“Publication” Class Notes
Ben Krakauer (Col ’03)
Ben Krakauer (Col ’03) has recorded an album of original banjo music called Hidden Animals.The album will be released March 22 by Adhyâropa Records. The music moves between blazing bluegrass romps, conversational jams, harmonically tender daydreams and chaotically cohesive grooves. It’s an album of gratitude, grief, hunkering down and celebrating the beauty of friendship, nature and human expression during a time when nothing can be taken for granted.
Chapman Frazier (Educ ’94)
Chapman Hood Frazier (Grad ’94) has recently published a collection of poetry entitled The Lost Books of the Bestiary. The collection of poems explores animals, culture, myth and the spirit through unusual perspectives. The book was a finalist for the V Press LC Award.
The poems have won awards from The Virginia Poetry Society and some have appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Poetry Review, The South Carolina Poetry Review and other publications.
Javier Escudero (Grad ’92)
Javier Escudero Rodríguez (Grad ’88, ’92) has published a photography book entitled Pierre Fatumbi Verger: United States of America 1934 & 1937 (Bologna, Damiani 2022). The book presents a collection of 150 photographs by Verger, as well as an introductory analysis that contextualizes the collection in the Great Depression.
In the introduction, Javier Escudero Rodríguez discusses Verger´s important contribution to modern photography as well as the lasting relevance of this previously unknown collection of iconic images of the Great Depression. The 150 images, the majority of which are published here for the first time, were selected from among 1,110 negatives in the archive at the Pierre Verger Foundation in Salvador after laborious and meticulous research.
MARY BRANCACCIO (Col ’81)
Mary Brancaccio (Col ’81 CM) has published her first poetry collection, Fierce Geometry. Her poetry travels the emotive back roads and roadside attractions of one woman’s journey through longing, love and loss.
Brancaccio’s poetry has appeared in Naugatuck River Review, Minerva Rising, Edison Literary Review, Lake Affect Magazine and Adana, among others. Her poem, Unfinished Work, was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is included in several anthologies of poetry, including Writing the Land: Maine, Writing the Land: Northeast, Farewell to Nuclear, Welcome to Renewable Energy (a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster) and Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women.
T. Kelly (Col ’82 CM)
Mills Kelly (Col ’82 CM) has published Virginia’s Lost Appalachian Trail, a history of the original route of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. The book tells the story of the founding of the trail, why 300 miles of trail moved 50 miles west to its current location, and how losing access to the trail impacted local communities on the Great Plateau of Southwest Virginia. When the trail moved, hikers lost the opportunity to hike over the Pinnacles of Dan, through Rock Castle Gorge, and to the summit of Farmer Mountain with its 360 degree views of the New River Valley. But they also lost the opportunity to cross the New River on a flat bottomed pole ferry named Redbird, to pass through the heartland of old time music in Virginia, and to stop for a while at events like Floyd Fest and the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention. And the residents of the region missed the opportunity to meet those hikers from around the world — something they regret very much.
Holly Singh (Grad ’11)
Holly Donahue Singh (Grad ’05, ’11 CM) published her first book, Infertility in a Crowded Country: Hiding Reproduction in India (Indiana University Press), an academic monograph based on long-term fieldwork in North India.
In Lucknow, the capital of India’s most populous state, the stigmas and colonial legacies surrounding sexual propriety and population growth affect how Muslim women, often in poverty, cope with infertility. Singh draws on interviews, observation, and auto ethnographic perspectives in local communities and Lucknow’s infertility clinics to examine access to technology and treatments and to explore how pop culture shapes the reproductive paths of women and their supporters through clinical spaces, health camps, religious sites, and adoption agencies.
Singh is a faculty member at the Judy Genshaft Honors College at the University of South Florida.
For more information about the book: https://iupress.org/9780253063878/infertility-in-a-crowded-country/
Above left: Singh presents a copy of the book to Dean Charles Adams (Grad ’79, ’85) of the Judith Genshaft Honors College at the release event at USF.
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01)
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) wrote the introduction to a new edition of The Man Who Fell to Earth, published by Centipede Press.
Mark Dewalt (Col ’86 CM)
Dr. Mark W. Dewalt (Grad ’86 CM) published an article in The Journal of Plain Anabaptists Communities this past fall, entitled “Amish Mortality Rates in the Twenty-First Century.”
Susan Schmidt (Grad ’73)
Susan Schmidt (Grad ’72, ’80) has published Drought Drought Torrential, a book of poetry that captures a naturalist’s view of the first year of the pandemic in Beaufort, N.C. A scientist, poet, sailboat captain, and Quaker naturalist, Schmidt celebrates neighbors in her small town —dolphins, clouds, egrets, terns, willets, black skimmers, oystercatchers, herons, gannets. She witnesses coastal diversity and resilience, threatened by sea level rise, King Tides, motorboat wakes, and tourist trash. As a developmental editor, Schmidt polishes science and history books, novels, and memoirs. She has been a professor of literature and environmental decision-making, government science-policy analyst, and just renewed her Coast Guard Captain’s license, which she’s had forty years.
