“Publication” Class Notes
Jon Paul Sydnor (Col ’91 CM)
Rev. Jon Paul Sydnor, PhD (Col ’91 CM) has published The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology. Sydnor is professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Emmanuel College in Boston. His book systematically reinterprets the Christian intellectual tradition through the lens of social progressivism.
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01)
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) wrote LIFE. Hollywood, a two-volume coffee table book set, which will be published by Taschen internationally this summer. LIFE. Hollywood is a collection of classic Hollywood photos from the archives of LIFE magazine with captions and linking essays by Humphreys.
Jacqueline Toner (Grad ’80, Grad ’82)
Jacqueline Toner (Grad ’80, ’82) has published True or False?: The Science of Perception, Misinformation, and Disinformation. The book, Toner’s latest for middle grade students, explores what psychology can tell us about how critical thinking can become derailed. It is her ninth publication with Magination Press, the children’s book imprint of the American Psychological Association.
Hayden Saunier (Col ’79 CM)
Hayden Saunier (Col ’79 CM) has published her sixth collection of poetry, Wheel, out June 12 from Terrapin Books. Saunier’s work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, Rattle Poetry Prize, Pablo Neruda Prize, and has been published in journals such as Beloit Poetry Journal, diode, Pedestal, Plume, RHR, Thrush, and VQR, and featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writers Almanac.
About Wheel, John Timpane writes,
“It’s a tight collection governed by theme and voice, but also by powerful formal means, especially repeated music and imagery, marked out in something like sonata form by those four “Wheels,” as sameness, otherness, repetition, singularity, and how and why whirl and interequilibrate. Gorgeous. This is the work of a poet at full throttle, full voice, persuading us to join her, farmer, actress, wife, child, adult, past, present, desirer/desired, wonderer, as she stands in winter suit of hand-me-downs amid a storm of beauty, loss, and bright abundance, feet in rubber boots, wheeled round, firmly grounded in chastening, gladdening splendor.”
Sara Shukla (Col ’02, Educ ’06)
Sara Shukla (Col ’02, Educ ’06) has published her debut novel, Pink Whales, a story about marriage, secrets, escape, and deceptively tidy little lives. Sharp-witted and funny, it explores the complexities of a marriage amidst change, modern parenting, and the desire to fit in, no matter how old you are, and sometimes, no matter the cost.
Charlie is already feeling adrift when she relocates to an exclusive town in coastal New England with her mysteriously distant husband, Dev, and their young twins in tow. She hopes the move will recharge her stalled marriage, and she wants her kids to feel like they belong, even if she’s clearly a fish out of water herself. In a strange new world where summer is a verb and both the harbor and the partygoers are awash in a dizzying constellation of pinks and pastels, she’s never felt so confounded or alone. She’ll need more than a preppy handbook to find her way.
Then a trio of power moms―imposing, beautiful, and monogrammed―comes to the rescue, and Charlie clings to their attention like a life raft. As Dev pulls further away, Charlie dives into her newfound friends’ circle of yacht clubs, rivalries, and bizarre theme parties, hoping to find her sea legs. She even dares to cozy up to a hot, barefoot, and aggressively flirty local. But if she’s running from her problems at home, where exactly is she escaping to? Charlie is beginning to wonder. This ridiculous new normal―and her desire to be part of it―might just eat her alive.
Shukla is an editor for WBUR’s Cognoscenti, in Boston. You can find her writing at WBUR as well as the Los Angeles Review of Books, McSweeneys, and elsewhere. An alum of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator, she lives in Massachusetts with her family.
Published by Little A, Pink Whales is on sale June 4.
“A satisfying romp through a New England enclave that’s not nearly as idyllic as it seems.”
―Kirkus Reviews
“My house is a mess and my laundry piled to the ceiling, and it’s all Sara Shukla’s fault! I couldn’t put it down. PINK WHALES lets you go places you’re not invited, drink more than you should, and escape to the beach on nearly every page—what’s not to like?”
