Cheryl Ball ('00) will be starting her fourth year as an assistant
professor, with a job move to Illinois State University in good ol'
Normal, IL, where she'll be the digital rhetoric and new media studies person in the English department. It's her dream job, and the department has a longstanding investment in the intersections of all English fields and technology, so it's a great fit. She's also excited that the first student whose thesis she directed will be attending VCU to start the MATX program this fall.

M. C. Boyes ('98) won the Tennessee Commission for the Arts
Fellowship for fiction for 2006. The fellowships are given annually to poets and prose writers who are legal residents of Tennessee. Mary received $5,000. The book she co-edited with Peter Scheckner, The Way We Work: Contemporary Writings about Americans and
Their Work Experience, is under contract with Vanderbilt University Press and should be out in Spring 2008. This is a collection of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry and features some VCU favorites like Larry Levis and Phil Levine. PLUS the following alum’s work will be included in the book: Paula Champa, Andrew Miller, Darren Morris, and Nathan Long. Mary also continues to work with Popular Ink Press. If you'd like to take a look at the website, it can be found here:

Nan Byrne ('01) edited the new anthology, Bar Stories, which includes work by several VCU alumni. Get your copy here.

Lee Capps's ('02) fiction has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge and in Nan Byrne's Bar Stories anthology.

Colleen Curran's ('01) anthology Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings was published by Vintage Books in May 2007. Colleen edited the collection of original essays by writers such as Curtis Sittenfeld, Amy Bloom, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Lara Vapnyar, Amy Sohn, Meghan Daum, and Julianna Baggott, as well as VCU professor Catherine Ingrassia and VCU MA grad Anne Carle. O Magazine called the collection "refreshingly unsentimental" and People said it was a "great read." Colleen's short story, "The Girl Who Drank Lye" was published in the Fall 2006 issue of Mid-American Review. She has another short story, "The Dearborn's Aren't Home," forthcoming in Glimmer Train.

Dana Crum ('96) is the editor and co-founder of The Crocus Review, a new journal devoted to world literature. Check out the journal here! Moreover, the mag is now accepting submissions—short stories (or self-contained novel excerpts), poems, essays and creative nonfiction works. Submissions should be e-mailed to editor@thecrocusreview.org.

Kathy Davis's ('05) work has most recently appeared in Blackbird, The Louisville Review and Small Spiral Notebook. Her chapbook, Holding for the Farrier, is due out this summer from Finishing Line Press. She is working as the Richmond Director of Young Audiences of Virginia, a non-profit organization that promotes the use of the arts in education.

Jeannette Drake ('91) served as writer in residence at Fisher Elementary School in Richmond, VA during October and November, 2006. Her fourth grade students created speculative fiction stories centered around the themes of peace, justice, the environment and multicultural communities. Students compiled an anthology, Orbs of Humanity (Works in Progress), and gave a public reading for parents, fellow students and school staff. The residency was sponsored by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Richmond Arts and Humanities Center.

Rose Elliott ('95) moved back to Charlottesville in 2005 and last July her poetry chapbook, The Separation of Kin, was published by Potsdam College Press after winning Blueline's first chapbook award. Last fall, she traveled to Potsdam NY to do a celebratory reading which was supported by the NY Council for the Arts and Poets and Writers, Inc. and also shared a reading in Charlottesville with Kevin McFadden as part of the Downtown Voices series. Currently she is Associate Poetry Editor of Streetlight, a literary journal in Charlottesville that recently became independent and is seeking nonprofit status and still an adjunct at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Last but not least, Rose recently learned that her second chapbook, At The Center, was a finalist in the New Women's Voices competition at Finishing Line Press and will be published this coming winter. She would love to hear from old MFA friends at relliott9@earthlink.net.

Pam Garvey ('97) has a chapbook of poems entitled Fear
forthcoming from Finishing Line Press this February.

Patty Paine Gibbons ('03) continues as assistant professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Doha, Qatar. She had poems published in 5th Gear, Umbrella, and Hobble Creek Review. Her chapbook, Elegy & Collapse (Finishing Line Press, 2005) was reviewed in Blackbird and her poetry manuscript, Oracle Bones, came in 4th place in The Philip Levine Poetry Prize contest and was a semi-finalist in several other contests. She recently received a faculty development grant to attend the Writers Abroad Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and will be presenting a paper, Learning Across Language: Using Translation to Facilitate Second Language Acquisition, at The Conference on the Book in Madrid in October. Meanhwhile, in her spare time, she serves as the editor for the new online journal diode.

Anna Journey ('07) has poems forthcoming in The American Poetry Review and The Kenyon Review.

Kim Golden-Malmgren ('95) published two short essays in Ojodepez, a Spanish culture/photojournalism magazine. Her novel, (working title): See How They Shine for You, is being considered by an agent in the US. Meanwhile, she has her own company, KGM Language Consultancy and Translations and also teaches academic English at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, Sweden. She's still married to Tord and putting up with the long, dark Swedish winters.

Hilty Hazzard ('06) is getting an AAS degree in Graphic Design from Parsons School of Design in New York and interning in the art department at Avalon Publishing Group.

