“Publication” Class Notes

Jordan Gruber (Law ’88) published Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are with his coauthor, psychologist James Fadiman. Learn more about the book here or on Amazon. 

Charles Edwards (Col ’69 CM) published a book on aging, Much Abides: A Survival Guide for Aging Lives. He was a cardiovascular surgeon in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, for 29 years. After both of his parents died from dementia, he sought training at Johns Hopkins in dementia and returned to Charlotte to open a nonprofit center dedicated to the care of patients and families struggling with memory loss. His late-life experience with these patients and families inspired this book, which focuses on living the last years of your life with passion and purpose. It’s available at www.mmclt.org and on Amazon. Sales will support Memory & Movement Charlotte.    

Ashley Bristow Bartley (Col ’06) published her first children’s book, Diamond Rattle Loves to Tattle, in July 2020. Bartley is a school counselor whose writing has been published in The Joyful Life Magazine and on the Kindred Mom blog. Her second children’s book is currently under contract with Boys Town Press. She lives with her husband and three young boys in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Kyle Elliott (Col ’07) announced his candidacy for the democratic nomination for the Virginia House of Delegates 68th District. He writes: “I am excited for this next step in my public service and I welcome conversations, support, and enthusiasm, from the UVA community. People can find out more about my campaign from my website or email kyleelliott@kyle4va.com. I am on Twitter @Kyle4va. 

Deborah E. Sheetenhelm Hammond (Arch ’82) published her 22nd novel, Wesbury. Quentin Killington returns from a prolonged stay in India, working for the East India Company in order to amass his fortune and marry childhood love, Rosemary Whitcomb. When he returns home, he is stunned to learn that his life will not be as he planned. He must now face the Regency England bon ton alone and on his own terms. This and all of Hammond’s novels are available on Amazon and at local book signings and events.

Paul E. Stroble (Grad ’91) has published a poetry chapbook, “Backyard Darwin,” and a full-length poetry book, Walking Lorton Bluff, both with Finishing Line Press. He is adjunct faculty at Webster University and Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. 

Nelson D. Neal (Educ ’85) published a biography about Hemsley Winfield, the first African American modern dancer. Winfield was a contemporary of the pioneers of modern dance, he founded, directed, choreographed, and danced with his company The New Negro Art Theatre Dance Group from 1931 through 1933. He was the first African American to be contracted by the Metropolitan Opera when he danced the role of the Congo Witch Doctor in The Emperor Jones in 1933. The book describes Winfield’s life and career as an actor, director, dancer, choreographer, and teacher until his untimely death at the age of 26 in 1934. Dr. Neal is the authority on Hemsley Winfield and this is book is the culmination of his 28 years of research. His previous publication, in 2018, was an annotated bibliography about Hemsley Winfield with 511 annotated sources.

Duncan Clarke (Grad ’70) published a novel, A Little Rebellion Is a Good Thing: Troubles at Traymore College. It is a fictionalized account of his year (1969-1970) as an associate professor of political science at Radford College, then a public women’s college. Among other things, that time saw successful lawsuits against the college and its repressive president which eventually led to the removal of the longest-serving college president in the Old Dominion, coeducation and the founding of Radford University, and restoration of long-denied academic freedoms and civil liberties for faculty and students.

Mark Andrew Bradley (Law ’83) will publish his second book, Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America, in October 2020. Publishers Weekly calls it “a page-turning study of the 1969 triple murder of union leader Joseph Yablonski and his wife and daughter, and the crime’s impact on the United MIne Workers of America and organized labor in general… The result is both a juicy true crime story and a tribute to the power of effective labor movements.” 

Rachel Vanderhill (Grad ’09), chair of Wofford College’s Department of Government & International Affairs, has published the book Autocracy and Resistance in the Internet Age. The book examines how social media is both aiding and undermining autocratic regimes in the Middle East, North Africa, and the former Soviet republics. Her previous books include Promoting Authoritarianism Abroad and The International Dimensions of Authoritarian Persistence: Lessons from Post-Soviet States (co-edited with Michael Aleprete Jr.). 

Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM) published Casablanca Blue: Tales of Revenge, Romance and Riches on Amazon. The 10 short stories are set in locations around the world, including the University of Virginia, the Farmington Country Club, Paris, Casablanca, Santiago, and Hollywood. Baroody previously published a textbook, Media Access and the Military, now in its fifth edition, and contributed a chapter to Quills to Tweets: How America Communicates about War and Revolution. She retired from the Foreign Service after 33 years and lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Dr. Richard Krueger.  

Laura Paskus (Col ’96) will publish her new book, At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate in September 2020. A longtime journalist, Paskus works for NM PBS, hosting and producing a monthly program, “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present and Future,” and working on a year-long investigation into the U.S. military’s contamination of groundwater in the state. 

