“Publication” Class Notes
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM)
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM) published her third work of fiction, Return of the Silent Sovereign, a sci-fi fantasy mix of Star Trek and Wonder Woman with a twist of Romeo and Juliet. Baroody retired from the foreign service at the rank of minister-counselor and continues to work part-time for the Department of State.
John Ragosta (Col ’08 CM)
John Ragosta (Law ’84, Grad ’08) has published his fourth book, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle (UVA Press). In 1799, at the behest of President George Washington, Patrick Henry came out of retirement to thwart Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and the radical states’ rights agenda of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Washington and Henry believed that their opponents were putting party over country and threatening the still fragile union. Rebuking Jefferson and Madison, Henry insisted that in a democracy change must occur “in a constitutional way” or monarchy threatened.
For the People, For the Country tells the remarkable story of how the most eloquent public speaker of the American Revolutionary era and the leading antifederalist during debates over ratification of the Constitution reemerged from retirement to defend the Constitution that he had opposed, but that had been adopted by his co-citizens. Much more than a fire-breathing demagogue, the Patrick Henry we encounter here comes to life as a principled leader of the young nation who believed above all in working with a government elected by the people, advocating for political change in “a constitutional way”—at the ballot box.
Caroline Rayner (Col ’13)
Caroline Rayner (Col ’13) published her first book, The Moan Wilds, in May 2023. Published by Shabby Doll House, The Moan Wilds consists of one long poem, and Caroline describes what it’s about like this: “Lighting fireworks in the yard during a party, then escaping into the house to cut your hair in the bathtub, or down the road to where everyone promised you could perfectly see the moon. Sharing a bottle of wine while riding through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the back of a station wagon with no air conditioning and nothing but weather and sports on the radio. Writing each other’s names on the windows with melting lipstick. Putting glitter on your eyes. Crossing your legs over her legs to make a move on a giant rock in the river. Getting blood on your dress. Sweating in pink sheets until noon with someone you got to sing ‘Someday I Will Treat You Good’ then ‘Trains Across the Sea’ then ‘Farewell Transmission’ with at karaoke. Yelling on the phone from the porch about a psychedelic kind of light coming in like water but also like velvet through the magnolia that everyone needs to see to believe and we can make a whole goddamn night out of it if someone goes to get more wine.”
Selah Saterstrom says, “THE MOAN WILDS is a queer feast…Caroline Rayner can write lines that stop your heart, or rather, relocate it.” Dara Barrois/Dixon says, “Here we have a book of the excruciating intoxication of passionate, ardent, not altogether unrequited love…Rayner’s not holding anything back and the music of her words and the beauty of her soul makes it all bearable.” Ocean Vuong says, “Steeped in the hybrid and maximalist tradition of C.D. Wright, Bernadette Mayer, and Alice Notley, The Moan Wilds nevertheless forges a path so inimitable it becomes the very thumbprint of its author, which to me is the crowning achievement of any book worth its salt. Here Rayner has produced an indelible and unforgettable voice, full of heart, intelligence, hunger and a wildness that shakes us into new, hallucinatory order.”
Excerpts from The Moan Wilds can be found online in Annulet, Black Warrior Review, b l u s h, KEITH LLC, and Peach Mag. An interview with Caroline about THE MOAN WILDS can be found in The Millions.
Jeannine Johnson Maia (Col ’86)
Jeannine Johnson Maia (Col ’86) published The Filigree Master’s Apprentice, her second historical novel about Portugal. It’s the story of a young man who, in 1877, escapes the harsh Douro Valley vineyards for a new — and precarious — life in the big city. (https://mybook.to/FiligreeMaster)
It was published earlier this year by Portuguese publisher Marcador under the title O Rapaz do Douro.
Rossio Square N.° 59, which takes place in Lisbon during WWII, is her first novel.
Shira Lurie (Col ’19)
Shira Lurie (Grad ’19) will publish her first book, The American Liberty Pole: Popular Politics and the Struggle for Democracy in the Early Republic, with UVA Press in October. Lurie is an assistant professor of history at Saint Mary’s University.
Rev. Jack Peterson (Col ’85)
Rev. Jack Peterson (Col ’85) has written his first book, Jesus Himself Drew Near: A Spirituality for Shaping the Lives of Young People. He serves as the director of mission and development for Youth Apostles, a community of Catholic men based in McLean, Virginia who strive to bring young people closer to Christ. His book is based upon the premise that mentors must first know and love Jesus before they can authentically invite others to encounter Him.
