her voice on “Art in Times of Crisis.”

The time I spent studying at VCFA, from 2014–2016, changed the trajectory of my writing, which is to say, my life. My critical thesis became the foundation for the book I would publish two years later, Litany for the Long Moment (Essay Press, 2018), a memoir of my failed search for my Korean birth mother.

At VCFA, I was able to work one-on-one with accomplished poets I admired—Mary Ruefle, Jen Bervin, Jamaal May—who encouraged and challenged me, treated my work with seriousness and respect, and recognized, despite the differences in our experiences, that there was a way in which we would always be peers, collaborators, and co-conspirators in pursuing a life that to many outside of the arts would not be desirable or even legible.

I loved my time at VCFA as a student, which is why, when I had the opportunity to return in 2023 as a staff member, I took the leap, leaving a teaching position and trajectory I had worked very hard, for years, to achieve. I returned to VCFA in January, a coincidental symmetry to when I first began in the winter residency nine years ago.

Much has changed since then. In my personal life, in my creative and professional work, in the nation, in the world. The years since then seem dizzying and overwhelming in every conceivable way. From the joy of launching my book, with

my family and friends all around, to the shock and grief of losing people I knew and loved—some to illness, some to unspeakable tragedy. The disappointment of planning to launch my second book at AWP in April of 2020, set against the horrifying realities wrought by a global pandemic. The pleasure of every unseasonably warm day, dampened by anxieties of climate collapse. The euphoria, after so much isolation, of reengaging with the rhythms of pre-pandemic life, tempered by the nearly immobilizing fear of being attacked in the street, or shoved from a subway platform, or shot while at the mall.

The inescapable confrontation—in the news, on the screen, among my colleagues, my friends, in my neighborhood, in every comfort of my own life—with the deep and relentless inequities that make my life as I know it, possible. Even the most stoic among us must at times ask, how are we to go on?

In an essay titled “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear” published in The Nation, Toni Morrison observes: Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive. Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish.

Later in the same essay, Morrison continues, “I know the world is bruised

REFLECTIONS ON ART

reward or social gain (see also: artists who have died in poverty and obscurity) and not because it makes pain easier to bear (“Pain is not a metaphor,” Mary Ruefle wrote on the margins of one of my particularly self-involved poems, “it is just pain.”). Not because it diminishes uncertainty or resolves chaos, but because it can sometimes be a way to know it, to bring dignity to our knowing, to engage with it, or perhaps, in the words of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, “to organize our disappointment.”

There is more to say, of course, but I will leave the last words to someone who knows far more about the subject than I do. In his 1962 essay, “The Creative Process,” James Baldwin writes of the role of the artist in society: and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”

For many of the artists and writers I know, the decision to pursue art with any seriousness has come at personal and professional cost. Whether that means working multiple low-paying jobs to keep space and time for art; foregoing or postponing intimate relationships in service to opportunities for advancement; alienation or misunderstanding from family and friends who find the pursuit frivolous or childish or unproductive. And certainly, even the most cursory survey of art history offers no shortage of cautionary tales for aspiring artists, so many of our most thought-provoking and enduring artists, reviled while living, were only to be acclaimed posthumously, when their work could be discussed without the messy and unwieldy contexts of how they actually lived.

But ultimately, what rises from the struggles and complexities of a life in art-making is the humanness of the attempt: to create and to engage with what others have created, not for

Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone. That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality—a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. None of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.

A Black, queer man living and writing at a time when the nation was reckoning with legalized racial segregation, gender discrimination, and violence, Baldwin held the inherent complexities of claiming the role of artist: Whether I like it or not, for example, and no matter what I call myself, I suppose the only word for me, when the chips are down, is that I am an artist. There is such a thing. There is such a thing as integrity. Some people are noble. There is such a thing as courage. The terrible thing is that the reality behind these words depends ultimately on what the human being (meaning every single one of us) believes to be real. The terrible thing is that the reality behind all these words depends on choices one has got to make, for ever and ever and ever, every day.

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

l i f e a f t e r t h e m fa

Hafid Abdelmoula (F’19)

capture emotions, moments, and stories in such a tangible yet elusive manner,” explains Abdelmoula of his newfound interest. “With film, I could blend my love for music, drama, and visual storytelling into a unified medium. … Each artistic medium, be it music, theater, or film, complements and informs the others in some way.”

Upon solidifying his passion for filmmaking, Abdelmoula sought out a graduate program to help pin From Thesis to Theater the ideas forming in his head down on paper—leading him to the MFA in Film program at VCFA. While What influences your art? studying at VCFA, Abdelmoula started working on What influences you? his now career-changing VCFA thesis film, BROKEN What do these influences GAIETE. BROKEN GAIETE follows protagonist ultimately mean to you?

Idir and a woman named Kashou (who asserts she is his For VCFA Film alumnx Hafid mother) as they wake up in a foreign land with little to no concept of who they are or what came before that Abdelmoula (F ’19), these moment. The pair stumble upon a village governed by questions are at the core of his artistic practice and a vital force peculiar, extreme rules and integrate themselves into the behind his 2022 fantasy mystery community in order to start anew. But soon, disturbing film, BROKEN GAIETE (also rituals and secrets are uncovered—all of which are followed, completely unquestioned, by the villagers. As called VILLAGE).

Abdelmoula says, these circumstances offer “a strong critique of religious, communistic, and dictatorial societal Art can be found in every corner of Hafid Abdelmoula’s life. struggles, reflecting the tragedies that have marred He is not only a filmmaker but human history. … This film is more than just a story; it’s a catalyst for dialogue, questioning societal norms and also a writer, actor, and singer. prompting introspection.”

“My journey into the world of art was quite an exciting In creating BROKEN GAIETE, one of Abdelmoula’s and unexpected one,” recalls greatest influences was his own relationship with place and Abdelmoula. “From a young person. “My journey of almost two decades living between age growing up in Morocco, I Morocco and the United States has indeed shaped me into found myself drawn towards the performing arts—music and what I’d refer to as a ‘multicultural hybrid human being.’

I’m both Moroccan and American, constantly switchdrama were my first loves. My ing between these two cultures,” says Abdelmoula. “This involvement with the Musical Conservatoire, the local theater, multicultural perspective heavily influenced the creation of BROKEN GAIETE. Creating BROKEN GAIETE was and my college drama artist my attempt to give shape to this cultural duality. I wanted to club provided the foundation learn more about communicate the richness, the beauty, and yes, sometimes, for my career in the arts.” hafid abdelmoula ’ s the confusion that comes with carrying two perspectives work at hafidabdelmoula . com . inside oneself. This duality not only influences how I see the Soon after moving to the US, world but also how I express my ideas and creativity.” these formative experiences pushed Abdelmoula into the Continuing, Abdelmoula notes that through his film, performance of film. “I was he aimed to capture the deeply important and impactful captivated by the ability to

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“universal struggle of identity and belonging.” In examining this universality, he says: “This film is deeply personal to me. It is a reflection of my own journey as a Moroccan-American, the dual cultural experience I’ve embraced. But more importantly, it’s a reflection of our shared human journey—one of exploration, struggle, understanding, and, ultimately, acceptance. My hope is that it resonates with audiences, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, prompting introspection and conversation about these universal themes.”

And the film has certainly resonated with audiences everywhere. Since its release, BROKEN GAIETE has been recognized with 15 nominations and five wins at notable film festivals, including Best Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and Best Director at the El Paso Film Festival, Madrid International Film Festival, and the World Music & Independent Film Festival.

“The journey from production to reception of BROKEN GAIETE has been an extraordinary experience, filled with challenges, growth, and immense satisfaction,” says Abdelmoula. “Beginning as my VCFA thesis film, [BROKEN GAIETE] was a deeply personal project where I could bring my visions and beliefs to life. … Seeing the film receive nominations and wins was incredibly rewarding. … However, beyond the awards, what has truly touched me is the audience reception. Hearing how viewers connected with the film, how it resonated with them and sparked discussions—these are the moments that have meant the most to me as a filmmaker.”

With its roots cultivated during his time at VCFA, yet another guiding hand in the production of BROKEN GAIETE was the community and the lessons Abdelmoula gained while steeped in the MFA in Film program. “My time at VCFA was pivotal in shaping BROKEN GAIETE,” says Abdelmoula. “The college’s rigorous curriculum, combined with the flexibility of its hybrid program, allowed me to balance work and study, enriching my filmmaking approach. The diversity and creativity within the VCFA community was incredibly stimulating and broadened my artistic perspective. Of particular value were my face-to-face advisors [who were] seasoned filmmakers [that] offered invaluable guidance and insight.”

provided by hafid abdelmoula : a behind - the - scenes shot of the filming of broken gaiete .

“Today,” Abdelmoula adds, “as I work on my upcoming projects, I often draw upon the lessons learned and experiences gained at VCFA.” And with these upcoming projects, Abdelmoula is pushing his work forward on all fronts. He recently completed a short film, ARTO, and as of the writing of this article, he is in production for his latest film, INVISIBLE SHACKLES. The films explore the creative spirit and the societal constraints of gender respectively.

In addition to his filmography, Abdelmoula co-hosts a podcast with Mark Vasconcellos called HumaniTEA, which features perspectives on filmmaking and offers “a personal and intimate conversation over a cup of Moroccan tea.” To stay up to date with these projects, Abdelmoula invites the VCFA community to visit his personal website and social media, where he regularly posts updates and behind-the-scenes features.

Hafid Abdelmoula has spent his career discovering, gleaning, reflecting, and creating. And this expedition, from VCFA to BROKEN GAIETE to his latest projects, is only a beginning. The next chapter is ready to be written, and he will bring the lessons he learned from BROKEN GAIETE with him as he writes.

“In essence, this journey has shaped me, helped me mature as an artist, and reinforced my passion for storytelling,” reflects Abdelmoula. “It has taught me that cinema, at its best, is not just about entertainment but about sparking dialogue, building bridges, and, hopefully, bringing about change.”

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l i f e a f t e r t h e m fa

Kimberly Bentley

(VA ’05)

The fiber arts, coincidentally, are what helped guide Bentley into her career today as an artist. Bentley had always been creative as a young person, but life initialIn the world of creation and creativity, ly pushed her toward a bachelor’s degree in education.

After leaving her degree and starting a family, Bentley one question has been turned over began to look for something to fulfill and rekindle her and inspected time and time again: creative interests. “I started back into my creative journey, What is considered art, and what is and one of the things I did was teach myself how to quilt considered craft? The fiber arts are because I could sit there with it on my lap and then fold no stranger to this debate. it up when the kids went to sleep—which was rare. I had some very active children,” explains Bentley with a laugh.

Knitting, crocheting, spinning, quiltReinvigorated, Bentley uncovered a voice in sculpture ing, sewing, weaving, and any work and clay, and went back to college to pursue both a bachthat involves manipulating fibers elor’s degree in art and an MFA in Visual Art at VCFA. and threads have traditionally been labeled as a “craft,” and oftentimes After working primarily with clay for almost two even labeled further as “women’s decades, Bentley found herself returning to fiber after work.” “Women’s work” as a term has taking a rug hooking class at a local arts center in her been used historically across cultures home in Maine. A traditional form of rug making, hookto gender—and often dismiss and ing involves pulling thick fibers (such as wool) through diminish—fiber and textile artistry a coarsely woven fabric to create loops and, ultimately, a and workmanship. Both labels have pattern or design. After one session, Bentley was, quite worked against the fiber arts for decades, keeping fiber-based work out literally, hooked. of high art spaces, such as museums and galleries. It wasn’t until the mid to “I was immediately just pulled back to what I was doing with my quilting,” says Bentley. “I was obsessed. ... It late 1900s that mainstream museums really feels like painting with yarn.” such as the MoMA started, slowly, introducing select solo fiber shows to their halls.

Bentley’s experimentation with rug hooking eventually led her to create her latest collection, “Haunted,” which was As VCFA Visual Art alumnx, sculptor, featured in the June 2023 exhibition “In the Making” at the and rug hooker Kimberly Bentley (VA UMVA Portland Gallery in Portland, Maine. “Haunted” ’05) explains, “The history of craft in investigates the normalization of violence against women the US is complicated, inevitably bound through the re-creation of famous screams on rugs. Bentup in race, gender, and class issues.” ley’s screams range from depictions of ’70s horror “scream queens” to photos taken at protests across the United States.

Today, fiber artists around the world are pushing against the boundaries of “The ultimate inspiration [for “Haunted”] was the “women’s work” and “craft,” working [United States presidential] election of 2016 and the

Pulling the Thread on the Fiber Arts

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stay up to date with bentley ’ s work at her instagram , @ claypatties .

together to get the fiber arts, and their potential for radical expression, recognized even further in the fine art world. Kimberly Bentley is one such artist.

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each other and talking about things that they would not be able to talk about in public. It was a way to gather strength within themselves and the community.” When Bentley first joined her rug hooking group in Maine, she recalls that they weren’t just creating with their hands but with their voices. “In the group, we are sitting around and women are talking. We’re having really important discussions. It creates community.”

subsequent rights of women that have been taken away on a daily basis since then,” explains Bentley. “We’re back to things that people thought we would never see—and it happened so quickly.” Her collection prominently features screams from protests in our modern history, such as screams from the day United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was appointed in 2018 and the day Roe v. Wade was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 2022. “Some say feminism is the ‘F word’ and that we don’t need it anymore. And I think that’s incorrect,” notes Bentley. “So I had to find a way to express myself. Fiber ended up being that for me in that I could draw these things out in this meditative way of weaving.”

The use of a “women’s art” form like rug hooking felt not only important but urgent.

As Bentley writes in her artist’s statement for “Haunted”: “Considering the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the increasing normalization of violence against women, it is more important than ever for my work to address the emotional and political role of craft.”

