BEST AMERICAN
Instructor John Cotter received a notable mention in The Best American Essays, 2015, for his essay, “Losing Music,” which originally appeared in the July issue of Open Letters Monthly. Founder and Program Director Andrea Dupree's short story, “New Brother,” received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories, 2015, edited by T.C. Boyle. With member Madelyn Gardner’s poems forthcoming in The Best American Poetry, 2015, there is a Lighthouse member in three Best American Anthologies this year. A trifecta!
BOOK NEWS
Lighthouser Sunny Weber's book, Beyond Flight or Fight: A Compassionate Guide for Working with Fearful Dogs, was published in November. Sunny has more than 25 years of experience in pet rescue, and the book offers steps on living with and training a fearful dog.
Member Amparo Humphrey has published her first book, Wicked Eden. Written under the pen name Alura Ruhu, it tells the tale of the Garden of Eden from a modern-day standpoint. She thanks Lighthouse Creative Curator Dan Manzanares for giving her "a truly 'wicked' blurb."
Lighthouse instructor Teresa Milbrodt’s new novel, The Unicorn Maker, will be released from Break Away Books in the Spring of 2016.
Long-time workshopper Rob Wesson's book,Darwin's First Theory, about Charles Darwin's geology and Rob's adventures following Darwin's geologic trail in South America and the U.K., has been picked up by Pegasus Books in New York.
Lynn Hall has accepted a book deal from Beacon Press for Caged Eyes: A Memoir of Rape, Shame, and Silence at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Lynn is a Lighthouse member and began writing the memoir at Lighthouse in 2007.
Workshopper Johanna Garton's memoir, Awakening East: Moving Our Adopted Children Back to China, was published by Marcinson Press on October 23. The book's first chapter was created in a workshop facilitated by Rebecca Berg. Information on related readings and events can be found on the book's Facebook page.
Gerry Wilson's debut short story collection, Crosscurrents and Other Stories, was published by Press 53 in October. A Mississippian, Gerry is a Lighthouse member and has participated in two Lighthouse workshops that helped shape the collection: Antonya Nelson’s Short Fiction (2014) and Andrea Dupree’s Online Advanced Fiction course (2014). During Lit Fest 2015, she participated in Andre Dubus III's Narrative Workshop.
Member Robert Dodge's new book, Andrea and Sylvester: Challenging Marriage Taboos and Paving the Road to Same-Sex Marriage, about the relationship between the first court cases in support of interracial marriage and same-sex marriages, was recently released by Algora of New York.
Sharon Cairns Mann, a member, will have a collection of short stories, Tesserae: a Mosaic of Story, released in November. Sharon will be signing her book on Saturday, November 14 from 5:00 to 6:00 PM at BookBar in Denver, and Wednesday, November 18from 6:30 to 8:00 PM at Local Editions in Longmont.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Book Project alum Shawna Ervin has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her essay, "Connected," which was published in the Delmarva Review.
Also celebrating a Pushcart nomination? Member Ann Tinkham, whose essay, "The Tree of Hearts," was nominated by the Citron Review.
Lighthouse instructor Christopher Kondrich won a 2015 Iowa Review Award for poetry with the pieces "Placeholder," "Division of Labor," "Multiverse," and "Ruin Value." They're featured in the winter issue of the magazine.
Lighthouser Morgan Smith's essay, "Member of the Family," was selected as the runner-up for the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction from the Bellevue Literary Review.
Lighthouse Young Writers Program Director Kim O'Connor's piece, "Solar Flare," was a runner-up in the Mid-American Review's Fineline Competition. Kim entered the piece while participating in a Willfully Submit session at Lighthouse.
Member Jennie MacDonald had her essay, "Working from Home: Playwright Robert Jephson's Theatrical Networking," published in a collection that received Cambridge Scholars Publishing's "Recommended Read" designation for December 2015.
Petra Perkins's short story, "Bearing Up," was a finalist in the Raven Short Story Contest, and she won second place in the Denver Woman's Press Club in-house writing competition. Her piece on Gloria Steinem and Cheryl Strayed, "Steinem, Strayed, and Seattle," recently ran on Huffington Post.
Quinn (Rennerfeldt) Fairchild's poem, "In which, an apocalypse," won the Peseroff Prize Poetry Contest, put on by Breakwater Review. Quinn is a member and the poem was originally written during an Intermediate Poetry Workshop instructed by Seth Brady Tucker in 2013.
Lighthouse Youth Instructor Andrea Bobotis's short story, "Kudzu," won second place in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest through Carve Magazine. The prize includes publication of the story and an interview with the author in the Fall 2015 edition of the magazine. The guest judge for the contest was Andre Dubus III.
