“Publication” Class Notes

Justin Black (Col ’11), Will Gemma (Col ’11 CM) and Dietrich Teschner co-directed two documentary films about the James River in Virginia, Headwaters Down Part 1 and Part 2, which were recently picked up by Virginia Public Media and nationally by PBS. The two-part series follows their five-person crew as they paddle the entire 350 miles of the James River, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. The films highlight environmental disasters, lesser-taught history, camaraderie and misadventures along the way. Headwaters Down Part 1 screened during the Virginia Film Festival in 2023 to over 500 people in the Culbreth Theatre on Grounds. The series is now available to stream online via the PBS app and on the Headwaters Down website.

Sarah Rovang (Arch ’10 CM) wrote her book, Through the Long Desert: Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright, to be released by Rizzoli Electa in September. Though the two heroes of 20th-century art and architecture never collaborated, they maintained a friendship and mutual admiration, exchanging roughly two dozen letters during their lifetimes. This unique meditation on American artistic expression explores the nature of intellectual kinship, as well as home, place and material. Rovang includes a look at O’Keeffe’s time at UVA in the early 1910s, exploring the resonance of her campus watercolors with Wright’s renderings of the same period.

John M. Bowers (Grad ’73, ’78 CM) published his second novel, Legion of the Daggerstone, which follows a 21st-century analogue of J. R. R. Tolkien. His protagonist, an Iraq War combat veteran and UVA English professor, publishes a bestselling trilogy of fantasy novels, only in Charlottesville instead of Oxford. Bowers also published his most recent scholarly book, Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959, with Oxford University Press.

Latorial Faison (Col ’95 CM) will publish her poetry collection, Nursery Rhymes in Black, on July 15. Faison was awarded the 2023 Permafrost Poetry Book Prize, judged by renowned poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, for the manuscript. Blending tradition, memory and resistance, Nursery Rhymes in Black reimagines familiar childhood rhymes through the lens of Black history and lived experience. The volume has received acclaim from some of the most esteemed voices in literature, including Joanne Gabbin, Judy Juanita, Glenis Redmond, Trudier Harris and Cedric Tillman, who praise Faison’s ability to transform the rhythmic echoes of youth into a resonant and necessary cultural reckoning.

Dan Reiter (Col ’00) published his debut collection of surf-themed non-fiction, On a Rising Swell, through the University Press of Florida in April. Kirkus Reviews awarded it a star, calling it “a surfing classic fit to sit beside John Long’s The Big Drop (1999) and William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days (2015).”

Christina Shawn (Educ ’08) published her children’s picture book: And Then Came You: When Families Grow Love Grows Too with Chronicle Books in April.

Families grow and change, but what if you like things just the way they are? What if you aren’t ready to welcome in a new parent, a messy pet, or a baby sister who cries a lot? Change can be scary, but even a full heart has room to grow.

Both hilarious and heartwarming, this endearing children’s book is a powerful tool for helping little ones understand that there are often silver linings to the changes life brings. Even when things are initially uncomfortable, an open heart paves the way and teaches us that a family can be full of love at any size.

Liz Garton Scanlon, author of Caldecott Honor winner All the World called Shawn’s book “A lyrical love letter, written to families of all shapes and sizes.”

Shawn received her master’s degree in reading education at UVA before becoming a reading specialist, literacy coach, and author. Originally from Long Island, New York, she now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three kids, and two fuzzy bunnies.

For information about Shawn’s book tour and local events visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM) published his first work of fiction, Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime. This middle-grade novel tells the story of Harold, an inexplicably hirsute apprentice herald working in the castle of King Thymos. When Harold joins the search party tasked with locating the King’s missing son, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very existence of the Kingdom of Dazain. To save the Kingdom, he must find his way to the Pandemonium for a fateful conversation with the mysterious goddess Aletheia.

Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime is a classic hero’s journey in which a boy navigates a dangerous world and discovers what he’s capable of in the face of difficult challenges.

Jordan Gruber (Law ’88) co-wrote Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance, with James Fadiman, “the father of modern microdosing.” The book was published through St. Martin’s Press. According to Rick Doblin, the founder of Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, it is “the most comprehensive and data-based book on microdosing ever written.”