Mark Scharf (Col ’84 CM)
Mark Scharf (Grad ’84 CM) has published the play Final Respects (Brooklyn Publishing). His play Clean Up was published in the journal Literature Today in July 2023.
Thomas Smith (Col ’71, Med ’74 CM)
Dr. Thomas F. Smith (Col ’71, Med ’74 CM) has published his first book, The Search For King: A Fable, written in verse, and is completing his second book, Strange Creatures & Odd Bedfellows: Selected Poems. He also has published haiku and limericks in literary journals. He retired from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as professor of pediatrics in 1998 to enter private practice. His current academic affiliation is adjunct professor of internal medicine and pediatrics in the College of Medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center. He and his wife, their three children and four grandchildren live in Austin, Texas. He can be reached through his web site authorthomasmith.com.
Patti Hartigan (Col ’82 CM)
Patti Hartigan (Col ’82 CM) has published August Wilson: A Life, the first authoritative and definitive biography of August Wilson, the most important and successful American playwright of the late 20th century. The biography, published by Simon and Schuster, debuts August 15.
The acclaimed Wilson wrote a series of plays celebrating African American life in the 20th century, one play for each decade. Through his brilliant use of vernacular speech, Wilson developed unforgettable characters who epitomized the trials and triumphs of the African American experience. He said that he didn’t research his plays but wrote from “the blood’s memory,” a sense of racial history that he believed African Americans shared. A former theater critic and arts reporter for the Boston Globe, Hartigan traced his ancestry back to slavery, illustrating how his plays echo with uncanny similarities to the history of his ancestors. She interviewed Wilson many times before his death and chronicles his life from his childhood in Pittsburgh (where nine of the plays take place) to Broadway. She also interviewed scores of friends, theater colleagues and family members, and conducted extensive research to tell the story of a writer who left an indelible imprint on American theater and opened the door for future playwrights of color.
Wade Morris (Col ’04 CM)
Wade Morris (Col ’04) is publishing Report Cards: A Cultural History with Johns Hopkins University Press. The book traces the nearly two hundred year history of American education by examining how grades have reflected the shifting power dynamics between teachers, parents, and students.
Morris argues that report cards reflected broader shifts in the evolution of U.S. schools: the republican zealotry and religious fervor of the antebellum period, the failed promises of postwar Reconstruction for the formerly enslaved, the changing gender roles in newly urbanized cities, the overreach of the Progressive child-saving movement in the early twentieth century, and―by the 1930s―the increasing faith in an academic meritocracy. The use of report cards expanded with the growth of school bureaucracies, becoming a tool through which administrators could surveil both student activity and teachers. And by the late 20th century, even the most radical critics of numerical reporting of children have had to compromise their ideals.
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01)
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) has published George Pal: Man of Tomorrow (BearManor Media), the authorized biography of Academy Award-winning producer/director/animator George Pal (The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds).
Steven Platt (Col ’69)
Steven I. Platt (Col ’69 CM) has published his memoir, Lessons Lived and Learned: My Life On and Off the Bench. A retired senior judge and renowned legal luminary who has been an integral part of the Maryland justice system, Platt shares insights into the inner workings of the justice system as well as highlights of a career so intricately woven within the fabric of history that he’s been dubbed “The Forrest Gump of politics.” He provides both a riveting analysis of the strengths and failings of our justice system and humorous sidebars recounting his life both in and outside the courtroom. Focusing on issues such as judicial decision-making, legal ethics, and the role of judges in our society, Platt offers a comprehensive and cogent examination of the legal system and its impact on individuals and society. Interspersed with this serious review are important and entertaining depictions of his interactions with some of the most influential news makers of our day. Lessons Lived and Learned: My Life On and Off the Bench is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. Visit both to find this and other books in Judge Platt’s Pursuit of Justice series.