Long-time member Sandra Windsor's short story, "Forty-Two Dodger Blue," has been selected as an award winner in the Writer's Digest 2015 Short Story Contest.
Petra Perkins, long-time member, won the 2015 Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Contest for a poem started in Richard Froude's Experimental/Hybrid Forms class. Petra was also a double finalist in essay and novel-in-progress and a double semi-finalist in essay and short story. Check out her piece in Huffington Post.
Workshopper Patricia Anne Jackson's flash fiction story, “Cat In a Bag,” was long-listed by Flash 500, an international writing contest.
Jackie St. Joan, a long-time member, was recently selected as Poet of the Year for Ziggies, Denver's oldest blues club. She also received the first place prize in the Free Verse Category of Columbine Poets of Colorado for "What Zero Looks Like," a poem inspired during the Mark Doty poetry workshop at Lighthouse Lit Fest 2014.
Rebecca Snow, another long-time member, read from her novel, Glassmusic, at the Tattered Cover in October. Her poetry is currently part of an ekphrastic show in Lakewood. She read a few of her poems along with other local poets on October 10 at the Valkarie Gallery. See her website for more info.
Lighthouse Instructor Seth Brady Tucker was recently featured in Andrea Doray's (also an instructor) opinion column for his work with caregivers of wounded veterans. Seth leads workshops that help these caregivers find their voices in storytelling.
PUBLICATIONS
Member Alisa Gaston-Linn had an essay, "A Drowning," appear in the December issue of Brain, Child Magazine.
Book Project member Evelyn Becker's essay, "Holy Summit," has been selected for publication in Lilith Magazine.
Instructor and Book Project mentor Erika Krouse's short story, "When in Bangkok," is slated for publication in the July/August issue of the Kenyon Review.
Lighthouser Cathy Bell had her essay, "The Sweetest Kidnapping," published as the Sundayessay on the Rumpus. Additionally, her essay, "Drive-By," which was workshopped in classes with Kathryn Eastburn and Richard Froude, was published in Full Grown People.
Member Julie Vick's essay, "Postcard from Suburbia," appeared in the December issue of 5280, and her essay, "I Was an Amazon Drudge," appeared on Salon in November. Her humor piece, "Screen Time: An FAQ," was also published on McSweeney's Internet Tendency in November.
Workshopper Dawn Lauren Anderson's personal essay, "Leave an Abusive Relationship," was published in the fall 2015 issue of Give Yourself Permission magazine.
Excerpts from Book Project grad Susanna Donato's memoir-in-progress are on the road to publication: "Fast Food" will appear February 1 in Okey-Panky, and "It Really Ain't Me, Babe" will appear in the anthology Everything I Need to Know About Love I Learned From Pop Songs, which will be released on Valentine's Day. Additionally, Blue Earth Review has accepted "Tooth Fairy" for publication in a forthcoming issue. She thanks instructor Richard Froude; two of the pieces originated in his hybrid and experimental forms class.
Book Project member Lois Levinson has a poem, "The Poet in Fog," in the winter issue of The Literary Nest.
Member and workshopper Jesica Carson Davis's poem, "Cycle (October)," was published in the fall 2015 issue of Zone 3.
Two of Amie Sharp's poems were published in the fall 2015 issue of Glint Literary Journal, and two more were published in the fall 2015 issue of New Plains Review. Amie would like to thank Major Jackson and her Lit Fest poetry classmates for their help.
Book Project participant Corie Rosen had a short story, "All the Love in the World," featured in an issue of the Bangalore Review, and another short story, "An Object in Motion," will be published in Two Cities Review this spring. She will also be featured on the Two Cities Review podcast.
Lighthouse instructor Karen Palmer had her essay, "All Those Stars," published on the Rumpus. Her story, "The Matchmaker," was also published by the James Franco Reviewand later featured as "The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week" on the Ploughshares blog.
Member Michele Finn Johnson's flash fiction, "Darby, Nightfall," was published in Boston Literary Magazine's winter issue.
Chris Walker, workshopper and runner-up for the 2015 Alice Maxine Bowie Fellowship, is now a staff writer at Westword, where he's published two cover stories, "The Lady Bulldogs are the Most Winning Team in Sports-Crazed Denver" and "Baby Smiley's Gang Lyrics Live On, Even if She Tried to Change That Before Her Death." You can follow his work by signing up for his e-newsletter here.
Lighthouse Program Coordinator Laura Miller has a story, "Gale in the Aftermath," featured in the latest issue of Psychopomp Magazine.
Member Rachel Maizes had her essay, "I Know How to Use a Hammer. So Why Do I Let My Husband Do Everything Around the House?," published in the Washington Post. She also recently sold an essay to Southwest: The Magazine, the in-flight magazine for Southwest Airlines.