Crafting circles themselves have long been a place of radical thought and connection. “Historically when women are using these materials, it is a protest against the dominant culture,” says Bentley. “Women have been using fiber [as protest] way before people realize. Women sitting in knitting circles or sitting in quilting circles was their way of communicating with

A guiding idea in Bentley’s work comes from a line in her artist’s statement: “It is in ‘The Making’ that change can take place.”

Bentley says that when writing that line, part of her thinking revolved around crafting circles and the natural rebellion born in such invaluable spaces.

“Women in the act of making are defiant. Using craft materials is, in itself, an act of defiance,” explains Bentley. “I’m defiant because I’m using rug hooking—something that some people would never consider an art form.” As Bentley and many other fiber artists have found, when you say you’re working in a medium such as rug hooking, “everyone just immediately thinks of a kit, or they think of something that’s repeated over and over. It doesn’t dawn on them that there is this contemporary element to it. So I really want to lean into craft and bring that up to high art status. Fiber is a material to use for art.”

At the exhibition itself, Bentley worked on a rug in front of the crowd, inviting viewers into her circle to talk and even work with her on any of their own fiber projects. In her work, she hopes to not only spark conversation but forge meaningful connections. And her work isn’t over yet. After “Haunted,” Bentley is returning to her quilting roots and exploring images of Medusa and themes of sexual assault.

To her peers looking to create in the fiber arts—or to those who are at least curious about the medium—Bentley suggests attending workshops at local craft schools in a variety of fiber areas. After all, you might find your passion in knitting, or you might fall into step with tapestry weaving. “You will know when you figure out which one you’re passionate about,” encourages Bentley. And to all of her peers, regardless of what new medium or material they might explore next, she has one important reminder: “Anything can be used for art.”

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

l i f e a f t e r t h e m fa

Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rocky Callen (WCYA, '12)

(WCYA ’19)

A VCFA Reunion This is a story about collaboration—a collaboration that couldn’t have happened without VCFA, a bus, and a text.

In the spring of 2023, authors, mental health advocates, and VCFA Writing for Children & Young Adults alumnx Nora Shalaway Carpenter (’12) and Rocky Callen (’19) released their co-edited YA collection, Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes (Candlewick, 2023). Following 16 voices and experiences—including WCYA alumnx Jonathan Lenore Kastin (’12), Val Howlett

(’12), Anna Drury (’11), and Patrick Downes

(’13)—Ab(solutely) Normal works to subvert

mental health stereotypes by exploring a variety of mental health stories, from anxiety to post-traumatic stress disorder to obsessive-compulsive disorder to premenstrual dysphoric disorder and more.

Among many accolades, the collection has been called “absolutely extraordinary and necessary” by former WCYA faculty member Rita Williams-Garcia and “a vital resource for young people and their caregivers” by WCYA faculty member A.S. King.

So how did this transformative collection come to be?

You may know Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rocky Callen from their previous work in the kidlit and mental health spaces: Shalaway Carpenter is the author of The Edge of Anything (Running Press Kids, 2020) and Fault Lines (Running Press Kids, 2023) and the editor of the YA collection Rural Voices (Candlewick, 2022).

Callen is the author of A Breath Too Late (Henry Holt and Co., 2020) and the founder of the mental health awareness and suicide prevention project HoldOn2Hope.

Prior to even meeting and subsequently working together, both Callen and Shalaway Carpenter had a similar path to the writing world. Both wrote fervently as kids only to put their writing down as young adults—only to pick it up again later in life. Both, in looking to return to writing, turned to graduate education to strengthen their work. Both turned to the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program at VCFA. And that’s where the bus comes in. While they didn’t study at VCFA at the same time, their paths, despite everything, still managed to cross.

“I was [at VCFA] for two semesters when Rocky was there because I was her graduate assistant,” explains Shalaway Carpenter. “That’s how we met. I actually met Rocky on my first shuttle. … Rocky and I connected on the themes in our work. We’re both really passionate about mental health and advocating for it.” After Shalaway Carpenter’s novel The Edge of Anything and Callen’s

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novel A Breath Too Late debuted together in the same year, they became even closer online.

And then, the text happened.

After editing and publishing her first YA collection, Rural Voices—which featured WCYA voices such as Rob Costello (’12), Yamile Saied Méndez (’17), Veeda Bybee (’18), Estelle Laure (’14), Tirzah Price (’15), Shae Carys (’14), and Monica Roe (’15), and WCYA faculty member

David Macinnis Gill—Shalaway Carpenter debated whether or not she wanted to pursue another anthology project. “Anthologies are so much work, and I’m really, really proud of that book,” explains Shalaway Carpenter.

“I was texting with my friend Anna Drury (’11) right when the book was done, and I was like, ‘Don’t ever let me do another anthology again.’ Literally in the same text chain I was then like, ‘Although, you know what would be a really good anthology is one about mental health.’ And then I was like, ‘You know who would be really good at that? Rocky Callen.’”

“When Nora reached out, I immediately responded ‘yes.’

There was no hesitation,” says Callen. “It was so aligned with my own mission in the world and to do it in a collaborative way was just magic.”

When approaching an anthology about mental health, Callen and Shalaway Carpenter knew a major priority had to be representing mental health in a destigmatizing way. Much of the lexicon of media available to young people today often perpetuates harmful myths and stereotypes about mental health, some of which you may have heard once or twice before: That people with OCD are just “really big neat freaks,” that people with ADHD are just “unorganized and unmotivated,” and so on. Ab(solutely) Normal not only aims to smash those misconceptions but bring to light the necessary conversations that need to happen in 2023 and beyond.

“From the very beginning, Nora and I had the intention that we want this book to feel like a safe haven and for it to feel like a source of inspiration for anyone who does feel alone,” explains Callen. “The reason why stigma exists around mental health is, one, the narratives that were constructed around it, and two, the neglect and avoidance of the topic entirely. This book is meant to be

top : nora shalaway carpenter bottom : rocky callen

“I think that is the magic of VCFA: the connections that you have with other people.”

Nora Shalaway Carpenter

28

IN RESIDENCE 2023

a conversation starter, because without that, nothing will change. The stigma will not be broken, the statistics will continue to be on the rise, and the tragedies that come from those statistics will as well—so we have to start here and we have to start now.”

With Ab(solutely) Normal, Callen and Shalaway Carpenter set out to collect stories from a breadth of authors, experiences, and genres. The collection features everything from a one-act play to a graphic story to poetry to prose and more. Most importantly, each story is written by an author with the lived experiences represented in their work, and each story is accompanied by a letter from the writer offering words of support to their readers.

Young readers, parents, guardians, and educators can even find in the back of the book a plethora of educational resources and conversational guides.

“I just can’t tell you how many teachers have reached out to us to say how desperately this book is needed,” says Shalaway Carpenter. “Rocky and I wanted not only to give reading material for students and teachers and adults but also to arm them with lots of resources to help them through conversations, because the idea that kids aren’t going to talk about this stuff is ridiculous. They’re all talking about it because they have all seen tremendous impacts in their day-to-day life. … And so we’ve had some incredible collaborations with educators and mental health professionals to produce guides for the back.”

Ab(solutely) Normal truly became a shared community project—from the

*

keep up with nora shalaway carpenter , rocky callen , and their books at noracarpenterwrites . com and rockycallen . com .

content included in the book to its very own origins. After finishing the book, bringing it on tour, and having time to reflect upon the Ab(solutely) Normal experience, both Shalaway Carpenter and Callen say that they want to keep incorporating collaborative work into their careers. They are working on another book together with a third author, and Shalaway Carpenter is working on a new book with yet another co-writer.

“I just really love the energy that comes with working with other creative people,” explains Shalaway Carpenter. “And I think that is the magic of VCFA: the connections that you have with other people.”

“Going to VCFA and having that experience, you become so intimately aware of other people and community,” adds Callen. “When you go through an experience together, especially an experience that is focused on your art and your expression and your identity as an artist, I feel like you merge with others with a level of closeness that is unrivaled.” “[Ab(solutely) Normal] is glistening with VCFA magic,” Callen continues. “I see so many VCFA collaborations. Like Nora said, we met on a bus, but then our interests allied beyond VCFA. Then we started to be able to build that relationship. There are so many relationships that started at VCFA that will last a lifetime.”

And the future holds even more for these WCYA authors. Both Shalaway Carpenter and Callen have a multitude of new releases and projects coming soon—all of which the VCFA community can support with their own kind of VCFA magic.

C L A S S N E WS

Class News This issue of in residence reflects the news submitted by our alumnx community from June 2022 to early June 2023.

To have your news showcased in the 2024 edition of in residence, use the Share Your News form today! (vcfa.edu/share-your-news)

29

* 1987

1983

*Dale Kushner’s (W) latest collec-

tion of poetry, M, was published with 3: A Taos Press in 2022.

1986

Rustin Larson’s (W) creative nonfiction story “The Third King” appeared in The Wapsipinicon Almanac: Selections from Thirty Years (University of Iowa Press, 2023). Additionally, Larson is a professor in the MFA in Writing program at Maharishi International University and a critic in the Iowa Poetry Association’s workshops, and he was a featured reader at Poetry on the Prairie on November 13, 2022, in Perry, Iowa. His poems have appeared in the Phi Kappa Phi Forum, The Briar Cliff Review, Poetry East, and London Grip.

*

Lou Mathews (W) was recently interviewed by ZYZZYVA magazine, The LAnd magazine, and UC Santa Cruz Alumni Magazine on Mathews’s latest book, Shaky Town.

Suzanne Rhodenbaugh (W) published several poems in 2023 with The Hudson Review; Poetry East; In the Black, In the Red (anthology); and Wild Crone Wisdom: Poems & Stories (anthology). With Robert McDowell, Rhodenbaugh recently co-wrote a poem called “Past Each Other” for consideration of the Rattle issue on collaborative work.

1988

*Ned Bachus (W) in late 2022

published his novel Mortal Things with Tree of Life. Bachus has been working on this novel for more than three decades.

1989

In 2023, Dianna Henning (W) had work published in the Tule Review, Mocking Heart Review, Verse-Virtual, and “Poet News,” which is run by the Sacramento Poetry Center. “Poet News” also published a review of Henning’s book Camaraderie of the Marvelous (Kelsay Books, 2021) in 2023.

Finally, Henning has three poems set to release in the fall of 2023 in the book That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose & Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Institutions (New Village Press, 2023).

30 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3

1990 Barbara Siegel Carlson’s (W)

*

third poetry collection, What Drifted Here, came out in early 2023 with Cherry Grove Collections. Her chapbook, Between the Hours, appeared in 2022 with Finishing Line Press.

Siegel Carlson is currently working on two translation projects: The first is a book of selected poems (co-translated with Ana Jelnikar) of Slovenian poet Meta Kusar; the second is translating the poetry of Slovenian poet Miriam Drev from her latest collection, Ancestral Healing.

Jay White (W) was awarded the 28th Annual White Pine Press Poetry Prize for his manuscript A Tree Becomes A Room (selected by final judge Danusha Lemeris).

The book was published in the fall of 2023. White additionally has a new novel coming out in 2024 and another nearly completed.

1992 Susan Aizenberg (W) led a

generative poetry workshop, “Our Flexible Instruments: Exploring the Uses of Voice in Poetry,” at the 2023 Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Her new poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in several journals, including Plume, On the Seawall, SWWIM, Nine Mile, Hole in the Head Review, ABQinPrint, The North American Review, Minyan, and The Summerset Review. Her new collection, A Walk with Frank O’Hara and Other Poems, is forthcoming from University of New Mexico Press in the fall of 2024.

Laurie Kuntz (W) released

Talking Me Off the Roof with Kelsay Books in 2022. This is her fifth book of poetry.

1995

1993

Claire Bateman (W), in a joint venture between 42 Miles Press and Wolfson Press, published the collection of poems and prose poems Wonders of the Invisible World in September of 2023. *Dale Boyer (W) published Columbus in the New World with OhBoyBooks in late 2022. Columbus in the New World includes three decades of selected poems covering love and loss.

*

Brad Davis (W) participated in

Amy Dryansky’s (W) poem

“Ultramarine” was selected by Ana Castillo for the 2022 Cecil Hemley Memorial Award for a narrative poem. Dryansky recently finished a stint as the James Merrill Visiting Poet at Amherst College, and she is working on her fourth manuscript, Ambergris.

Recent poems from that book, including the title poem, can be found at On the Seawall and Terrain.org.

*Jane Pincus (VA) in 1970 helped

to create a documentary on abortion and women’s rights. Pincus and her fellow female filmmakers made this film to amplify women’s voices and convey women’s experiences, and in the past year they made the film free and available to watch online at abortionandwomensrights1970.com.

a range of events in 2023. He delivered the keynote and ran a workshop at the Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival; curated a National Poetry Month in-theround reading of the five Windham County (Connecticut) town poets laureate; read at Real Art Ways in the Riverwood Poetry Series and also for the Poetry in the Park series in Willimantic, Connecticut; shared on a panel with former VCFA faculty member Clare Rossini at the Poets by the Sea retreat in Madison, Connecticut; and in Madison, Wisconsin, he was the visitor/ reader at an Upper House writers event and led a three-day poetry workshop at Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary in conjunction with a course taught by English poet and former chaplain of Girton College Cambridge, Malcolm Guite. After Wisconsin, Davis delivered the keynote for a conference sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Study Center in Northfield, Massachusetts.

