Class Notes: Fall 2023
Bennington College alumni research, create, discover, publish, present, teach, exhibit, and earn countless honors. We are proud to showcase those we have learned about from news reports and alumni submissions here. While it is impossible to capture every accomplishment, we invite alumni to submit their news by emailing classnotes@bennington.edu.
Page Contents
1950–1959
Steel, War, and Bicycles, a memoir by Mary Lou (Peters) Schram ’56, has been published by Politics and Prose Publishing Company.
The Jacobson House in Tucson, AZ, is a significant modernist property designed by architect Judith Chafee ’58. The property has now been added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Pima County Historic landmark, which will protect the home for future generations.
1960–1969
Fran Bull ’60 showed her paintings, prints, and sculpture at Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts in Brattleboro, VT. The side-by-side exhibit also featured artist Helen Schmidt.
Work by Ruth Mordecai '60 was on display at Rock Neck Art Colony's The Cove Gallery in Gloucester, MA. It was part of Generations June 22-July 16.
Peggy’s Puzzles – Volume One, written and illustrated by Peggy Adler ’63, is now available through BearManor Media.
Barbara Glasser ’65 has written the screenplay for Son of Houdini, a film currently in development by SilverFox Cinema.
Constance Kheel ’67 exhibited at Laffer Gallery in Schuylerville, NY.
In May, Roxana Barry Robinson '68 will receive The Authors Guild Foundation Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community at the 31st Annual Authors Guild Foundation Gala.
The Art Newspaper reported that the archive of Maren Hassinger ’69 has been acquired by Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Risa Jaroslow ’69 and her evening-length dance, “Talking Circle,” which had a run at San Francisco venue CounterPulse in May 2022 and presented in encore performances at the Oakland Theater Project in January 2023.
Choreographer Liz Lerman ’69 is a recipient of the prestigious 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is among more than 100 Bennington-associated Guggenheim Fellows to have been awarded throughout both organizations’ histories.
1970–1979
Robert Frost scholar Phil Holland '71 and Director of the Robert Frost Stone House Museum Erin McKenny spoke with WSHU's "Off the Path"about Frost's move to Vermont.
James D. Bloom ’72 has published Roth’s Wars: A Career in Conflict, a researched account of Philip Roth’s preoccupation with wars around the world and wars at home. At their 2023 Commencement, Muhlenberg College awarded Professor of English Bloom its 2023 Paul C. Empie Memorial Award for teaching and service distinguished by the quest for meaning and value in learning.
Successfully Navigating Your Parents' Senior Years by Star Bradbury '72 was released in March 2023.
Randie Denker ’72 works as an environmental attorney, educator, and activist along with her long-time partner, Dr. Steve Leitman, an environmental hydrologist. They are co-founders of Waters without Borders, which mediates water disputes and finds scientific and legal solutions to water apportionment problems, internationally, nationally and regionally. She is also the sole proprietor of Denker Law Office. She volunteers registering minority voters, serves on a variety of local boards, teaches English to new immigrants, and serves on the Sierra Club Legal Advisory Board. She has also worked with several NATO Science for Peace projects. Randie and Steve live in Tallahassee, Florida in a solar home that produces enough energy to even charge their EV. They are avid composters and grow about 60% of their own food in their organic garden. They share food with a network of other growers and sell some to the local food coop.
Harold Davis '73 exhibited botanical photographic prints at the San Francisco Botanical Garden Helen Crocker Russell Horticultural Library.
Lori Barker ’74 exhibited on the Gallery Wall at the Whittemore Library in Naugatuck, CT during the month of May 2023. The exhibit of mixed media artwork “blends nature and spirituality into an exploration of the rhythms of life.”
Former trustee and noted photography collector Bruce Berman ’74 and his wife Lea Russo have donated 77 works of art to benefit Bennington College’s innovative Art for Access program.
Duet, a show including Work by Teri Malo and Leslie Parke '74, was on display at Soprafina Gallery in Boston during the summer of 2023.
Let Your Heart Be Broken, Life and Music from a Classical Composer by Tina Davidson ’76 was published on March 14, 2023, by Boyle & Dalton. The book juxtaposes memories, journal entries, and insight into the life of an artist—and a mother—at work.