Jerry Huml ('97) is working toward his ninth year in the Finance department at the UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since the last issue of The Whale's Belly, his poems have been accepted by The Akros Review, Poetry Southeast, and Niteblade (forthcoming). His book review of Ornithologies by fellow alumnus Joshua Poteat was accepted by Rattle and can be found online here. Jerry occasionally participates in a local philosophy discussion group called Thinking Out Loud. He also has a poetry blog called Poetry and the Examined Life. Jerry and his wife Amy are seriously considering a trip to either Scotland or the Grand Canyon in 2008.

Nathan Long ('99) will start his third year teaching creative writing at Richard Stockton College in the fall of 2007. In the past year, his chapbook of short stories came out with Popular Ink Press, and he has fiction in recent issues of Driftwood and Philadelphia Stories, as well as several short creative non-fiction pieces in The Sun. This summer, he studied creative writing pedigogy with poet/translator Richard Howard at NYU and has led his own writing workshops for schools and community organizations.

Elizabeth (Buffy) Seydel Morgan's ('86) fourth book of poems from LSU Press was released this Spring. Without A Philosophy was named the winner of LSU's Les Philabaum Prize. It is available online at the usual booksellers, and Buffy longs for VCU poets to peruse it. Do so here!

Dan Memmolo's ('94) chapbook, Beat Surrender, came out in December from Main Street Rag as part of their Editor's Choice Chapbook Series. Recent poems have appeared in Controlled Burn, Poems & Plays, and Lily. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and son.

Kendra Bailey Morris ('95) published her first cookbook/memoir with Ten Speed Press, White Trash Gatherings: From-Scratch Cooking for Down-Home Entertaining, which has now gone into a second printing. She also writes regularly for National Public Radio's "Kitchen Window." In addition, she was just hired as a columnist with the Richmond Times Dispatch and has a weekly food column (which will alternate between a recipe/story column and an "ask the chef" column) that runs every Sunday in the Flair section. Lastly, coming up in October, she will be teaching a food writing class at the University of Richmond which will cover writing for periodicals, food essays, and cookbooks. If you need any additional information, it can be found on her website.

Tara Moyle ('04) is starting at the Appomattox Regional Governor's School in the fall, teaching creative writing and English.
Her poem, "Amphibian Duet" was included in the anthology Joyful Noise: American Spiritual Poetry, and another poem, "Days After the Tsunami, 2005" is forthcoming on the web edition of Agni.
She also participated in a group reading for Joyful Noise in New York this spring and read as a part of the "Art After Hours" series for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Wendy Mathis Parker ('01) was commissioned by the Barter Theatre to write a play in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of America. Jamestowne – A Likely Story toured eight states before its month-long run in April at the Barter Stage II in Abingdon, VA. A member of the American Theatre Critics Association, Wendy served as a judge for the 2006 Steinberg Award for the best new American play and the Osborn award for best emerging playwright. She continues as managing editor of The Village Mill and enjoys writing theatre features for Backstage, a New York-based theatre weekly.

Jon Pineda's ('00) second collection, The Translator's Diary, won the 2007 Green Rose Prize and will be published by New Issues Poetry & Prose (in March 2008). Also, he recently joined the faculty at the low-res MFA program in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte.

Lynda Firth Raines's ('01) short story, “Southern Health,” was
recently published in Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River
Valley. For the past four years, Lynda has been the copy editor for The Village Mill. She met her boss, Wendy Parker, in the MFA program, which proves that networking at graduate school really does pay off.

Nicholas Reading's ('07) poetry manuscript, The Party in Question, was recently selected by Dorianne Laux as the winner of Burnside Review's annual chapbook competition. For more information please see here.

Ron Smith ('85) has recently reviewed his 100th book for The Richmond Times-Dispatch. His poetry column “Red Guitar” continues online in Blackbird, and his new book, Moon Road: Poems 1986-2005, soon to appear from LSU Press, has recently received advance praise from Pulitzer-winner Claudia Emerson as well as Tom Wolfe.

Rivka Swenson ('99) completed her JD Fleeman Fellowship at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and will now serve as the Edgar G. Shannon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, where she will teach, among other things, the Seminar for Distinguished Majors in English.

Maggi Tinsley ('92) joined Jo Kennedy at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond in August as Marketing Coordinator. In December, she and daughter Caroline, 6, returned to Hunan Province PRC to add Betsy, 2, to the family.

Amy Tudor ('94) is living with her partner in Louisville, Kentucky, is about halfway through her Ph.D. in Humanities at University of Louisville, and is working at home as a medical writer/editor for a patient-advocacy Web site. She got an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Council for the Arts this year and has poems and short stories coming out in The Louisville Review and Limestone. Amy's first full-length collection of poetry, A Book of Birds, has been selected by final judge David Wojahn as the winner of the2007-2008 Liam Rector First Book Prize for Poetry and will be published by Briery Creek Press in April 2008.  

Susan Settlemyre Williams's ('04) chapbook Possession is out now, from Finishing Line Press. It was also a runner-up in the Tupelo Press Snowbound Competition. Her full-length manuscript continues to be a bridesmaid; it was a finalist or runner-up in four contests this year, but no home yet. She currently has poems in several print and online journals, including Sycamore Review, Mississippi Review, 42opus, Poetry Southeast, and a few others. Her poem "Lighter" won the 2006 Diner poetry contest and was also selected for Best New Poets 2006. She is continuing to work on Blackbird (serving as book review editor and associate literary editor), and has taught a non-credit poetry workshop at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Richmond for the last three years. All that's positive, but healthwise, she's facing her third back surgery and beginning to believe that getting old is vastly overrated.