C L A S S N E WS

* *Allison Hedge Coke (W)

published in 2022 Look at This Blue with Coffee House Press, which then became a finalist for the National Book Awards 2022 for Poetry. In addition to her work with Look at This Blue, she received a Dean’s Mellon Professorship given by the Mellon Foundation UCR Center for Ideas & Society. *Linda Pennisi’s (W) third full-length poetry collection, The Burning Boat, was published in fall 2022 by Nine Mile Press. It is available from Nine Mile Press and on Amazon. Pennisi is a founder of the Y-Arts center of the Downtown Writers Center of the Syracuse YMCA, a program that offers art, writing, and music classes to city school students free of charge. *Yvonne Zipter’s (W) poetry

collection, The Wordless Lullaby of Crickets, came out in 2023 with Kelsay Books. The poems in this collection explore topics as wide ranging as jazz, family, nature, and illness. Zipter was recently nominated for the newly created position of Chicago Poet Laureate, and she is continuing her “poetry machine” project.

1996

Sandra Miller (W) published in

2023 her novel Wednesdays at One with Zibby Books. Additionally, Miller is currently working on another upmarket novel called The Other Choice.

*

1998

In early 2023, Marcus Cafagna (W) saw the publication of his book All the Rage in the Afterlife This Season with Finishing Line Press. *Juliet Patterson (W) published

in 2022 Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide with Milkweed Editions.

Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide was a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award.

Nancy Prudic (VA) just retired

1997

Les Edgerton’s (W) second craft book, Hooked, originally published with Writer’s Digest 17 years ago, was recently published by Japanese publisher Film Art, Inc. Edgerton’s novel The Death of Tarpons (retitled The Death of the Silver Kings) is the second of Edgerton’s novels to be republished by Italy’s Elliot Edizioni. Edgerton is currently working on three novels and one new craft book on writing.

The second edition of Daniel Jaffe’s (W) satirical novel, The Grand Sex Tour Murders, was released in early 2023 with Rattling Good Yarns Press. The review publication, Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews, selected the novel’s first edition as one of their 10 Favorite Books of 2022.

*

from a long career at Lake Erie College. Prudic was offered a retrospective of work dating from 1973 to the present at the B.K. Smith Gallery at Lake Erie College. The exhibition took place in March of 2023.

*

31

* 1999

*Emily Bilman (W) published The

Undertow with Troubador Books in 2023. Bilman’s long story about the side effects of war, entitled “Forsakenness,” was published in England. Bilman is now re-reading Civilisation and Its Discontents

by Sigmund Freud and Byron in Love by Edna O’Brien.

Jody Lisberger’s (W) story “Hurricane Bob” was published in the Fall/Winter Issue of The Louisville Review. “Hurricane Bob” is part of a story collection called Hand Me Up, Hand Me Down, which she is about to circulate. In June 2022, Lisberger retired from the University of Rhode Island, where she was an Associate Professor in Gender and Women’s Studies.

In 2023, Kevin McLellan (W) saw the release of in other words you/ with Word Works. Told through three different strains of poetic exploration, in other words you/ investigates longing, sexuality, and identity from numerous angles of contemplation. in other words you/ was a 2022 selection for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection (judged by Timothy Liu).

32

IN RESIDENCE 2023

*Barbara Sullivan (VA) made fres-

co clothing at a residency at artist Beverly Hallam’s former studio, and Sullivan made small fresco objects while at a residency at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation.

2000

Linda Aldrich (W) was awarded the 2023 Maine Literary Award for Poetry (short works) on May 18, 2023, at Olin Arts Center, Bates College. She was additionally nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize for her poem “Utopia I and II” by Hole in the Head Literary Review.

being accepted in an international juried show in Boston, Massachusetts.” Angelil exhibited two fiber installations at the Galatea Fine Arts Gallery in Boston in 2022. In 2023, Angelil was a part of a printmaking exhibition at Arts Gallery in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Lastly, Angelil also taught a watercolor class and exhibited abstract watercolors in the summer of 2023.

David Ebenbach (W) published the poetry collection What’s Left to Us by Evening with Orison Books in 2022. Ebenbach is currently working on his third novel and a scatter of short stories.

*Muriel Angelil (VA) published

in 2022 the book My Artist Life: a path of creativity. As Angelil describes, “This book starts about 1970 when I started creating textile sculptures and exhibiting them in the Boston area. It ends in 2022 when I had the honor of

*

*

* *Gretchen Woelfle’s (WCYA)

*Lynn Levin (W) is pleased to announce the publication of Levin’s debut collection of short stories, House Parties (Spuyten Duyvil, May 1, 2023). Stories in this collection were first published in Cleaver, Saturday Evening Post, The Broadkill Review, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Amarillo Bay, and other places. Levin continues to teach literature and writing at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Mary Sesso’s (W) second chapbook, Her Hair Plays With Fire, was published in November of 2022. Additionally, Sesso was in three workshops, is a member of the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, and recently had poems published in Loch Raven Review, Cutbank Review, and Her Story.

picture book, A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin, was published in early 2023 with Astra/Calkins Creek.

* 2001 Kate Niles (W) is set to publish

in 2024 the murder mystery The Last Hanging of Angel Martinez with University of New Mexico Press. Niles is also working on a follow-up mystery and a historical novel set in 1930s Nebraska loosely based on her great-aunt’s life.

Joyce Ray (WCYA) published Food for All Our Tomorrows: Poems on Seed, Soil, and Sustainability with Asian Rural Institute Press in 2023. The collection features 29 bilingual poems with illustrations by watercolor artist Susan Rock. In addition to this collection, Ray is beginning to shop around Beulah the Tai-Chi Beaver, a picture book about a beaver who cultivates mindfulness by practicing Tai Chi. Works in progress include several picture books and a middle grade historical novel set in the 1950s.

C L A S S N E WS

* 2002 Lisa Lynn Biggar’s (W) flash

nonfiction piece “Alex Jr.” was published in Pithead Chapel literary journal in 2022. The piece is a part of the novella in flash she is currently working on. Currently, she is marketing a short story cycle, “Search Party,” set on the eastern shore of Maryland, where she lives with her husband and three cats on a cut flower farm.

In 2022, Nancy Hewitt (W) published Completing the Arc with Finishing Line Press. *Jane Waggoner Deschner (VA)

initiated the project “Remember me: a collective narrative in found words and photographs” in 2015 to respond to what she experienced as the “hostility growing in our country.” Intending an empathetic response, she began embroidering found family photographs with texts gathered from ordinary people’s obituaries.

She exhibited the work in an immersive installation at Yellowstone Art Museum in 2022 and 2023. In a new project, she was recently given the entire slide library from a local college. She is now working to create something new out of the thousands of beautiful art history slides.

Kind of Leaving,” which first appeared in New Letters, has been chosen by guest editor Vivian Gornick for inclusion in Best American Essays 2023. She is currently at work on a memoir.

*Ayaz Pirani’s (W) latest chapbook of poems, Martyrs’ Garden, came out with Knife | Fork | Book in 2023. His new manuscript is a story collection called Fruq Qua Farooq.

In early 2023, Linda Stillman (VA) had her art included in the exhibition “Unconnected Yet,” which was curated by VCFA faculty Todd Bartel. “Unconnected Yet” was an exhibition about the junction between things not yet reached and assembled the work of 64 collage-based artists from 10 countries.

2004

In 2023, Chuck Forester (W) published with Querelle Press the memoir I Throw Like a Girl. Forester chronicles his life-changing journey from a lonely and suppressed gay boy in 1950s Wisconsin to his eye-popping 1971 arrival in San Francisco’s Castro, where he finds community and empowerment to live his life as a proud, out gay man for the first time.

Kathie Giorgio (W) published

2003 * Jillian Barnet’s (W) essay “Any

Angela Morrison (WCYA) pub-

*Collette Fournier (VA) produced,

with the help of an Arts Council grant, “Retrospective: Spirit of a People.” This show, presentation, and Q&A was a historic embodiment of four decades of her photography archives. Additionally, Fournier was recently featured in the group exhibition “Cause We Be Complicated: Dialogues of Black Artists.” In 2023, Fournier was nominated as one of three finalists for Visual Artist of the Year

by The Arts Council of Rockland.

Currently, Fournier is working with a literary agent to publish a memoir, researching information for the future photography series “African-Americans of Jewish Ancestry,” developing two photography courses at Rockland Community College, and giving a presentation on Sunday, August 28, 2023, at the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, New York. Fournier continues to document African American history focusing on various projects around America, and continues to exhibit and archive photographic work through Fournier’s photographic collective, Kamoinge, Inc.

Kelly Lenox (W) is currently

writing and publishing in the ongoing Substack series “Mama Ephemera’s Muddy Feet.”

Subscription is free at kellylenox. substack.com. Lenox’s poetry has turned towards essay, and she attended a residency and retreat in May and June respectively.

33

the book Hope Always Rises with Moonshine Cove Press in 2023. Giorgio is currently working on a sequel to Giorgio’s novel If You Tame Me.

*

lished her debut picture book, Rockhound, with Lawley Publishing in early 2023.

*

*Alex Rheault (VA) explored varied prompts that apply many subjects and genres with mentor poet Jefferson Navicky, launched SparkleWorks, is teaching 2-D and Forensics of Fashion at UNE, and mentors painters in Maine. Rheault has completed 54 of 100 paintings as part of an ongoing community project.

Rheault pursues opportunities for service work to give unconditionally in these fraught times.

2005 Kimberly Bentley’s (VA)

exhibition “In the Making” was accepted at the UVMA Portland Gallery. The show ran in June of 2023, and along with nine other women artists, the exhibition addressed the normalization of violence against women.

Margarite Landry (W) published the short story “Benediction” with Image Journal in April of 2023.

34

IN RESIDENCE 2023

Anne de Marcken (W) is the founding editor of The 3rd Thing, an independent press dedicated to necessary alternatives. The press publishes interdisciplinary, intersectional projects by womxn; queer, Black, and Indigenous people; and other people of color.

Today, Anne de Marcken is continuing work with the press. Anne de Marcken recently published the lyric novella The Accident: An Account with Spuyten Duyvil.

Christopher Soden (W) and

collaborator Paul Koniecki published the book of poems Terrible Grace with Luchador Press in May of 2023.

MaryJo Rosania-Harvie (VA),

after years in public education as an art teacher and administrator, is happy to announce that she will be an interim professor of practice in the art and education departments at Moravian University. She is excited to teach the First Year Writing Seminar with a focus on Social Justice and the Arts, Art Education Curriculum, Arts in Education for PK-4 grade certification students, and Visual Foundations. In addition to this work, she also successfully defended her dissertation, “Strength, Beauty, and Resilience: The Impact of Self Reflection & Exploration of Memory on Postmodern Feminist Educators, Inside and Outside the Classroom.” She earned an EdD in Transformational Teaching and Learning with a focus on feminist educator experiences that impact their view of education and their work with students.

*

*

2006

*Maureen Alsop (W) released a chapbook of short poems, Sweetwater Ardour, with Yavanika Press in 2022. In 2023, Wet Cement Press announced the publication of Alsop’s collection of visual poems, Tender to Empress. *Barbara Krasner (WCYA)

published Ethel’s Song: Ethel Rosenberg’s Life in Poems in 2022 with Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers. Ethel’s Song is the very first book about Ethel Rosenberg for teens. Krasner is currently under contract to produce another YA novel in-verse for Calkins Creek. *Marianne Monson (WCYA)

published the historical fiction novel The Opera Sisters with Shadow Mountain in September of 2022. Additionally, Monson runs a writing nonprofit, The Writer’s Guild, based in Astoria, Oregon. Lastly, she recently launched a new radio show, River Writers, that interviews authors about the craft of writing.

Martha Oliver-Smith (W)

published the memoir essay “Nothing is Guaranteed” in the RWB Spring and All anthology in May of 2023.

*Kristi Ryba (VA) hosted an in-person exhibition in April of 2023 featuring 13 paintings made from 2018 to 2023. Ryba is a ArtFields Competition Artist 2023 and is planning for a late summer residency at the Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat in Pennsylvania.

Chivas Sandage (W) relaunched her digital column for Ms. magazine. An antidote to the news, the column “Ms. Muse” features feminist poets and their work, as well as essays about the intersection of poetry, politics, and our lives. Sandage is also at work on THE WIND BLEW THROUGH US: Love, Murder, & Justice in Texas, her debut nonfiction book forthcoming in hardcover from the University of Texas Press.

*

*

2007 Ann Jacobus Kordahl (WCYA)

published her book The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent with Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner Publishing in March of 2023. Additionally, Ann Jacobus Kordahl and Nancy Bo Flood (WCYA ’07) curate a list of mental health books for younger readers—many by VCFA alumnx.

They submit articles and speak on writing responsibly about mental illness and fighting its stigma with good stories as often as possible (and welcome any opportunities to do so!). Lastly, Ann Jacobus Kordahl’s current YA WIP is a ghost story/thriller set in Arkansas.

C L A S S N E WS

*

* *Daniel Levin’s (VA) book Violins

and Hope | From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall received the Independent Publisher’s National Book of the Year award for history.

The book’s sister photographic exhibition opened in New York in early 2023. Later in 2023, the exhibition traveled to Memphis for three months, followed by Pittsburgh for three months during the fifth anniversary of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue. In addition to this book, Levin has spent the last three and a half years creating a performative series of tableaus high-resolution photographs across America. Titled “Kindness Repeated,” each tableau represents one specific oppression a current elected official is forcing upon their own population. *Renée Rossi (W) published

the collection Motherboard with Kallisto Gaia Press in 2022.

Motherboard was a runner-up for the 2021 Saguaro Poetry Prize.