Blake R. Silver (Grad ’16, ’17) published The Cost of Inclusion: How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses. Young people are told that college is a place where they will “find themselves” by engaging with diversity and making friendships that will last a lifetime. This vision of an inclusive, diverse social experience is a fundamental part of the image colleges sell potential students. But what really happens when students arrive on campus and enter this new social world? The Cost of Inclusion delves into this rich moment to explore the ways students seek out a sense of belonging and the sacrifices they make to fit in.

Victor Deupi (Arch ’86 CM), published a new book, Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America. The book focuses on the life and artistic activities of Emilio Sanchez (1921–1999) in New York, and Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s. More specifically, the book examines Sanchez within the wider context of mid-century Cuban artists, and cross-cultural exchange between New York, Cuba, and the Caribbean. The book reflects on why Sanchez chose to be a mobile observer of the American and Caribbean vernacular at a time when such an approach seemed at odds with the mainstream avant-garde. This book will be of interest to scholars in modern art, Caribbean studies, architectural history, and Latin American and Hispanic studies.

Christopher Russell (Engr ’15) published his first epic fantasy novel, Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth, with Morgan James Publishing. Steampunk meets sword and sorcery meets military thriller in this gripping tale with layered characters, deep world-building, and a lurking cosmic conflict that will upend everything the people of Lozaria know and cherish. Read on for the full teaser, then look for the novel online and in-stores everywhere on Sept. 22, 2020. 

Full Teaser:

A world consumed by war . . .

When two blades clash, the third will fall, and the fate of all will be jeopardized. To save Lozaria, the failures of the past must be atoned for by a new generation of heroes. The time has come for mortals to cast off sight and, in doing so, truly come to see . . .

Victory is never absolute.
 

            Seven centuries ago, the forces of order won the Illyriite War on the plains of Har’muth.  Darmatus and Rabban Aurelian slew their elder brother, Sarcon, the despotic architect of the conflict, then sacrificed themselves to banish the cataclysmic vortex opened with his dying breath. The first advent of the Oblivion Well was thwarted. Even without their vanished gods, the seven races of Lozaria proved themselves capable of safeguarding their world. 
            Or so the story goes. 
            The year is now 697 A.B.H (After the Battle of Har’muth). Though war itself remains much the same, the weapons with which it is waged have evolved. Airships bearing powerful cannons ply the skies, reducing the influence of mages and their spells. Long range communication has brought far flung regions of Lozaria closer than ever before. At the center of this technological revolution are the three Terran states of Darmatia, Rabban, and Sarconia, who have fought a near ceaseless campaign of 700 years in an attempt to best each other. The roots of their enmity lie buried beneath the wasteland of Har’muth, a place all three nations consider best forgotten. 
                However, an ancient power sealed within Har’muth has not forgotten them, and the descendants of those who fought on that field must now take a stand to rectify the mistakes of the past. 

“Rebirth is the beginning of a story that has all the potential to go far and fly very high.​” ~Author and Blogger Abel Montero

“Like Tolkien’s classic ‘Lord of the Rings’ series, Christopher Russell creates a complex, epic fantasy and world which is rich in detail, strong characterization, and a heroic quest that leads a myriad of players into uncharted waters .” ~D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

David Stanford Burr (Col ’77, Grad ’81 CM) recently published Ledger Domain, his debut full-length collection of poems, an autobiography with a license in legerdemain. Burr is the author of The Poet’s Notebook: Inspiration, Techniques, and Advice on Craft as well as editor of seven hardcover, poetry-themed anthologies. He is a managing editor at St. Martin’s/Macmillan, one of the “Big Five” trade book publishers, currently in his 35th year, and for 24 years, as adjunct associate professor, he taught courses in book publishing as well as poetry writing workshops at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, Center for Applied Liberal Arts. He is compiling a second collection of poems, and a third focuses on the British infantry mired in the trenches on the Western Front during the Great War. David and his wife, Joan, live in Maplewood, New Jersey, with their daughter, Lauren, a newly degreed engineer.

NB: author photo credit: ©Creighton: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

John Attanasio’s (Col ’76 L/M) book, Politics and Capital: Auctioning the American Dream was the subject of an article published on Forbes.com on April 29, 2020.

The article by Lawrence Carrel, Rising Income Inequality is Direct Result of Campaign Finance Cases, concerned the relationship between the campaign-finance cases, the enormous rise in U.S. income inequality, and the coronavirus crisis. 

Oxford University Press also interviewed Attanasio about the themes of the book in a 25-minute Soundcloud podcast. It has over 3100 listens.

John M. Millar (Darden ’72 L/M), a Vietnam veteran, will publish his first novel on Sept. 30, 2020. Spanning 200 years of American military history, The Wars Among the Paines, is an epic historical fictions that tells the complex story of a family defined by war, accounting in vivid detail its toll in blood, treasure, and emotional turmoil. Nearly 50 years in the making, The Wars Among the Paines illustrates how the consequences of America’s foreign wars escape the boundaries of the front lines, and ripple through generations of families, friends, politics, and the lives of we the people.