―Christine Simon, author of Patron Saint of Second Chances
“Pink Whales is a deep and delightful modern rom-com full of meaningful twists on love, redemption, family, and the meaning of home. A perfect read for the beach…or the yacht club.”
―Byron Lane, author of A Star Is Bored and Big Gay Wedding
“Pink Whales is a can’t-miss coastal romp where Charlie navigates the choppy waters of her new preppy town on a quest to save her marriage and bring her family together. I loved every page. Shukla has a gift for writing humor that hits deep while also exposing truth and the raw emotion that makes the story both relatable and unforgettable.”
―Rachel Barenbaum, author of Atomic Anna and A Bend in the Stars
“Sara Shukla’s Pink Whales is an equal parts hilarious and heartfelt portrait of class anxiety and late coming of age. With her irresistible dialogue and perfectly skewered characters, Shukla swept me into the seaside town of Rumford and all its preppy, pesky privilege. I loved reading this utterly delightful debut!” ―Liv Stratman, author of Cheat Day
Hannah Holtzman (Grad ’11, Grad ’18)
Hannah Holtzman (Grad ’11, ’13, ’18) has published Through a Nuclear Lens: France, Japan, and Cinema from Hiroshima to Fukushima (SUNY Press, 2024), a book which examines the increasingly reciprocal nature of Franco-Japanese cultural exchange through films that center on nuclear issues.
The Franco-Japanese coproduction Hiroshima mon amour (1959) is one of the most important films for global art cinema and for the French New Wave. In Through a Nuclear Lens, Hannah Holtzman examines this film and the transnational cycle it has inspired, as well as its legacy after the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. In a study that includes formal and theoretical analysis, archival research, and interviews, Holtzman shows the emergence of a new kind of nuclear film, one that attends to the everyday effects of nuclear disaster and its impact on our experience of space and time. The focus on Franco-Japanese exchange in cinema since the postwar period reveals a reorientation of the primarily aesthetic preoccupations in the tradition of Japonisme to center around technological and environmental concerns. The book demonstrates how French filmmakers, ever since Hiroshima mon amour, have looked to Japan in part to better understand nuclear uncertainty in France.
Ginny Olson (Col ’98)
Ginny Bowen Olson (Col ’98), president and founder of Brand Elements Coaching, has published her first book, Strategic Marketing for Nonprofits. Based on her role as adjunct professor of marketing for nonprofits in the Master of Public Affairs department at UNC-Greensboro for over a decade and from working with organizations in the civil society sector, this actionable guide is filled with tips and tricks to implement marketing strategy and grow brand awareness. It is available for purchase on Amazon in paperback and eBook.
Howard Edwards (Engr ’71, Med ’77 CM)
Dr. Howard Berryman “Berry” Edwards (’71, Med ’78 CM) published BehaveNet.com, an encyclopedia of psychiatry, including sleep medicine and addiction medicine, since 1995.
Ashley Bartley (Col ’06 CM)
Ashley Bartley (Col ’06 CM) has released two additional titles in her social emotional learning children’s book series published by Boys Town Press. Jasper Lizard Wants to Stay Home (2023) helps young children experiencing separation anxiety and Molly and the Runaway Trolley (2023) offers children strategies for managing anxiety at home and at school. Both books include tips for caregivers, and companion resources are available from Boys Town Press. Bartley is a school counselor, author, and curriculum writer who lives with her husband and three young boys in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She is the owner and creator of the online business Counselor Station, providing curriculum and resources for school counselors.
Richard Kast (Col ’70)
Rick Kast (Col ’70) has published Romance With Variations, a novel concerning the relationship between Robert, a lawyer who is a classical music lover, and Anna, a pianist. There are many mysteries in Anna’s background that she is reticent about. After she disappears, Robert has to confront and resolve them to try to find her. Kast is a lawyer and classical music lover himself. He retired from the UVA General Counsel’s Office in December 2015 and lives in Charlottesville.