Sherry Shahan’s (WCYA) short story “Jesus Rides Shotgun” was awarded 1st Place in the Zoetic

*

Press Short Story Contest; her poem “There Will Always be Paris” received The Editor’s Choice Award from Last Stanza Poetry Journal; and her prose poem “At 35,000 Feet” won 1st Place in the Brainstorm Poetry Contest. Her middle grade novel, Frozen Stiff (Random House), was placed on the Battle of the Books list. Shahan recently published the short stories “Ice Island” (Cricket Mag), “Wet and Wild: An Alaska Adventure” (Highlights), and “Freak Storm” (Crows Toes Quarterly). Additionally, she placed three photos in “Invisible City,” a commissioned collage in Crows Toes Quarterly, and the hybrid nonfiction piece “Dinner With Andy Warhol” in Raft Lit Journal. She is currently working on a draft of an Alaskan-based middle grade novel. *Jeff Silva’s (VA) newest documentary, THE ORDER OF THINGS, was selected for the International competition at the Traces de Vie film festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France. More festival and cinema screenings are in the works for 2023 in France, the US, and beyond.

Tam Smith (WCYA) in late 2023

released Grief Is an Elephant, a lyrical picture book, with Chronicle Books.

*

2008 Deanna Benjamin (W) recent-

ly had her writing published in Flash Boulevard and the Waterwheel Review. Her piece “Writing Someone Else’s Story” was featured in the collection Women and Fairness: Navigating an Unfair World with Waxmann publishing. Lastly, she is currently co-editing a book of criticism titled Of Ruin and Regeneration: Narratives of Hope and Despair.

Liz Chang’s (W) chapbook Museum of Things (Finishing Line Press, 2023) was named to the Ms. magazine list “Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of the Last Year.”

Jewel Beth Davis (W) published the flash fiction story “Antichrista, She’s the One” in Planisphere Q. Jewel Beth Davis also finished three new personal essays and is working on three new personal essays: “The Cost of AC,” “My Small Skinny Self,” and “A Little Respect.”

*Dianne White (WCYA) published the picture book The Sharing Book with Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House in 2023.

35

Debbie Gonzales (WCYA) is proud to announce the opening of Pin Lit: Pinterest for book sellers & creators. Pin Lit is a Pinterest marketing agency that helps book creators and book sellers enhance marketability and visibility, develop academic credibility, and promote and sell books, products, and services on Pinterest. Learn more at debbiegonzales.com.

*

*Zack Kopp (W) is working on

the final edits of his CNF latest book, Uneasy World, a deadly comedy about going into unfamiliar territories.

*Fiona Phillips (VA) presented in

*

2022 the exhibition “The Faces Project: Defacing Stigma.” The exhibit consisted of 23 of the 50 portraits from her “Faces Project.”

The exhibition sought to illustrate through the paintings, photographs, and video that mental illness crosses all boundaries of age, gender, and ethnicity.

36

IN RESIDENCE 2023

Nancy Bryan (W) created a new online gallery/journal space, Late Bloomers, for writers and artists 65 years and older. Go to her website, nancysbryan.com, and click the Late Bloomers tab. She would love to receive your art and writing submissions!

* Hunter Sunrise (W) published And Then The Flash—an immersive journey through written and visual art forms, featuring collaborative work created by writer A Hunter Sunrise and photographer Marico Fayre—in late 2022 with Poetica Press.

In 2023, Don Decker (VA) was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Alaska Anchorage. *Beverly Parayno (W) published

Erik Talkin (WCYA) released in

2023 the books Jesse and the Snack Food Genie and Frankie and the Food Phantom with Free Spirit Publishing. These books act as sequels to his previous publication Lulu and the Hunger Monster.

Together, the three books comprise the Food Justice Books for Kids series.

the book Wildflowers with PAWA (Philippine American Artists and Writers) in 2023.

*

In the fall of 2022, *Lauren Tivey’s

(W) full-length poetry collection,

Traveler in the Sunset Clouds, which chronicles her time living in China, released with Main Street Rag Publishing Company.

2009

Nicholas Benson (W) and co-translator Elena Coda won the 2022 John Florio Prize for their translation of My Karst and My City (Il mio Carso, 1912) by Scipio Slataper (published in 2020 by the Lorenzo Da Ponte Library of the University of Toronto Press). The prize is generously sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Society of Authors.

*

*

*Madelyn Roehrig (VA) is pres-

ently working on the book Andy Can You Hear Us: Spring, Volume II of the Andy Can You Hear Us? series exploring the vibrant afterlife of Andy Warhol.

Angela Small (W) is set to pub-

lish the YA novel If I Promise You Wings in 2024 with Algonquin Young Readers. *Shawn Stout (WCYA) pub-

lished the middle grade novel The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle with Peachtree in 2022. Currently, she is working on another middle grade novel, Anatomy of Lost Things, which will be released in the summer of 2024.

*

* 2010

*Anne Bustard (WCYA) published Far Out! with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in April of 2023. Set against the background of Come On Down Day, where any and all space aliens are welcome to visit, Far Out! is a middle grade historical, sci-fi inspired mystery with hijinks and heart.

In the past year, *Renee Couture

(VA) had work in the Carnation

Contemporary all-member show “It’s Complicated” and the Carnation Contemporary two-person exhibition “Invisible Labor”; work in the group exhibition “Bewildered” and the group exhibition “Between Spaces”; work in the 2023 Artworks Northwest Biennial, a juried and curated invitational for artists who reside in the Pacific Northwest region; work in a pop-up exhibition at Barnstorm at Punch Projects in Ellensburg, Washington; work in “RURAL” at Umpqua Valley Arts in Roseburg, Oregon; and work at the Pendleton Center for the Arts in Roundhouse Foundation: Featured Artists from the PMRCAA Residency Program in Pendleton, Oregon.

R.W. Hartshorn (W) saw the publication and recognition of multiple stories in 2022: “Goats” was published in the Indiana Review (and was finalist for their fiction prize); “Olga is Dead” was recipient of the KAIROS Editor’s Prize in Fiction; and “Artemis at the CineMotel” was published in Eclectica Magazine.

Suzanne Smith (W) published Small Off Things: Meditations from an Anxious Mind with Littoral Books in early 2023. Small Off Things: Meditations from an Anxious Mind explores family life and goodness, loss and grief, and anxiety. Aside from launching her book, Smith is teaching workshops at a nonprofit writing center, editing the journal Waterwheel Review, and developing a collection of poems.

Cooking on Low (working title), Cheryl Wilder’s (W) second poetry collection, is being supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Durham Arts Council, local grants administrator. Wilder recently received an Honorable Mention through the The Brockman-Campbell Book Award and was a Second

Finalist with the Poetry Society of Virginia North American Book Award. Wilder became a poetry instructor at Westport Writers’ Workshop, and through her work as the 2022–24 President of the Burlington Writers Club in Alamance County, North Carolina, received funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), increasing their ability to serve local writers. Finally, in 2023, she was interviewed on the Wild Words podcast.

2011

*Anna Jordan (WCYA) saw the publication of her book Shira & Esther’s Double Dream Debut with Chronicle Books in October of 2023.

Ross McMeekin’s (W) collection

*

Michelle Webster-Hein (W ’13).

In April of 2023, *Terry Pierce (WCYA) saw the publication of her board book, Hello, Meadow!, with the Yosemite Conservancy. Pierce is currently working on additional titles for Yosemite Conservancy’s board book series for the youngest of conservationists.

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graph on the poetic dimensions of the earliest Greek philosophers.

He is finalizing a book project that interprets the ancient Greek poem of Parmenides (6th–5th century BCE), and he is resuming work on a book articulating the ways various forms of migration and forced displacement shaped early Greek philosophy.

*

*Lindsey Stoddard (WCYA)

published her fifth middle grade novel, The Real Deal, in late 2022 with HarperCollins.

* 2012

Mildred Kennedy-Stirling (VA)

was a part of the exhibition “Artists of the Maine Highlands Today and Tomorrow,” which was a celebration of contemporary artists living and working in the Highlands of Maine.

of short stories, flash fictions, and micro fictions, Below the Falls, will be published in March of 2024 by Thirty West Publishing House. Many of the individual pieces have been published in literary journals and magazines, including Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Redivider, and X-R-A-Y. McMeekin is currently working on a novel.

Jodi Paloni’s (W) essay “Shadow in the Wrack” was published in Beautiful Things, a weekly feature that can be read online at River Teeth. Beautiful Things was founded in 2014 by fellow alumnx

C L A S S N E WS

In April of 2023, *Joe Milan (W) saw the publication of his book The All-American with W.W. Norton.

*

David Spitzer (W) worked with

two other poets to write the book Fates (Etruscan Press, 2023).

Spitzer was the writer behind the section/book of poetry “overflow of an unknown self.” He recently completed a scholarly anthology, Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy in Honor of Professor Anthony Preus (Routledge, 2023), and a mono-

In 2023, Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s (WCYA) YA historical novel Torch, published by Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner in the fall of 2022, won the LA Times Book Prize in YA Literature. The novel was featured at the LA Times Festival of Books in April 2023. In 2022, she co-authored with Tanisia Tee Moore a biography on contemporary women film and TV directors titled Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors.

The focus is on women who challenge the limits of what’s seen as “women’s” subjects, create greater diversity within the industry and in society, and support each other.

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IN RESIDENCE 2023

In 2023, *Cynthia Newberry Martin (W) published the books Love Like This with Vine Leaves Press and The Art of Her Life with Fomite Press. To celebrate the release of these books, as well the 2022 paperback release of her book Tidal Flats (Bonhomie Press, 2019), she is on a mission to visit an indie bookstore in every state, aka, “50 bookstores, 50 writers, 50 books.”

Lee Reilly (W) is a founder of

the new Shannaghe Residency in Belfast, Maine. To celebrate the launch of the new residency, Jodi Paloni (W ’11) and two Maine poets will read. The first nonfiction resident will be chosen

by S.I. Wisenberg.

Sarah Seltzer’s (W) debut novel, The Singer Sisters, was sold to Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. She worked on the manuscript at three successive VCFA novel retreats (pre- and post- COVID shutdown period.)

Nora Shalaway Carpenter (WCYA) co-edited with Rocky

Callen (WCYA ’19) Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes. The collection of 16 stories came out with Candlewick Press in April of 2023.

Shalaway Carpenter’s YA novel, Fault Lines, came out in September of 2023 with Hachette. *Shari Swanson (WCYA) in 2023

saw the publication of her book Gertie, The Darling Duck of WWII with Sleeping Bear Press. This inspiring story details how one duck’s struggle to keep her eggs safe, and the city who rallied to their defense, brought hope to a war-weary world during WWII.

*

*Heather Demetrios’s (WCYA)

Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall (Atheneum, 2021) was recognized as a 2022 Septima Clark Women in Literature honoree by the National Council for Social Studies. Additionally, Demetrios led a retreat at Highlights Foundation in November of 2022 focusing on how to write about violence against women and girls in kidlit. Fellow alumnx Miranda Jane Houng (WCYA ’14) asked for Demetrios’s help organizing the retreat in honor of Houng’s daughter, Rebecca Dykes.

* Kali White VanBaale (W)

received the Indian Hills Community College Outstanding Alumnus Award for 2022. She is a 1995 graduate of IHCC, where she earned an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts. Additionally in 2022, she was given the Lindenwood Adjunct Professor of the Year Award for her teaching efforts in the Lindenwood University MFA in Writing Program.

2013 Jen Lynn Bailey (WCYA) was

awarded the 2023 Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award in the picture book category by the Ontario Arts Foundation & Ontario Arts Council for her picture book This is the Boat that Ben Built (Pajama Press, 2022).

Laura Warrell’s (W) novel Sweet,

Soft, Plenty Rhythm was published by Pantheon Books in late 2022. Warrell is currently working on her next novel and shorter pieces.

*

2014

*Jenn Bishop (WCYA) published the novel Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up with Chronicle Kids in October of 2023.

*

Linda Camacho (WCYA) hosted the writing workshop “Finding the Heartbeat of Your Story” in Tuscany, Italy, in September of 2023. The workshop was open to writers of all levels across both adult and children’s fiction, and included elements such as daily excursions, sharing work in a supportive environment, and “Ask Me Anything” literary agent sessions.

Dave Celone (W) announced in February 2023 that he accepted the position of Vice President of Alumni Relations and Development at the Vermont Law & Graduate School. Celone earned his JD from VLGS in 1992.

Katie Crawford (W) will publish in 2025 the book The Miniaturist’s Assistant with Regal House Publishing.

In 2022, Gretchen Frances Ben-

nett (VA) completed a Fulbright

Research Grant for retracing a family trip in Slovakia—all in support of a future creative nonfiction book.

Gail Hanlon (W) published the debut full-length poetry collection Silent Letter with Cornerstone Press in May of 2023.

Miranda Jane Houng (WCYA)

founded and helped to host a retreat at Highlights Foundation in November of 2022 focusing on how to write about violence against women and girls in kidlit.

She was joined by fellow WCYA alumnx Heather Demetrios

*

C L A S S N E WS

(WCYA ’14) and other faculty. This retreat was in honor of Houng’s daughter, Rebecca Dykes. You can learn more about the retreat at rebeccadykeswriters.com. In 2022, Miranda Jane Houng published the picture book Asian Elephant Art with SingTao Publishing Ltd. Ann Huang’s (W) film IN THE

DESERT OF ETERNITY received a Short Film Official Selection and screening at the 2022 Los Angeles International Film Festival. Huang’s latest film, DIAMOND DUST, screened at Regal Cinemas in Los Angeles in 2023. Huang and her team are currently pre-producing their next film project, WHITE SAILS.

* In 2022, *Jan Lower (WCYA) published the picture book A Song for the Cosmos: Blind Willie Johnson and Voyager’s Golden Record with The Creative Company/Creative Editions. In 2023, Lower published the picture book The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America with Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers.

Callie C. Miller (WCYA) released in June of 2023 the middle grade novel The Hunt for the Hollower with Aladdin/S&S.