Lighthouse instructor Alexander Lumans had his story, "Timor Mortis Conturbat Me," featured in Covered with Fur, a weekly digital magazine published by A Strange Object.
Lynn Hall had her essay, "F*ck Bravery," published in the Manifest Station.
Book Project alum Kelly Thompson had her essay, "The Story of My Fear Over Time," published as the Sunday essay on the Rumpus. She credits Jennifer Denrow's lyric essay class and Lidia Yuknavitch's craft workshop with helping her make the leap into the lyric essay form. Additionally, "Hand Me Down Stories," an excerpt from Kelly's memoir-in-progress, will be featured in Proximity Magazine this month.
In addition to her upcoming poems in The Best American Poetry, 2015, member Madelyn Garner has poems forthcoming in The Florida Review, So to Speak, and The MacGuffin. She recently received word that her triptych was a finalist in the 2015 River Styx International Poetry Contest. Thanks to Seth Brady Tucker, teacher extraordinaire, and her fellow workshop participants.
Lighthouse Instructor Mario Acevedo has two short stories appearing in a horror anthology, Nightmares Unhinged: Twenty Tales of Terror,which was featured in Westword.
Excerpts from Book Project grad and Youth Instructor Susanna Donato's memoir-in-progress are on the road to publication: "Fast Food" will appear Feb. 1 in Okey-Panky, "It Really Ain't Me, Babe" will appear in the anthology Everything I Need to Know About Love I Learned From Pop Songs (a Valentine's Day release), and Blue Earth Review will publish "Tooth Fairy" in a forthcoming issue.
Long-time member and recent addition to our board, Rudy Melena’s short story, “Angry Clouds,” has been accepted for publication at Green Hills Literary Lantern.
Program Coordinator Laura I. Miller has a short story forthcoming in Psychopomp. Recent book reviews have appeared in CutBank (Gold Fame Citrus), Electric Literature (Let Me Tell You), Bustle (Barbara the Slut & The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector), and Lit Hub (Magic for Beginners).
Ted McCombs, a member of the Book Project, recently had a new story come out in the lastest edition of the Water~Stone Review.
Instructor Karen Palmer has a story forthcoming in Five Points: a Journal of Literature & Art.
Shawna Ervin's essay, "Irreplaceable," was published this summer in Existere, a Canadian journal. Shawna is a graduate of the Book Project.
Member Ellen Nordberg will be co-producing Boulder's 2016 Listen To Your Mother Show. The show celebrates motherhood in 41 cities, and has raised over $800,000 for charities nationwide. Fellow Lighthouse writer Petra Perkins was on stage with the show last year. A big thank you to Lighthouse for the Lit Fest and other open mics.
Sonia Christensen's short story, "Joyride," appeared on the website New Pop Lit. She would like to thank Paula Younger's Intermediate Short Story Workshop as well as her writing group, The Knife Brothers, for all the fantastic feedback.
Kelly Thompson, alumni of the Book Project, has work featured in the inaugural edition of Witch Craft and is honored to be featured alongside writers like Antonina Palisano, Zoe Dzunko, Sonya Vatomsky, Chelsea Laine Wells, Corey Dahl (current member of the Book Project), and others.
Kate Barrett's story, "Fishes and Loaves," appears in the Fall 2015 issue of From the Depths, published by Haunted Waters Press. Many thanks to Alexander Lumans and the Advanced Short Story workshop for their invaluable guidance. Kate was a member of the Lighthouse staff and is current in Montana for her MFA.
Member and volunteer Cathy Bell's essay, “Drive-By,” was published at FullGrownPeople.com.
Member Ann Tinkhak’s story, “Afraid of the Rain,” appears in the September issue ofSynchronized Chaos. Many thanks to Jenny Wortman and her Lighthouse classmates for their help with this piece.
This October, workshopper Sara Fardi's short story, "Linnea's Hunt," was published inBards and Sages Quarterly. This is her first publication, and she would like to give a big, whopping thank you to Erika Krouse (and the lovely members of her workshops) for her support and sharp insight.
Brain, Child Magazine bought member Rachel Maizes's story, "Mama Jane's Pizza." Her essay, "Rose Gold," which was born in Kathryn Eastburn's online essay class from one of her fabulous exercises, was sold to Lilith. Thank you Kathryn!
Workshopper Michele Finn Johnson's piece of hybrid non-fiction, “Liner Notes from Detroit,” was published by Pidgeonholes Magazine. She drafted the piece in John Cotter's Breaking Out —Trying On Transformational Forms online course, and blows kisses of thanks to John and her fellow online classmates!