Jill Tietjen (Engr ’76 CM)
Jill S. Tietjen (Engr ’76 CM) has published Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service, a memoir co-authored with the first female and first Hispanic U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello. Dr. Novello recounts her childhood illness and her life of service as well as lessons learned – as U.S. Surgeon General, as Commissioner of the Department of Health for the State of New York during 9/11, and through hurricanes, earthquakes, and the pandemic in her native Puerto Rico.
Steve Silbiger (Darden ’90)
Steve Silbiger (Darden ’90) has written the 5th edition of his book, The Ten-Day MBA, which will be available for purchase July 2024. The book distills lessons from the country’s top business schools, including Harvard, Stanford and UVA’s own Darden School of Business. Previous editions of the book have sold over 165,000 copies and been translated into 12 languages.
Robyn McCutcheon (Col ’76 CM)
Robyn McCutcheon (Col ’76 CM) has published Queer Diplomacy: A Transgender Journey in the Foreign Service, covering her career with the Department of State largely in the Soviet Union, Russia, and other post-Soviet countries. The book also covers her transgender journey — including at the University in the 1970s — through gender transition while serving as a diplomat in Romania. It is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637236395.
Robert Colby (Col ’09 CM)
Robert Colby (Col ’09 CM) has published his first book, An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South, with Oxford University Press. The book explores the survival of the slave trade during the Civil War, its effects on the inhabitants of the wartime South, and its influence on the course of the conflict. Colby is an assistant professor of history at the University of Mississippi.
Tony Gentry (Educ ’06)
Tony Gentry (Educ ’06) has published The Night Doctor of Richmond, a biographical novel about the Medical College of Virginia’s notorious 19th Century anatomist and grave robber Chris Baker, to be released June 1. A book launch party will be held at Book People in Richmond, Virginia on June 8th at 7 p.m.
nancy colier (Col ’87)
Nancy Colier (Col ’87) has published her fifth book, The Emotionally Exhausted Woman: Why You’re Feeling Depleted and How to Get What You Need, a radically different self-care guide to help women find the courage to express their deepest needs, nurture self-awareness, and be themselves in a world that expects them to be everything to everyone.
Colier is a psychotherapist, interfaith minister and public speaker.
Cecily Zander (Col ’15)
Cecily Zander (Col ’15) has published The Army under Fire: Antimilitarism in the Civil War (LSU Press), a path-breaking study focusing on the fierce political debates over the size and use of military forces in the United States during the Civil War era. It examines how prominent political figures interacted with the professional army and how those same leaders misunderstood the value of regular soldiers fighting to reunify the fractured nation.
Rickey White (Educ ’83)
Rickey White (Educ ’83) has published a Christian romance novel, Beneath the Skin; a poetry book, Poetic Expressions from Beneath My Skin, and a children’s book, Cori Candle and the Vowel Family Quest.
Jim Ambuske (Grad ’16)
Jim Ambuske (Grad ’16) is the creator, writer and narrator of “Worlds Turned Upside Down,” a podcast about the American Revolution. Produced by R2 Studios, the series tells the story of the revolutionary era as a transatlantic crisis and imperial civil war through the lives of the people who experienced it. The show features many current and former UVA history faculty and graduates, including Max Edelson, Patrick Griffin, Shira Lurie (Grad ’19), Scott Miller (Grad ’15, ’18), Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Hannah Tucker (Grad ’17, ’21) and more. The podcast is available on all major podcast apps and R2 Studios’ website.
Thomas Hauser (Col ’90)
Thomas Hauser (COL ’90) has published Flying in the Shadows: Forging Aerial Intelligence for the United States Army. The book explores the military partnership between aviation and intelligence, including its origins, key personnel, and technological development. Hauser also explains how war and conflict opened opportunities to redefine the field of tactical aerial intelligence and thereby enable the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command to avert a potential catastrophe in East Asia. Flying in the Shadows is published through the U.S. Government Publishing Office in Washington, DC.
Hauser has worked in the U.S. intelligence community for more than twenty years. Previously, he taught politics and history while on the faculty of Shenandoah University and served in the U.S. Army.
Top