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Kathleen Miller (WCYA) published her book The Tale of the Hidden Village in early 2023.

Sophfronia Scott’s (W) latest

novel, Wild, Beautiful, and Free, was released with Lake Union Publishing in early 2023. Scott is currently working on her fourth novel and a second essay collection.

In 2023, Cynthia Surrisi (WCYA) published the nonfiction book for young readers The Bones of Birka: Unraveling the Mystery of a Female Viking Warrior with Chicago Review Press and the middle grade novel The Unofficial Lola Bay Fan Club with Putnam.

Paul Zakrzewski (W) launched a new podcast, The Book I Had to Write, where leading authors talk about the stories behind how they wrote some of today’s most influential nonfiction. Additionally, Zakrzewski recently expanded his book coaching services, which are available at pzak.info/coaching.

2015

Saguaro Poetry Prize-winning chapbook Not Yet a Jedi by *Partridge Boswell (W) launched in early 2023 with Kallisto Gaia Press.

*

*

Tziporah Cohen (WCYA) pub-

lished in 2022 her STEAM picture book biography On the Corner of Chocolate Avenue: How Milton Hershey Brought Milk Chocolate to America with Clarion/HarperCollins. Currently, she has two more picture books coming out in March 2023, is revising a middle grade novel, and is working on another picture book biography.

In 2022, *Marjorie Halloran’s (MC) composition was performed in person at the Augustana Lutheran Church in conjunction with the concert Rheinberger: Mass in E-flat. Her composition was commissioned as a response to Josef Rheinberger’s work.

Additionally in 2022, Halloran was a part of The Electric Choir, a genre-bending concert where work by Halloran was premiered.

Halloran also saw the world premiere of her arrangement “Molly Malone”/“Drowsy Maggie” at the concert Raise A Glass: Traditional Drinking Songs Reimagined.

Lastly, Halloran’s piece “Our First April” was featured in the With Strings Attached concert. *Kali Lightfoot’s (W) debut poetry collection, Pelted by Flowers, was chosen as a “Must Read” by the Massachusetts Book Awards.

It was also awarded “Best Dressed for March, 2022” by Sundress Publications. Lightfoot is currently working on a second full-length poetry collection.

In early 2023, Dana Rau (WCYA) published What Is the Story of Nancy Drew? with Penguin Workshop.

Martha Snell (W) published “A

Photograph From That Summer on Point Reyes” with Streetlight Magazine.

Abigail Hing Wen’s (WCYA) YA romance, Loveboat, Taipei, was acquired by Paramount+ and made into a film, which was directed by Arvin Chen and starred Ashley Liao, Ross Butler, and Nico Hiraga. The film premiered exclusively on Paramount+ in 2023. Her third novel in the series, Loveboat Forever, released in November of 2023.

2016

Thomas Avery (MC) scored his

first feature film, A SAVANNAH HAUNTING, which was released in theaters and streaming just before Halloween 2022.

Beth Bacon (WCYA) published

The Panda Cub Swap with Histria Books in late 2022. In 2023, Bacon published two picture books: Alphabuddies: G Is First (Harp-

*

*

*

Jennifer Lang (W) published the

erCollins) and The Family Santa Almost Forgot (The Little Fig).

Each is the product of a VCFA collaboration. Alphabuddies: G Is First is co-authored with VCFA alumnx Karen Kane (WCYA ’16).

The Family Santa Almost Forgot is edited by VCFA alumnx Jennifer Bailey (WCYA ’17).

In 2022, Robert Hart (MC) released the album String Quartets Vol 1, a collection of multi-genre works for string quartet playing and listening. String Quartets Vol 2 was released soon after. Hart’s album Changing Times is available via streaming.

In late 2022, *Jacqui Lipton

(WCYA) published Our Data,

Ourselves: A Personal Guide to Digital Privacy with University of California Press. Our Data, Ourselves covers a broad range of everyday privacy concerns with accessible overviews and real-world examples.

In 2023, *Laurie Wallmark

(WCYA) published three books:

The Queen of Chess: How Judit Polgar Changed the Game (Little Bee), Rivka’s Presents (Random House Studio), and Her Eyes on the Stars: Maria Mitchell, Astronomer (Creston Books).

Composer, bassist, bandleader, and stylistic chameleon *Max Johnson (MC) released a collection of his recent through-composed chamber music, When the Streets Were Quiet.

Anu Kumar (W) published the

blended poetry/prose microchap Crack with Ghost City Press in 2022. Lang, a yoga instructor as well as a writer, additionally hosted in 2023 a daylong urban retreat that explored breath work, movement, meditation, and writing exercises. Lang is also promoting her debut book, The Places We Left Behind (Vine Leaves Press, 2023).

book Her Name Was Freedom: 35 Fearless Women Who Fought for India’s Freedom with Hachette India in 2022. Other publications include three essays “My Editor & the City” (The Missouri Review, 2023), “Letters to a Bookseller” (Catamaran Literary Reader, 2022), and “The Sound of Planes” (Open: Journal of Arts and Letters, 2023), and the short story “Going Home in the Pandemic” (The Dalhousie Review, 2022).

*Jaime Díaz’s (MC) piece “Stat-

ues of Bone Flowers” premiered at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s PLUG 2023 Festival.

They are in their second year of their PhD, and they continue to focus on how race, gender, and disability inform the practices of Latina/o/x composers.

Catie Hannigan (W) self-published the collection The Mutable Colors & Names of Things in May of 2023. The book includes a handwritten foil-embossed print, a dissolvable print, and calendula seeds. Hannigan is currently expanding their practice as an artist and educator to include art therapy. They are also working with a small team to provide free consultation and support for BIPOC/PGM and LGBTQIA+ restaurant workers and chefs.

2017

In early 2023, Cate Berry (WCYA) saw the publication of her picture book Thank You, Teacher! with Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins. She has two more books releasing over the next two years: Scorch, Hedgehog of Doom (Page Street Books) and Shoshana Rosa’s Family Day co-written with Stephanie Pairman (Beaming Books).

*

*

*Dannell MacIlwraith (GD)

received a Bronze Award for Experimental Poster Design in the UDA Annual Int’l Design Competition for the piece “Panic Pile.” MacIlwraith additionally was a part of the Faces of Collage book published by The College Lab in 2023.

Jennifer McGaha (W) saw the release of Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out with Trinity University Press in early 2023.

Part writing memoir, part nature memoir, and part meditation on a life well lived, Bushwhacking draws on McGaha’s experiences running, hiking, biking, and getting lost across the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina to offer readers encouragement and practical suggestions to accompany them on their writing and life journeys.

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C L A S S N E WS

*

Steven Sanford (MC) was

commissioned by the Arts Chorale of Winchester (Virginia) for a transcription of his 2014 brass quintet, “Fantasia on Personent Hodie (Gala Fanfare).” This commission premiered in December of 2022. He is codirecting the choir at St. Bridget of Ireland Catholic Church in Berryville, Virginia; working on a cycle of 12 Psalms for the Roman Catholic liturgy of Advent, and has completed and premiered eight psalms (over two Advents) so far at St. Bridget’s, with the remaining four Advent psalms to premiere in December 2023; edited and mastered a set of three CDs of the St. Bridget Choir’s 2021–2022 choir season and is editing the 2022–2023 anthems now; and is digitizing a personal archive of over 2,000 collected, recorded, or inherited video and audio media.

In 2023, Diane Telgen (WCYA) published her fifth book for Arcadia Children’s Books “Spooky America” series: The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

* *

41

*C Marquez (VA) spent three

*Bruce Wasserman (W) published the poetry book The Broken Night with Finishing Line Press in 2022.

Wasserman is currently working on another full-length poetry manuscript and querying three novels.

Wasserman is a book critic for the New York Journal of Books and keeps up with a regular discipline of creating and submitting new poems.

2018 Megan Baxter (W) saw the

publication of her essay collection Twenty Square Feet of Skin with Ohio State Press/Mad Creek Books in mid 2023. Baxter is currently teaching an online course in memoir and fabulist fiction, offering virtual lessons and manuscript feedback, and running her own small organic farm.

In March of 2023, *Veeda Bybee

(WCYA) published with Harp-

erCollins the biography Shining A Light: Celebrating 40 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Changed the World.

Jennifer Gibbons (WP) and fellow alumnx Gina Tron (WP ’18) were interviewed for a new true crime podcast, Beyond Criminal Headlines, on how Gibbons helped solve the murder of Suzanne Bombardier. Gibbons is actively

looking for an agent for her narrative nonfiction/true crime book about how she helped solve the murder of Suzanne Bombardier.

weeks off the grid in a remote, rustic solo artist residency. They made a 3-D sculpture piece titled “62.” Marquez, in recent years, was named one of the 12 artists to know now in New Mexico

by Southwest Contemporary magazine. The award included a feature spread in the magazine and a group exhibition of the 12 artists. Lastly, they were awarded a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant for sculpture.

Amy Hesketh’s (F) sixth feature

film, RUCKER, was released in 2022 (distributed through Giant).

Hesketh is currently working on a book and another film.

PYGMALION, Hesketh’s fifth feature, was released recently as well, premiering first in Bolivian theaters. Lastly, Hesketh received tenure at Olympic College.

Allison Hong Merrill (WCYA)

co-authored The Paper Daughters of Chinatown Young Reader’s Edition (Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2023), which is adapted from the bestselling novel with the same title. Currently, she is working on a contemporary novel and the prequel to her memoir, Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops.

Katie Krcmarik (GD) had an essay, “Women of the Federal Art Project Poster Division,” published in Briar Levitt’s book, Baseline Shift (Princeton Architectural Press).

Krcmarik started a tenure track position in the fall of 2022 at Illinois State University. She teaches graphic design with the Wonsook Kim School of Art.

* *Rosemary Rae (GD) was selected to display her art at the San Diego International Airport.

The temporary exhibit, entitled “A Necessary Departure,” was on view from December 2022–August 2023. Her collection of 11 books, “When Doodles Dare to Dream,” was showcased in three illuminated cases in Terminal 2.

Hand drawn on recycled board books with sharpies and colored with pencil, acrylic, crayon, and marker, the books were a creative exercise to manage anxiety during the pandemic and contributed to her growth as a visual artist.

* Gerald Walsh (VA) became the

new Arts Agency Manager for LA Arts in 2022.

Rhonda Zimlich (W) was awarded

a Professional Development Opportunity Grant by the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). The award funded her attendance at a writers’ retreat at Zigbone Farm Retreat Center, where she worked to complete her memoir. The manuscript, her second book, is about chronic illness, intergenerational trauma, and long-distance running.

2019

Hafid Abdelmoula’s (F) thesis

film BROKEN GAIETE, now titled VILLAGE, was released publicly in July of 2022. Abdelmoula is working on a second feature film, just finished shooting a short film, ARTO, and is co-hosting the podcast HumaniTEA with Hafid & Mark.

Lara Bessette (WCYA) launched

her author website, larabessette. com, in August 2022; proofread the novel You Were Always There

by Stephen Russell Payne (Cedar Ledge Publishing, 2022); and copy edited the memoir Life at Camp: Combating the Sexism We Tolerate, and Why the Military Should Take the Lead by Doris J. Sumner (Empowering Gender Opportunities, forthcoming/early fall 2023).

Bethany Breitland (W) was awarded the 2022 Sundog Poetry Book Award for her debut collection of poems, Fire Index. The book was published by Green Writers Press in April of 2023. Breitland is currently working on a new collection of persona poems.

Rocky Callen (WCYA) co-edited

with alumnx Nora Shalaway Carpenter (WCYA ’12) Ab(solutely) Normal (Candlewick, 2023), a powerful and uplifting collection of fiction that subverts mental health stereotypes.

*

*Jeff Bemiss’s (F) documen-

tary MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY (co-directed with Lisa Molomont) received a 2022 Peabody Award. VCFA interviewed Bemiss about this film for the alumnx magazine. You can read this interview in the 2021 edition of in residence.

*Maureen Charles (WCYA) and

Ashley Walker (WCYA ’18) pub-

lished their YA nonfiction book Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry in late 2022 with Chicago Review Press. In Music Mavens, extraordinary women reveal how they turned their passion into platforms and how they use their positions to uplift others.

*Paul Gilliland’s (MC) second

collection of poetic works, The Journey of the Fool, was published in 2022 with Southern Arizona Press. Additionally in 2022, he started his own publishing company, the aforementioned Southern Arizona Press, to promote the works of self-published and lesser-known authors and poets to the rest of the world.

Learn more about their projects at Southernarizonapress.com.

In 2022, Vanessa Littrell (MC) released her album Chasing Orbits, an electro pop spacethemed album that travels into and beyond the grief experience.

Littrell collaborated on the album with alumnx Mario Inchausti (MC ’18)—her coconspirator, cocreator, arranger, and producer—and worked with faculty member Ravi Krishnaswami in the final mastering process. In the spring of 2023, the Chasing Orbits Experience partnered with community spaces so that the music could be enjoyed as a “walk thru” event.

*

Jimmy Henderson (GD) was hired as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design (tenure track) at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Henderson’s current research interests include craft beer design and the communities involved in them, as well as graphic design portfolio pedagogy. Henderson is currently working on a book on the visual culture of craft beer. In 2023, Henderson was awarded a 2023 Design Writing Fellowship with Writing Space. *Michael Leali (WCYA) published the middle grade novel Matteo with HarperChildren’s. His debut middle grade novel, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy (HarperChildren’s, 2022), won the Golden Kite Award in Middle Grade Fiction. It is also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards in Middle Grade Fiction. He is currently revising his third middle grade novel, The Truth About Triangles (HarperChildren’s, 2024).