Casey Chalk (Col ’07, Educ ’07)
Casey Chalk (Col ’07, Educ ’07) published his second book, The Obscurity of Scripture: Disputing Sola Scriptura and the Protestant Notion of Biblical Perspicuity (Emmaus Road Publishing). The Obscurity of Scripture is the first book-length summation and critique of the Protestant doctrine of perspicuity, analyzing its historical, theological, and philosophical dimensions. Chalk, a former Presbyterian seminary student, provocatively argues that perspicuity, rather than sola fide or sola scriptura, is the most foundational of Protestant doctrines. Best-selling author and biblical scholar Scott W. Hahn, who wrote the foreword for the book, declared that it is “sure to be considered a masterpiece.” Chalk serves as an editor or regular contributor for many publications, including The New Oxford Review, The Federalist, Crisis Magazine, The American Conservative, and The Spectator.
William Walker (Col ’66 CM)
William Walker (Col ’66 CM) published his second book, The Last Lap (Octane Press). The volume tells the story of Pete Kreis, whose fast life in racing and his mysterious death at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have inspired many tales over the years. Walker spent 50 years tracking down witnesses, finding newspaper clippings, and visiting sites where Kreis raced on the Indy Car circuit and in Formula One at Monza, Italy. Walker lives in Staunton, Virginia.
Lloyd Stamy (Col ’73 CM)
Lloyd F. Stamy. Jr. (Col ’73 CM) has published his newest book, Perfect Strangers (Bad Bear Down), the third volume in The Hap Franklin Series. Ripped from current headlines, this timely and gripping thriller is a serious and riveting story, but also told with an abundance of playful humor. Underpinning the primary storyline of bringing down the Russian president is Franklin’s emotional struggle with his faith for guidance and forgiveness in order to get life right while there is still time. Early readers have found it “engaging, captivating, suspenseful, and provocative.” To learn more about the entire three-book series, follow the below link to his author page:
www.amazon.com/author/lloyd.stamy
Susanne Croasdaile (Educ ’05)
Susanne Croasdaile (Educ ’05) has published her first book, Building Executive Function and Motivation in the Middle Grades: A Universal Design for Learning Approach. Using real-life examples, Croasdaile shows educators how to integrate Universal Design for Learning to transform the learning experience for their students. She provides a roadmap for anyone who seeks practical, research-based strategies to help their students survive and thrive to become expert learners in the middle grades. In an easy-to-follow, 8-step process, Croasdaile offers numerous strategies that will enhance instruction and support student social and emotional competency. By highlighting practices related to students’ executive function and sustained effort, this book is a useful addition to the toolkit of every classroom teacher, coach, and administrator.
Patricia Leonard (Col ’88 CM)
Patricia A. Steenberg Leonard (Col ’88 CM) co-authored an article entitled “Use of the Constructive Knowledge Standard When Evaluating Evident Partiality Challenges to Arbitration Awards in Florida,” in the July/August 2023 edition of The Florida Bar Journal.
Willie Lin (Col ’08)
Willie Lin (Col ’08) will publish her debut poetry collection, Conversation Among Stones, with BOA Editions in November 2023. A meditation on memory and identity that lives among and vexes personal, familial, and social histories, the collection questions what can remain and what must be pared away in our search for truth. Lin’s chapbook Instructions for Folding, published with Northwestern University Press, was winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize.
Robert Graboyes (Col ’76 CM)
Robert Graboyes (Col ’76 CM) has published “Shockley versus Shockley: Don’t Cut the Tail off the Rattlesnake,” an analysis of physicist-turned-eugenicist William Shockley’s controversial appearance at UVA in 1975; and “Do Not Go Gentle: J. Sargeant Reynolds Against the Dying of the Light,” a remembrance of an historic 1971 anti-segregation speech by Virginia’s then-dying lieutenant governor. Graboyes, who writes on economics, science, and culture at Bastiat’s Window, was recently named senior research affiliate at the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation at West Virginia University.
Ilana Berry (Law ’03)
Ilana Berry (Law ’03) published her debut spy novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow (Simon & Schuster), in May 2023. Her pen name is I.S. Berry. After spying for the CIA for six years, including one year in wartime Baghdad, Berry decided she preferred writing about espionage to doing it. The Peacock and the Sparrow is about an American spy caught in the crosswinds of the Arab Spring who becomes involved in murder, consuming love, and an unpredictable revolution. Joseph Kanon, bestselling author of The Berlin Exchange, calls it “remarkable” and Joseph Weisberg, creator of the TV series The Americans, calls it “the most realistic espionage story I’ve read.”
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