Jason Sisney (Col ’95 CM) published his article, “California’s Olympic Financial Failure: The 1960 Winter Games,” in the Journal of Olympic History in May. Seven years of research went into his analysis. Sisney is a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians and is a senior staffer for the California State Assembly. He advises elected assemblymembers on the state budget and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Kara O’Brien Cox (Col ’89 CM) published her debut novel, Another Summer, under her pen name Kara Kentley. A second chance contemporary romance, Another Summer follows Avery, who returns to the Maine lakeside resort where she worked in college and comes face to face with her first love, Miles, who ghosted her after breaking her heart a decade ago. As they work together to help a friend, Avery begins to question everything she thought she knew about Miles, their past, her future and herself.

Cox and her husband, James P. Cox III (Law ’83) reside in Charlottesville.

Clare Short (Educ ’12) released her debut children’s book, Bo the Boat, this spring. A pediatric speech-language pathologist and mother of three young children, Short wrote this lift-the-flap board book to support early speech and language skills for young children. Readers will join Bo and his trusty companion, Captain Mo, as they cruise through the sparkling waves, embarking on a bustling workday full of surprises and friendly faces. With charming illustrations by Paula Rodriguez and engaging rhymes, Bo the Boat is the perfect voyage for curious minds ages 0-3. Short lives with her husband, Chris Short (Engr ’08, ’12), in Atlanta, where they cheer on the Wahoos with their children.

Greg Hansard (Col ’03) published his second book, Virginia Cider: A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft’s Golden Age (University of Virginia Press, October 2024). The book looks at the history and techniques of making the iconic Virginia beverage from the colonial era to today. Included in the book are a guide and map of all the cideries in the state. Hansard says that inspiration for the book came from a work experience in 2014 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, where he worked in collaboration with breweries, meaderies and cideries to brew recipes from the museum archives.

Oneya Fennell Okuwobi (Col ’01 CM) released her first monograph, Who Pays for Diversity? Why Programs Fail at Racial Equity and What to Do about It with University of California Press, on March 18, 2025. Drawing on accounts of employees from across the workplace spectrum, from corporations to churches to universities, Who Pays for Diversity? details how the optics of diversity programs undermine the competence of employees while diminishing their well-being and workplace productivity. Okuwobi argues that diversity programs have been a costly detour on the path to racial justice, and getting back on track requires solutions that provide equity, dignity, and agency to all employees, instead of defending the status quo. Dr. Okuwobi is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati.

Corinna Barrett Lain (Law ’96) published Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection (NYU Press 2025). Based on seven years of deep research, this exposé takes readers into the notoriously secretive world of American executions, using shocking revelations about lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly. The story of lethal injection is a story of state law-breaking and cover-ups, fake science and torturous drugs, gross incompetence by woefully inept executioners, and a stunning indifference to the way prisoners die at the hands of the state. She examines all the ways that the state cannot be trusted with the power to take life, and all the ways it has tried to cover that up.

Lain is the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore professor of law at the University of Richmond School of Law.

Meena Khandelwal (Col ’85, Grad ’88, Grad ’95) has published her second ethnographic monograph, Cookstove Chronicles: Social Life of a Women’s Technology in India. It examines traditional, biomass-burning mud stoves, the women who build and use them, and the experts who have been trying to ‘improve’ them for decades. She answers the question of why so many Indian women continue to use wood-burning, smoke-spewing stoves when they have other options. Khandelwal, a professor of anthropology, recently won the 2025 President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Iowa, her third teaching award.

Duncan Clarke (Grad ’70 CM) has published a new novel, Murder on the Appalachian Trail. The novel follows a criminal law professor who works with his beloved German Shepherd, a runaway teen and the FBI to solve a series of murders on the Appalachian Trail. Clarke, who has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice, draws on his experience and love of the trail in his writing. Murder on the Appalachian Trail can be found online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is published by Bell Isle Books. Clarke is a professor emeritus of international relations at American University and is a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.