* “The Specious Present,” Sarah LeMieux’s (MC) latest work in electroacoustic music, was accepted into the 13th edition of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF). LeMieux’s piece features fellow VCFA alumnx Barrett Tuttobene (MC ’20) on piano. Following its premiere at NYCEMF, the piece will be released as part of a new album of electroacoustic music. This year

*

C L A S S N E WS

2020

*Devin Barone (MC) recently released the album Deliberate Rhythm, which is now available on all streaming platforms.

LeMieux also collaborated with RISD alumnx Chelsea Danburg to create soundscapes for her book Painted by Rain, a therapeutic exploration of mental health through poetry and photography.

Paul Lorenz (MC) hosted “Marked Territories,” a new solo exhibition of his paintings in mid 2023. Lorenz is currently working on numerous music compositions based on the idea of convergence, where the random meets the geometric.

In late 2022, Shruthi Manjula Balakrishna (GD) was a speaker at the Brand New Conference 2022—a two-day corporate and brand identity event by UnderConsideration with some of today’s most active and influential practitioners worldwide.

Lauren McCall (MC) was one of

five composers to be featured in the 2022 album AMPLIFY (in collaboration with All Classical Portland and Nova Records).

McCall’s work “A Spark and a Glimmer” was released as a prerelease single in October of 2022.

*DoanPhuong Nguyen (WCYA)

published Mèo and Bé with Tu Books/Lee and Low in May 2023. Her second novel, which will be a novel-in-verse, will be coming out in 2024.

* Matt Pembleton (ADE) gave the

virtual talk “What’s Your Story?

Using Literacy and Art for Authentic Discovery” with the National Art Education Association in late 2022.

Debra Rook (WCYA) is a full-

time professor and writing center director at Elizabeth City State University, an HBCU in Northeastern North Carolina. She also works remotely for a K–12 edtech company as a Technical and Content Writer. Currently, she is collaborating with fellow professors to write historically representative educational materials for middle school through college students.

Ashley Wilda (WCYA) published her debut book, The Night Fox, with Rocky Pond Books/ Penguin Random House in October of 2023. In addition to her debut, Wilda is diving into novels-in-verse, particularly about mental health and chronic illness, and is also exploring the picture book format.

Marq Evans’s (F) new documentary film, CLAYDREAM, had its theatrical premiere at The Quad in New York City in August 2022. The film was released theatrically in 25 markets, and it eventually became available digitally in October of 2022.

Leslie Frost (MC) saw the world premiere of her choral work “I engraft you new” at the Sea Change concert in the spring of 2023. For the past year, Frost has been a performing member of the acclaimed C4Ensemble. They are the recipients of the Adventurous Programming award from ASCAP, and they organize summer workshops to promote the creation and performance of new choral works. *Julian Gerstin’s (MC) group

Bombajazzeando performed in the spring and summer of 2023 at Bennington Performing Arts Center, Vermont Jazz Center, Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival, Bregamos Community Theater, and Music by the River.

Bombajazzeando fuses traditional Afro-Puerto Rican bomba drumming, songs, and dancing

*

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with jazz arrangements. Gerstin has also recently composed the music for “Flushing,” a puppet/ live action play exploring aging and artistic legacy by Eric Bass and Linda Parris-Bailey.

In early 2023, Chachi Hauser

(W) saw the publication of her

debut collection, It’s fun to be a person I don’t know (University of Nebraska Press).

* *Karen Krossing’s (WCYA) One

Tiny Bubble: The Story of Our Last Universal Common Ancestor was selected as a Best Informational Book for Younger Readers in 2022 by the Chicago Public Library. Krossing’s middle grade fantasy novel, Monster vs. Boy, was published by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2023. Lastly, she has picture books forthcoming with Groundwood Books in 2025 and Owlkids Books in 2026.

44 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3

Miles Liss’s (W) poetry collection

Some Inconvenient Poems was published by Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers Press in mid 2023. Liss would like to thank his advisors David Wojahn, Richard Jackson, Leslie Ullman, and Betsy Sholl for contributing to the shaping of these poems.

Jesaka Long (WCYA) published

hosted in 2023 a summer writing camp for students in Chester, New Jersey, and taught first-year writing in the fall at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Sussex County Community College.

Writers Read, a reading series Presto started in 2020 at her local indie bookstore, is back in person and meeting monthly.

2021

In late 2022, Pernille AEgidius Dake (W) published the short story “Lost” in the Arlington Literary Journal and two poems, “The Lord’s Prayer Raped” and “Abort Art,” in Beyond Words magazine.

the short story “This Grateful Face” in the Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly (Issue 30 | Fall + Winter 2022). “This Grateful Face” centers a queer girl navigating an important poetry performance while facing short-term houselessness. Long hosted the virtual class “(Re)Claiming Our Queer and Trans Bodies Through Writing” in June of 2023.

Christina Bell (W) saw the publication of her story, “Mothers of Daughters and Their Mothers Too,” in The Colorado Review in late 2022.

Catherine Masud (F) complet-

Renee Bouchard (VA) in 2022

ed her first year as an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut in 2022. Masud is a joint appointee of the Human Rights Institute and the School of Fine Arts (Film).

Linda Presto (W) published her

book, Where’s My Wine Glass?!

Getting Your Kid to College Without Losing Your Mind, with Woodhall Press in late 2022. Last year, a chapter from the book also received an Honorable Mention from the Erma Bombeck/Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Contest. At VCFA, Presto focused on personal essay and humor writing, and worked on this book with each of her advisors during her time at VCFA. In addition to speaking at local libraries and bookstores, she

was a part of “Artspace New Haven Presents: The Inaugural Short Shift Micro-Residency and The Unlearning Collective Pop-Up Exhibition.”

Meghan Browne’s (WCYA) Indelible Ann was chosen by the Texas Center to be featured at the 2022 National Book Festival to represent the state of Texas in the list of “Great Reads from Great Places.”

Anna Crow (VA) is happy to be back teaching at Chief Dull Knife College (post-COVID quarantine for 15 months). Five of her students entered art at the Rosebud County Fair. One student won second place, four won first place, and two also won best of show.

Additionally, a Ukrainian woman saw the body of work Crow did on COVID and has asked Crow to do something about the invasion of Ukraine.

Sarah S. Davis (WCYA) self-published Finding My Voice, a feelgood cat story for adults. The book is written from the perspective of a cat, Blink, whose carefully contained world is thrown into chaos when her human’s best friend moves in and brings his cat, Boom.

In 2023, Amanda Elend (WCYA) launched Felt Tip Media, a business offering social media services for creatives. You can learn more and sign up for their monthly newsletter at felttipmedia.com.

Additionally, Elend had a personal essay published on Insider.com this year, and worked on a personal essay every month of the year.

*

Susan Foster (W) was presented

the 2023 Poet of the Year Award by the Utah State Poetry Society.

As part of the award, Foster’s poetry book, The Falling Water Calls It Grief, is designated as “The Book of the Year” and will be published later in 2023. Foster is looking forward to another poetry book.

Dr. Andre’ E. Godsey (MC) is a

composer on the multi-artist CD entitled, A Grand Journey, Volume 2 on the Parma Recording Label.

The album released in August of 2023. Dr. Andre’ E. Godsey’s piece on the album is entitled “String Trio Number One: Reflections Through the Windows Raindrops.”

A live concert for the album was held in Carnegie Hall, New York, on November 10, 2023. The performing ensemble was the critically acclaimed Trio Casals.

*Lindsey Leavitt (WCYA)

published her latest middle grade novel, North of Supernova, with Macmillan in June of 2023.

Anne Myles (W) published What Woman That Was: Poems for Mary Dyer with Final Thursday Press in August of 2022.

C L A S S N E WS

*

45

Josephine Chase (VA) accept-

ed admission to the art history doctoral program at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, which began in September 2023.

As a PhD student at the Institute, Chase looks forward to continuing her research into Black visual culture of the African Diaspora while working with preeminent scholars in the field. This opportunity would not have been possible without the support of her VCFA cohort and the tremendous Visual Art faculty.

2022

Greg Brown (MC) released “Twin

Flame” with J.W. Pepper. As a student, Brown wrote “Twin Flame” for theorbo, baroque violin, and viola da gamba but arranged it for guitar, violin, and cello for modern instrumentalists for more performance opportunities. Brown has also been busy trying to publish chamber music and scores. Brown is also working on the follow-up to his Soman Records release “GCB.” Lastly, his metal band, Age of Fire, has been in deep rehearsals and is getting ready for live shows.

In 2023, *Leah Byck (VA) performed drag in New York City, had an artist residency in Iceland for a month in July, and was in two new bands playing music and the drums. They also had an opening in a local Brooklyn bookstore in June of 2023 to play music, show new and old artwork, and perform drag.

In 2022, Christie Cognevich

(WCYA) published the book

Dealing with Stress: Insights and Tips for Teenagers with Rowman & Littlefield. In addition to her recent book, Cognevich has begun researching and writing her third YA nonfiction book on introversion, which is inspired by the research she did for her critical thesis and graduate lecture on highly sensitive protagonists.

Jehanne Dubrow (W) published Taste: A Book of Small Bites with Columbia University Press in 2022. Dubrow’s third collection of lyric essays, Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity, is forthcoming from University of New Mexico Press in 2024.

Safa Elnaili (IMFA) published

“Mowgli and Shere Khan” in ArabLit Quarterly. The piece is an English translation of a short story written by Libyan female writer and activist Azza Maghur.

The story reflects the civil war in Libya post the Arab Spring.

Elnaili also published with Asymptote “The Leaf,” an English translation of a short story written by Libyan female writer and activist Azza Maghur.

Nancy J. Fagan (W) had her story

“The Brick” included in the Coolest American Stories 2023 anthology.

*Lyn Fairchild Hawks (WCYA)

released her book @nervesofsteel in April of 2023. Last year, Fairchild Hawks published a book with NCTE, Teaching Macbeth: A Differentiated Approach, in which she advocates pairing the Bard with YA texts, similar to her VCFA critical thesis called, “Is YA Literary? The Search for an Abundant Canon.” She’s also working on an R&R for a traditional house editor for a YA novel she wrote while at VCFA. Daniel Gil’s (MC) first string quartet, Peacemaking In Three Movements, was published by Grammy Award-winning Navona Records in their Quadrants series in early 2023. Peacemaking In Three Movements was Gil’s second semester project at VCFA. It was performed by Invoke and recorded in College Chapel Hall as part of Gil’s third residency.

In 2023, *Julie Lee (WCYA) saw the publication of her book In the Tunnel (Holiday House), a companion to the Freeman Award-winning novel Brother’s Keeper.

*

*

Fleming Meeks’s (W) 8,000-

word VCFA critical thesis was published in full in the American Poetry Review in late 2022.

Three of Diana Norma

Szokolyai’s (W) poetry trans-

lations appeared in The Poetry Miscellany in the summer of 2022. The poems were originally written in French by Alexandre Romanès, a French Romani poet never before translated into English. The poems were translated with the support of a fellowship she received from the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Center for Arts + Social Justice in 2021.

Szokolyai also received honorable mention in Unlimited Literature’s most recent Creative Nonfiction contest for her story “Walnut’s, Dió” about her Hungarian grandmother’s annual ritual of harvesting and gifting walnuts.

Eli Oberman (MC) scored the feminist horror/comedy short REVEAL, which started screening in June of 2023. In addition to this work, Oberman’s orchestral folk band, Low Tide, played two shows in 2023, opening for Sunny War in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.

46 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3

*

*Monique Ortman (GD) was

awarded the TDC69 Certificate of Typographic Excellence: Typography by the Type Directors Club for “Kamama” Weavable Cherokee Syllabary Typeface. This typeface was developed while Ortman completed an MFA at VCFA, and the typeface aims to keep Cherokee language alive through traditional crafts and digitally.

Ortman is currently working with the Cherokee Nation Language Department & Tulsey Type on making Cherokee Syllabary type design accessible for all Cherokee. Ortman has been additionally invited to judge “COLORFUL,” a free-to-enter portfolio competition for young BIPOC creatives that is meant to get more people of color in contention for the influential Young Guns competition. Lastly, Ortman is looking forward to expanding on her woven typographic mats/posters.

John Pachence (MC) was

nominated for a 2023 Music Educator Grammy, presented by the Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Museum.

In June of 2023, Gaea Schell (MC) released with Saphu Records the album In Your Own Sweet Way. In January of 2023, Schell traveled to a Cuban island to play flute with a Cuban group Schell befriended online. They invited Schell to record on their new album.

*Thammika Songkaeo (IMFA)

was awarded a National Geographic Explorer Grant by the National Geographic Society to partially fund the production of CHANGING ROOM, a short dance film that asks the question “What does time spent with physical insecurities have to do with environmental degradation and climate change?” The film was screened in Singapore in June 2023.

OSUKASU. In addition to Bye Bye Miracle, he is currently arranging and composing pieces for solo acoustic guitar to later record on an album, and he is collaborating long-distance with VCFA alumnx Keith Butler Jr. (MC ’22) on a recording project.

Yvonne Ventresca’s (WCYA)

middle grade ghost story “Lonely Boy” was published in the “Haunted” issue of Crow Toes Quarterly magazine in October of 2022.

2023 Alycia Kelly (WCYA) published

two books in 2023: The Antiquity Affair (HarperCollins) and With Regrets (Penguin Random House).

*

Ingrid Laubrock (MC) was

announced as the 2022 Mivos/ Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize Winner.