Her poems appear in Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina and won the Guy Owen, Gail O’Day, and Robert Golden poetry prizes; two poems were finalists for the James Applewhite Prize. She wrote Landfall Along the Chesapeake, In the Wake of Captain John Smith, an ecological history and boat adventure; Song of Moving Water, a novel about a young woman who organizes her community to oppose a dam; Salt Runs in My Blood, poems about fish, birds, playing in boats, walking long trails; Let Go or Hold Fast, Beaufort Poems about coastal critters, sea level rise, hurricanes, and tourist trash.
Joseph Fry (Grad ’70, Grad ’74)
Joseph A. Fry (Grad ’70, ’74) has published Letters from the Southern Homefront: The American South Responds to the Vietnam War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2023). This edited collection of letters provides a voice to southerners from across the region expressing a broad range of political, economic, racial, and cultural views on the war and its domestic impact.
Alana Ritenour (Col ’02)
Alana Malick Ritenour (Col ’02 CM) and her husband, Rhodes Ritenour (Col ’00, Law ’05 CM) have published a children’s book called The Adventures of Rhodes and Alana: School Bus Secret. Eight-year-old Rhodes and Alana miss the school bus, leading to an exciting journey and an opportunity for Rhodes to tell Alana about living with type 1 diabetes. As a result, a new friendship is formed between these two spirited and confident kids. Proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association, JDRF, and TheDiabetesSupportGroup.org. For more, visit www.RhodesandAlana.com.
Mark Harris (Col ’96)
Mark H. Harris (Col ’96) has co-written his first book, The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar, to be published by Simon & Schuster/Saga Press in February 2023. The Black Guy Dies First explores the Black journey in modern horror cinema, from the fodder epitomized by Spider Baby to the Oscar-winning cinematic heights of Get Out and beyond.
Steven Schaikewitz (Col ’70)
Steven Schaikewitz (Col ’70 CM) recently coauthored “Variations on a Theme: Georgia’s Evolving Test for Interlocutory Injunctive Relief”. The article appeared in the August 2022 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.
Deborah Hammond (Arch ’82 CM)
Deborah Sheetenhelm Hammond (Arch ’82 CM) has released her 26th novel, The Very Thought of You. It follows the cases of FBI Agent John McIver, who is pulled from his customary undercover work to oversee the stalking investigation of a famous actress, Charlotte Meadows. Chased across two continents, the stalker seeks to overturn Charlotte’s life and end John’s. This novel and Hammond’s other titles are available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and paperback versions and at local book signing events.
Celeste Lipkes (Grad ’13)
Celeste Elizabeth Lipkes (Grad ’13) has an upcoming debut book of poems, Radium Girl, which will be published March 21, 2023, by the University of Wisconsin Press. The book, populated by magicians, saints, and scientists, explores the speaker’s journey surviving both medical illness and medical training.
Lipkes received her MFA in poetry from UVA in 2013 and currently works as an inpatient consult psychiatrist at the Charles George VA Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.
Lindsey Wray (Col ’03)
Lindsey Wray (Col ’03) released a debut musical album in December 2022 as part of The Flip Phones band. Titled Better in the Dark, the album features quirky lyrics and catchy melodies that explore themes of light vs. darkness and humans vs. nature. The Flip Phones’ sound lies at the intersection of indie, rock, and folk music. Lindsey (keyboard, melodica, flute, vocals) collaborated with her bandmate and husband, Ryan Kobb (guitar, vocals), to create the unique album, which includes the singles “Man-Made Moon” and “Fly Back to You.”
Mike Albo (Col ’91)
Michael Albo (Col ’91 CM) has written his third novel, Another Dimension of Us, which will be released in Jan. 2023. The speculative YA story follows a group teens from both the past and the future who travel across time to save the ones they love. Albo is also the author of Hornito and The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life. The latter was co-written with Virginia Heffernan (Col ’91 CM).
Andrew Lee (Med ’89 CM)
Dr. Andrew G. Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) has published his 12th textbook, Space Flight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS). The condition, known as SANS, is unique to long duration space flight. There is no known terrestrial equivalent.
Dr. Lee has worked as a consultant for NASA on SANS, but he has no intention of leaving Earth for the planned manned mission to Mars. Nevertheless, he remains committed to continued terrestrial research on the mysteries of SANS.
Karen Jones (Educ ’73)
Karen Jones (Educ ’73 CM) has published her fifth book, The Summer of Grace. The southern coming-of-age novel, set in 1951 North Carolina, tells the story of a young girl’s transformation from victim to survivor through humor, hard truths and grace.
Jones is an author, award-winning broadcast journalist and freelance writer. Her other works, both fiction and non fiction include Up the Bestseller Lists! A Hands-On Guide to Successful Book Promotion, Death for Beginners and The Highland Witch.
Jones lives in Virginia Beach and can be reached through her website, kjwriter.com
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM)
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM) published her second book of short stories, Paris Gold: Ten Tales of Treasures Lost and Found in 2022. Like the first, Casablanca Blue, Paris Blue is a collection of fiction and fantasy based on her experiences and travel. Judith has worked as a foreign service officer, professor and journalist. She is also the author of the non-fiction Media Access and the Military.
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