Duston Spear (W) published the

short story “A Story About the James” in Susurrus Magazine—a short story that first appeared in Spear’s novel Spectator in the House of Objects. In the fall of 2022, Spear taught a new course that combines creative writing with art making at the College Program in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

Oscar Suh-Rodriguez (MC), for his VCFA thesis composition, presented a self-produced album of original compositions, Bye Bye Miracle. He spent his last two school semesters writing, recording, and mixing it under the guidance of Carla Kihlstedt and Ravi Krishnaswami. He just recently officially released the album under his artist name,

Jacquetta Nammar Feldman (WCYA) is delighted to announce

the 2023 publication of her sophomore middle grade novel, The Puttermans Are in the House, from HarperCollins Children’s. The Puttermans Are in the House was written during her VCFA years, and she is currently working on the middle grade manuscript that became her VCFA creative thesis.

C. Rizleris (W) published the poem “barrier islands” in the Fifth Wheel Press Come Sail Away anthology in 2023.

*

Tony Robles’s (W) children’s book,

Lakas and the Manilatown Fish (Lee and Low, 2003), celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023. The San Francisco Public Library commemorated its publication with a virtual celebration in May.

Mishi Saran (W) received a David T.K. Wong Fellowship in Creative Writing in 2023. This fellowship funds a writer working on long-form fiction about East or Southeast Asia to spend an academic year at the University of East Anglia and write full time. *Amy Veatch (VA) was a part of

the exhibition “Affinity Travelers.”

The exhibition featured the studio work of Amy Veatch during the MFA in Visual Art program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In her final semester, Amy collaborated with John Blanco, Ndidi Kowalczyk, and Brian McCarthy to confront white supremacy.

Each of these artists installed a site-specific work for the exhibition. In the summer, she directed a program to repair a mural she painted five years ago.

Carol Willis’s (W) short story entitled “Plainsong” was published in Cowboy Jamboree Magazine in their “THALIA ET ALIA” issue, a Larry McMurtry-inspired, incited, and tinged tribute. This story was influenced by the writings of Denis Johnson, Lucia Berlin, and Kevin Canty, who give voice to the unlucky and downtrodden.

C L A S S N E WS

Current Students

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Jen Breach (WCYA ’24) published Riley Reynold Crushes Costume Day, the first chapter book in an eight-book contemporary series, with Capstone in 2022. Riley Reynolds is the first nonbinary main character for the age group.

Breach is currently working on Riley Reynolds books five through eight, two DC Comics-licensed property chapter books (Batgirl and Supergirl), and numerous nonfiction picture books. *Jessica Cuello’s (W ’24) book,

*

Yours, Creature, came out with JackLeg Press in the spring of 2023. Yours, Creature is composed of epistolary poems in the voice of Mary Shelley. In addition to this publication, she recently won the Nina Riggs Poetry Award from Cave Wall Press and the Eugene Nassar Prize from Utica University.

Cindy Hill (W ’24) had two

books of sonnets published in 2022. The first, Wild Earth from Antrim House, includes sonnets inspired by nature and a sense of place in Vermont. The second, Elegy for the Trees from Kelsay Books, uses a wide array of sonnet, meter, and rhyme forms to honor trees Hill had known and loved and which have been lost due to land development, invasive pests and diseases, and climate change.

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*

*Vicki Johnson’s (WCYA ’24)

*Stacy Nockowitz (WCYA ’24)

picture book, Molly’s Tuxedo, came out with Little Bee Books in June of 2023. This book highlights a gender nonconforming main character and was published in partnership with GLAAD to accelerate LGBTQ inclusivity and acceptance.

published her book, The Prince of Steel Pier, with Kar-Ben Publishing in 2022. She is currently working on another middle grade historical novel set in the Bronx in 1953 and a middle grade novel-in-verse set in Ohio in the early 1980s.

In Memoriam Monica Berlin (W ’02) passed away on November 4, 2022. As the Richard P. & Sophia D. Henke Distinguished

Professor of English at Knox College, she made an enormous and transformative impact on her students.

Karen Braucher Tobin (W ’94) passed away on January 8, 2023. She was an accomplished and award-winning poet with five books of poetry and multiple individual poems published in journals.

Moira Linehan Ounjian (W ’92) passed away on May 10, 2023. A high school English teacher, she was proudest of

the work she created as a poet, including her four collections If No Moon, Incarnate Grace, Toward, and & Company.

Elsa Waller (VA ’94) was a creative vanguard who worked with many forms of fiber, including wall hangings, freestanding sculpture, and traditional loom work. She also innovated with materials such as belts, extruded plastics, and homemade rope, sometimes even spinning her own yarn.

Jonathan White (W ’13) passed away on April 8, 2023. He had a lifelong interest in and love for the sea that

inspired his two award-winning books, Talking on the Water and TIDES.

*

48 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3

“The past is but the beginning of the beginning.”

Vermont College 1834, plaque donated by the class of 1978.

With this issue of in residence, VCFA is pleased to introduce a new series celebrating the history and origins of Vermont College of Fine Arts, its pedagogical model, and long-standing commitment to a progressive education philosophy that was born in 1868 Vermont. “From the Archives” will explore VCFA’s evolution and track its origin story, which at its heart is one of change. In this series, we will highlight some of the treasures procured throughout the college’s transformation by sharing stories from the library’s archive with the intent to honor VCFA’s history.

b y va l e n t y n s m i t h

(wp ’20)

From the Archives

In Gary Memorial Library, there is a family of black deer dwelling on the second floor where the archives reside. You could imagine this place as a reliquary of sorts: acid-free boxes line the hollows of bookshelves, portraits fill the gaps between the stair railings like ivy, and curiosities abound. Film-lined windows and partially drawn shades protect the relics here from UV damage and, in doing so, create a dim and cool environment reminiscent of dusk.

Perhaps the deer are able to thrive here with their night vision, with eyes like mirrors that glow when the light switches on. In the archives, this deer painting is one artifact out of the hundreds discovered while investigating the nearly 200-year-old history of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

In spring 2023, with the impending move to College Hall, VCFA’s main campus building, Circulation Manager Juliet Stephens began sorting through archive materials, including vinyl records, yearbooks, theses, Vermont reference books, and memorabilia, that have been gathered since the 1800s.

Associate Director Tia McCarthy is overseeing Stephens’s archives project, as well as refining the library’s overall collection and facilitating the move to College Hall.

By exploring the archives, we’ll glimpse VCFA’s roots and its innovation from seminary to secondary school and from women’s college to arts school, and beyond. And, reflected within the Montpelier campus setting and low-residency model, we’ll scry the school’s mycelium web of interrelation with other institutions, such as Norwich University and Goddard College. Lastly, we’ll continue adding to the collection’s culture, historic records, and legacies created by the student body, which connects the past, present, and future like a proper Dickensian ghost story.

Thanks to Juliet Stephens, VCFA will have the archives officially organized and recorded for the first time in its history. This means that archive materials will be prepared for future digitization and shared, which means greater accessibility for the VCFA community and the continuation of streamlining the preservation of a nearly two-century-old school history as it continues to grow.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

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Box C8.

Vermont Junior College The silver coffee and tea set from Vermont Junior College (1936–1958) resides in Box C8. This set is also featured in a photo album dated 1949, where women gather for afternoon tea after skiing. Another album from 1954 is filled with student glamour shots, clippings of engagement announcements, as well as black-and-white photos of group ski trips taken at Sabin’s Pasture. It’s a trove of girl power and Mrs. Degree smugness.

Further documents from VJC detail graduation recitals, WWII sugar rations, and a notice stating, “You can’t buy explosives without a license.”

Box A1.

Newbury Seminary There is a little blue Sunday School Almanac dated 1863 from Newbury Seminary. It contains scripture enigmas, lunation cycles, and illustrations with captions like “The Horse Rushing to Battle” and “The May Song.” For instance, the page dated Oct. 31 includes the times of moon phases and sunrises, as well as a corresponding biblical allegory and an image of ‘The True Vine.’ The same box (A1) includes an engraved silver teaspoon, an 1884 printing of ‘The Semi-Centennial Era’ featuring the 50th annual commencement of Vermont Methodist Seminary, and much more.

Box F5.

VCFA The Vermont Historical Society donated archival materials to VCFA in an effort to help preserve its history. Some of these boxes may be found in the storage area space spanning from Vermont College at Union Institute (2001–2008) to our modern-day VCFA (2008–present), where the content of Box F5 is still under wraps, and its description reads: “Vermont College Time Capsule, to be opened 9/14/2034 (VC 150th anniversary).”

As VCFA steps fully into its next chapter, “From the Archives” will continue to bring forward stories of the college’s rich and evolving history. And, with respect to Gary Library’s recent transformation, this series begins with creating a new space for the collection and celebrating the archives.

Welcome to the beginning of the beginning.

50 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3 a renewed tradition:

VCFA Awards Its 2023

Honorary Degree to Naomi Shihab Nye

In the spring of 2023, VCFA announced the conferral of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to renowned and award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye.

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis in 1952 to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her BA in English and world religions from Trinity University. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.

Nye is the author of numerous books of poems, most recently Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (Greenwillow Books, 2020). Her other books of poetry include The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, 2019); Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (Greenwillow Books, 2018); Transfer (BOA Editions, 2011); You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2005), which received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award; and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow Books, 2002), a collection of new and selected poems about the Middle East. She is also the author of several books of poetry and fiction for children, including Habibi (Simon Pulse, 1997), for which she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 1998.

Nye gives voice to her experience as an Arab American through poems about heritage and peace that overflow with a humanitarian spirit. Her honors include awards from the International Poetry Forum and the Texas Institute of Letters, the Charity Randall Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow. In 1988, she received the Academy of American Poets’ Lavan Award, judged by W.S. Merwin.

Honorary degrees at VCFA are awarded to recognize those who have made profound and enduring contributions to the arts, scholarship, and culture, and whose work, character, and contributions to the arts reflect our values as an institution. VCFA is committed to the awarding of honorary degrees on an annual basis as a way to engage the broader arts community and recognize a range of mid-career and lifetime achievement of national or international significance in the arts.

“Nye is an artist in the truest sense of the word—one who understands the critical role creative expression plays in providing connection in a time of increasing loneliness, as well as spaciousness for curiosity and understanding among people across vast differences,” says VCFA President Leslie Ward. “Nye’s poetry, essays, and stories have done both for so many individuals in our world.”

In the summer of 2023, Naomi Shihab Nye joined the VCFA community for its inaugural summer residencies on the campus of Colorado College. Her engagement with the VCFA community included participating in a panel discussion, “Imagined Futures: On Art + Social Change” hosted by VCFA’s Center for Arts + Social Justice, and community conversations with VCFA’s writing programs. She received the honorary degree at VCFA’s college-wide commencement ceremony on July 29, 2023.

NOTE: The above biographical information was sourced and edited from the Academy of American Poets.

PROGRAM LETTERS

Naomi Shihab Nye, from remarks delivered at VCFA’s college-wide commencement ceremony, July 29, 2023.

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“It has been the greatest pleasure to be in your company these last few days and to feel all of the joy that you share with one another. I will never for one moment suffer the delusion that I have earned this honor, but will recall your kindness and generosity in giving it to me today. Thank you all for being so friendly and encouraging in your work.

During this time with you I can tell what kinds of artists you are and what kinds of human beings.

Your work fills my heart.”

5 522 I N R E S I D E N C E 2 0 2 3 Our First Winter in Pennsylvania

As we close the chapter on a successful and memorable summer residency in Colorado, VCFA is now looking toward our first winter residency at the Susquehanna University campus in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. At the start of 2024, all six of our MFA programs will converge on the Susquehanna University campus from January 5th to the 13th. If you’re interested in participating in the residency as a Graduate Assistant, please watch your email for updates from your program!

VCFA News & Updates

Enjoy Your Alumnx Benefits

Introducing the Alumnx Advisory Council

This past year, VCFA supported the creation of our inaugural Alumnx Advisory Council (AAC). As stated by the AAC, the role of the AAC is to provide counsel and support to the Office of Institutional Advancement and Alumnx Affairs (OIAAA) to advance and deepen the impact of VCFA’s commitment to providing lifelong engagement and career support to alumnx—one of the college's four strategic initiatives approved by the Board of Trustees in February 2021. An initial group of six alumnx represented the council at the summer 2023 residency. As the council begins their 2024 planning, the ACC is prioritizing bringing more voices to the council to ensure representation from all six of our MFA programs. Stay tuned with VCFA email communications to receive AAC updates.

Did you know that as a graduate of VCFA you have access to a number of exclusive benefits? Alumnx from across programs can enjoy continued library access and usage of their VCFA email, professional development workshops and opportunities, postgraduate semesters and residencies, a free membership to CreativeStudy (an online learning platform for artists), and more. Scan the corresponding QR code to find our Alumnx Benefits Packet to learn more.

Join the VCFA Alumnx Commons Today

As a part of VCFA’s alumnx community, you are invited to join the Alumnx Commons! Much like the Program Commons, the Alumnx Commons is a platform that our community can use to find postgraduate resources.

To create an account on the Commons, you will need a VCFA email address. If you do not have a VCFA email, contact our amazing IT department at support@vcfa.edu to set up your complimentary email. Once you’re ready, head over to alumnx.vcfa. edu to register or scan the corresponding QR code.

VCFA’s Bookstore Is Now Online

In 2023, VCFA’s official bookstore made its stock fully available online at store.vcfa.edu. At any time, alumnx can head to the site and browse VCFA swag items, such as shirts, totes, mugs, and more.

Most importantly, the bookstore prominently features publications from our faculty, alumnx, and special guests. Visit store.vcfa.edu or scan the corresponding QR code.

A L U M N X A M B A S SA D O R

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“At its heart, the Alumnx Ambassador program is really about alumnx telling their stories."

Annie Sklar, Director of Admissions & Enrollment Management

telling your story:

How to Become an Alumnx

Ambassador Alumnx are the largest VCFA constituency, representing what the college stands for and what artists, writers, filmmakers, designers, and composers can accomplish through our MFA programs. An essential part of our admissions process, the alumnx community provides perspectives that no one else can offer about what it’s really like to be a student at VCFA.

ber. Additionally, Annie Sklar, Director of Admissions & Enrollment Management, estimates that as many as 60% of students who enroll at VCFA will talk to an alumnx at some point in the admissions process. This could be through a one-on-one meeting, at an information session, or during a residency visit.

While every student’s journey through VCFA is unique, there are some common questions that Alumnx Ambassadors are graduates from across our MFA are best answered by someone programs who are deeply com- who has done it themselves. mitted to expanding our VCFA What is it like to work with a mentor? How can I balance grad school community of artists. They with work and caregiving? How work closely with our Admiscan the VCFA network help me afsions Department to help tell the story of VCFA by engaging ter I graduate? What are residencies really like? Admissions Counselwith prospective students, answering questions, and sharing ors can address these questions, their own experiences of artistic but alumnx can provide vital perspectives from their personal and personal transformation. experiences as fellow artists.

Historically, upwards of 80% Associate Director of Admisof students initially learn about sions F.J. Talley, who recruits VCFA through a direct referral from an alumnx or faculty mem- for the MFA in Writing and

the MFA in Film programs, recalls a virtual information session for the Writing program attended by alumnx Chanel Dubofsky (W ’15): “When she answered questions, you could see their faces change.

Her words carried a power and credibility that was palpable.

And once she started talking, she and the students had a great conversation, which we in Admissions only moderated.

She was amazing.”

What’s her advice to someone making the decision to attend VCFA? “Get really clear with yourself about why you want to do this. It’s difficult and gorgeous, but you have to be decisive about why you want the MFA and why you want THIS MFA.”

At its heart, the Alumnx Ambassador program is really about alumnx telling their stories. As Sklar explains, “You don’t have to be an expert on admissions.

Prospective students want to know if this can really work for As for Dubofsky, she loves talking to prospective students. them. And the answer is almost always yes, but it often takes “It means a lot to me to be someone’s anchor to this place,” hearing the specifics of someone else’s experience to help them she says. After years spent trying to talk herself out of pur- see themselves in one of our low-residency MFA programs.” suing writing, Dubofsky chose VCFA because “it felt right.”

Alumnx are an essential bridge When speaking to prospective in our community of artists. students, she sometimes tells “Truly,” says Dubofsky, “some the story of attending the annual Association for Writers & of the people I love the most, some of the very best writers, Writing Programs conference, holding the VCFA literature in the wildest minds, I’ve met her hands, and just deeply feel- here.” For anyone interested in helping prospective students ing that attending VCFA was better understand the VCFA the best decision for her. But experience, please complete that instinct, she says, comes from the fact that VCFA is the our simple Alumnx Ambassador form at the QR code. kind of place that values your voice and will help you become Someone from our Admissions Team will be in touch to start the writer you are and can be. connecting you with the next Some of the best advice she generation of VCFA students. was given at VCFA—by every Thank you for all you do as faculty member she studied representatives of VCFA! with—was to follow her gut.

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VCFA’s Community Gives Back Supporting the next generation of emerging and established artists

*

Rosemary Rae (GD '18)

In January 2023, VCFA announced a $1 million gift in support of the college’s new vision, student scholarships, and art and social justice initiatives. This generous gift, received from an anonymous donor, provides significant support as VCFA transitions to a new residency model, pushing VCFA toward its commitment to fully align its financial resources with strategic initiatives that directly benefit students, faculty, alumnx, and staff.

“We are at the threshold of an exciting new future,” says VCFA President Leslie Ward.

“This generous gift is a huge step toward increasing access so that more students can attend our acclaimed MFA programs, as well as building toward a more inclusive community of emerging artists across disciplines.”

In addition to operating funds designated to The VCFA Fund that will support the relocation of residencies and promote a more equitable use of the college’s resources, the gift provides significant funding in the form of two matching grants to The Artists Development Fund and the VCFA Center for Arts + Social Justice.

The Artists Development Fund is

Learn more about ways to help VCFA build upon this generous gift and support our matching gift efforts:

VCFA’s primary scholarships fund, supporting diversity and program scholarships that benefit a range of students in all six of our graduate programs. Use the QR code to make a gift.

$300K is the amount that VCFA is commited to match in

scholarship funds that have been designated to support student artists of traditionally underserved communities.

VCFA’s Center for Arts + Social Justice The VCFA Annual Fund

is one of the most powerful ways to invest in our community and the future of the college. The VCFA Annual Fund directly supports academic program operations, the development and retention of VCFA’s outstanding faculty, financial aid for students, the resources and technology needed to deliver our unique and innovative educational experience, and professional development and career support for students and alumnx.

Use the Make a Donation QR code to make a gift.

is entering its third year of providing public events, Center-sponsored residency guests, and its core Academic Fellowship program, established to provide support for VCFA artists whose work shows a commitment to social justice. Learn more about plans for the Center and ways to support the Center Fellowship Program by using the QR code.

VC FA S C H O L A R S H I P

The Gift

Join VCFA’s MFA Society!

of a VCFA Scholarship The generosity of our VCFA donors continuously creates new opportunities for our community of emerging and established artists across disciplines and programs. A few of this year’s incoming students across programs share their thoughts on the impact of our scholarships.

“The existence of the Artists Development Fund Scholarship reaffirms to me that following my creative passions is not only right but necessary. There is a place for me in the field of literature, and VCFA will help me find it.”

Lindsey Howell, Writing

“This scholarship enables me to completely focus on my artistic discipline and practice without financial concern and alleviates a burden that would have otherwise been an insurmountable roadblock on my journey.

It still feels surreal that this long-standing goal is now becoming reality.”

August Moon, Visual Art

“Receiving the Artists Development Fund Scholarship fills me with overwhelming feelings of joy and gratitude. I’m excited to enter this next stage in my life, devoting more of my time and energy to studying Writing for Children & Young Adults at VCFA! ... This scholarship ensures that I can not only participate in this program but also thrive, less burdened, granting me more space and energy for my studies.

Mahalo piha! I am honored and grateful for this opportunity.”

Keliko Adams, WCYA

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“Being awarded a scholarship is an honor, and it makes it easier to take on some student loans and commit to pursuing my dream of being a graphic design professor later in life. The most impact this scholarship makes is that it allows me to pursue developing my knowledge and skills as a designer, focusing on subjects I want to pursue, like the climate change crisis and effects of intergenerational trauma.”

Kye-Breann Abbott, Graphic Design

“Getting the Presidential Scholarship opens the door towards advances in my musicianship and career that would not otherwise be possible for me. … As I hope to weave myself into the VCFA community, I hope that I can also make a difference through my connections as a student and future alumnx.”

Pamela Martinez, Music Composition

“With the support of this VCFA scholarship, I am more determined than ever to contribute meaningfully to my artistic discipline and make a lasting impact on the world through my creative expression.”

Maky Sylla Diop, Film

As a Monthly Funder of the Arts (MFA), alumnx and friends can establish easy, automatic monthly gifts to VCFA and create a way of giving that works for them. Monthly gifts of any size allow VCFA to better fund scholarships, invest in faculty development, and bring visiting artists to VCFA each year. Joining the MFA Society is as easy as making an online donation and setting up a monthly payment option.

To become a Monthly Funder of the Arts or to give an annual gift in support of The VCFA Fund, The Artists Development Fund, or any other VCFA initiatives, please visit vcfa.edu/donate.

All new MFA Society members who make a sustaining gift before December 31, 2023, will receive a limited edition tote bag. Tote artwork designer: Scott Gladd (GD ’22).

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*

Annual Report of Gifts

With deepest gratitude we acknowledge

the following donors—alumnx, students, faculty, trustees, staff, and other

friends—whose generosity supports

the entire VCFA community. This list represents donors who made gifts to VCFA from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

We have made every effort to make sure our list is comprehensive and accurate. Please accept our apology for any errors or omissions, and contact advancement@vcfa.edu to make any corrections.

Maureen Charles ’19 Susan Cheatham ’22 S. Cohen ’15 Sheri Cohen ’22 Irene Abraham ’06 Pamela Ahlen ’07 Diane Allenberg ’88 American Online Giving Foundation, Inc Kumkum Amin ’05 Kathi Appelt ’82 Victoria Arms ’19 Mary-Kim Arnold ’16 Rafael Attias ’15 Mary Bailey ’99

Amy Coombs ’15 Elizabeth H. Crowe ’24 and James E. Crowe, Jr. Yvonne Daley ’95 John Davis Meredith Davis ’11 Jessica Dils ’10 Muriel Dubois ’01

Kathi Baron ’04

Edward and Helen Oppenheimer Foundation

Mary Beath ’20

Gregory Ellis ’94

Carol Beatty ’90

Jill Ewald ’95

Elizabeth Bedell ’19

Jennifer Eyre ’23

Jesse Bergstrom ’23

Jacquetta Feldman ’23

Bruce Black ’99 in memory of Norma Fox Mazer

Mary Fillmore ’05

Lou Blackwell ’00 Amber Blair in honor of Amy Asay Janet Blasberg ’64 Elizabeth Buchanan ’98 Jamieson Bunn ’15 Emilie Burack ’19 Jeremy Butler ’23

We are also grateful for eleven anonymous donations.

Elizabeth J. Coleman ’12 in honor of her four VCFA advisors: Rick Jackson, Betsy Sholl, Natasha Sajé, and Mark Cox

Cynthia Carau ’20 Ann Cardinal ’07 Caroline Carlson ’11 Catherine Carvelli

Steven Fisher ’23 Janet Fox ’10 Stephen Geller ’18 Julian Gerstin ’20 and L. Carlene Raper Anne Gimm ’19 Dean Gloster ’17 Joan Goldfeder ’95 Michael Goldstein Sondra Graff ’15 in honor of the Graphic Design Faculty

RO EG PR OA RM T O F TGTIE FR TS PR LE

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Sarah Madru Barbara Gray ’20 Kate Gray ’15 Joan Grubin ’03 Katie Gustafson Margaret Hanshaw ’05 Rachel Hayes ’17 Ellen Hersh ’94 William Higgins ’21 in memory of Jacynta Mizelle Jones Casey and Denise Hill in memory of Vivian Dorsel Dwight Hilson ’15 Bert Hirschhorn ’94 Michael Hogan Susan Holcomb ’21 in memory of Jacynta Mizelle Jones Katherine Hosford ’11 Karen Jaquish ’96 Leslie Kaufman ’95 Jeffrey Kellar Susan Kingsley ’98 Rebecca Kirshenbaum ’18 Kimberly Klement ’03 in memory of Vivian Dorsel Ann Kordahl ’07 in memory of Frances Lee Hall Emma Kress ’20 Max Kruger-Dull ’21 Jerome Lane ’16 Lindsey Lane ’10 Catherine Laudone ’23 Jeffrey Leong ’14 Corrinne Lewis ’07 Susan Mack ’23 in memory of Jacynta Mizelle Jones Thomas MacLeay

Casper Martin ’12 Cynthia Newberry Martin ’12 Jody Maunsell Carol McAfee ’17 Heather McClelland ’09 Anne McGrath ’19 Shawn McSweeney ’20 Katherine Mead ’99 Craig Milewski ’13 Harold Mills in honor of Julie Herman Wendy Mnookin ’91 Hannah Moderow ’11 Joseph Mohlman Matthew Monk Linda Murphy Marshall ’18 in honor of Harrison Candelaria Fletcher and Sue William Silverman Susan Newbold ’00 Robert O’Connor ’06 and Richard Lerner Maria Oka ’23 Rebecca Olander ’15 Jericho Parms ’12 Stephanie Parsley Ledyard ’07 Katherine Paterson Karen Paul ’23 in memory of Jacynta Mizelle Jones Emily Pearce ’99 in memory of Norma Mazer Dorothy Pensky ’99

Linda Pratt Donna Pressman ’88 Marjorie Priebe ’21 Caroline Pritchard ’23 Carol Purcell ’03 Lorilee Rager ’21 Andrew Ramsammy Joyce Ray ’01 Stephanie Reese ’23 Shirley Reid ’47 Renee S. Reiner and Michael F. DeSanto

Anne-Marie Strohman ’20 Cynthia Surrisi ’14 Eliza Nash Taylor ’18 Diane Telgen ’17 Gina Thayer ’22 in memory of Jacynta Mizelle Jones John Thelin ’95 Fredrika Thompson ’06 Paul Tonnes ’13 and David John Poston Heidi Tringe Marilyn Underwood ’20

Laura Romain ’19 and Neil Templeton

Katie Van Ark ’16

Lisa Rosenberg in honor of Amy Asay Michael Rosenfeld

Ashley Walker ’18

Carl Rosenstock ’82 Mary Ross-Dolen ’22 Margaret Rush in honor of Amy Asay Keri Schneider ’18 Shelagh Shapiro ’03 Michael Sherman Sue William Silverman ’88 Isabelle Smith Luanne Smith in honor of Amy Asay Meghan Smith ’19 Peter Smith

Mary Perrin ’06

Suzanne Smith ’10

George Powasnick in honor of Amy Asay

Tamara Smith ’07

Wendy Powell ’15

Linda Stillman ’03 Maura Stokes ’03

Yvonne Ventresca ’22 Elsa Waller ’94 David Warner ’17 Anna Warrock ’23 Dianne White ’07 Thomas & Margaret Whitford Jeff Wiggins ’09 Kathleen Wilson ’11 Nathaniel T. Winthrop Vicki Wittenstein ’06 Gretchen Woelfle ’00 Zuzana Woods ’18 Mary-Walker Wright ’16 Ellen Yeomans ’04 Kenneth Zink ’19 Stanley Zumbiel ’08