Visiting faculty member Colin Brant, former Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member Melissa Febos, and Michael Pollan '76 were recipients of the prestigious 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Mel Watkin ’77 is the invitational juror for a Southern Illinois University Museum showcase of women artists. She was a 2022 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship.
Gavel to Gavel, a legal thriller by A. X. Foster '78 is now available from Paper Raven Books.
Colorado College professor Claire Oberon Garcia '78 has been appointed the new Colorado State Historian.
YOU Can Earn a Living Trading Stocks: Theory and Practice by Peter Pochna ’78 is now available to purchase through Amazon.
Tim Daly '79 returned to the Dorset Theatre Festival in the world premiere of Still by Lia Romeo.
Director Lorca Peress '79 received an award from the League of Professional Theatre Women at their March 2023 ceremony.
1980–1989
Diane Davis ’80 was among those named to HONOR ROLL!, an advocacy group for women and playwrights over 40, at The Workshop Theater Spring 2023 Workshop Intensive.
Dr. Jennifer Mieres '82 offered tips to NPR about how to get the most out of conversations with your doctors.
Artdaily.com reported that Carrie Moyer ’82 is now being represented by Alexander Gray Associates, a contemporary art gallery in New York City and Germantown, NY.
Cellist Jared Shapiro MFA ’83 performed for the 17th North Bennington New Year’s Eve Cello Concert in North Bennington.
This spring, Matt Chinian ’84, Anna Rockwell ’94, Alicia Herrmann ’98 showed work in the inaugural Critical Forum Artist Exhibition at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY. The show was organized by Critical Forum program director Taliesin Thomas ’98.
Michelle Matland '84, costume designer for the hit HBO show Succession, spoke to Huffington Post about crafting the show's fashion.
Will I Have Tomorrow?, a short film directed, edited, and filmed by Andrea Odezynska ’84, details the public health initiatives performed by HealthRight International on the ground in Ukraine. The film is now available to view on Vimeo.
Dennis Warren ’84 was featured in a Seven Days article related to his participation in Burlington’s Undiscovered Jazz Fest. The article delves into the music scene at Bennington College in the 1980s.
The Alta Vista Residence, designed by Alterstudio Architecture and Kevin Alter '85, has been featured in Architect Magazine.
Author and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis ’86 released The Shards, a fictionalized memoir, in 2023. He was featured in Interview Magazine.
Joel Stillerman ’86 has published Identity Investments: Middle-class Responses to Precarious Privilege in Neoliberal Chile with Stanford University Press.
Donna Tartt '86 answered questions about The Secret History from online publication The Fussy Librarian in January. The book and its revival were also the subject of an online article in Russh magazine.
Arjun Desai '88, co-founder of Desai Chia Architecture, has joined the jury for Architizer's Vision Awards, which recognizes the architecture industry’s unsung creative heroes.
Brad Schlei ’88 premiered his latest film, Fioretta, at the Woodstock Film Festival in September.
The Jaguar Foundation of Atlanta awarded an inaugural scholarship in honor of WSB-TV Atlanta news anchor Jovita Moore ’89. The first Jovita Moore HBCU Undergraduate Scholarship Award was given out during the organization's 14th annual Atlanta Achievement Awards in Atlanta in August. Moore had been the emcee of the event from 2010-2021. Moore died of brain cancer in 2021.
1990–1999
Amy Williams ’90, half of The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, performed at the Deane Carriage Barn at Bennington College in September. They play contemporary works that challenge the notion of what is possible to play.
During her first Field Work Term, Lee Hunsaker '91 worked with at-risk young adults on the Flatlands Reservation in Montana. Since then, Hunsaker has "developed a reputation as a 'story midwife' who helps bring out the best in her storytellers," writes Cardinal News.
This spring, Matt Chinian ’84, Anna Rockwell ’94, Alicia Herrmann ’98 showed work in the inaugural Critical Forum Artist Exhibition at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY. The show was organized by Critical Forum program director Taliesin Thomas ’98.
In July, the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, VT, welcomed Wendy Bordwell '96 as their new Event and Program Manager.
At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf, a novel by Tara Ison MFA '99, was named an Editors' Choice by the New York Times Book Review.
David Ryan MFA '99 has a short story featured in The O. Henry Prize 2023 anthology of short stories, judged by Jenny Minton Quigley and Lauren Groff.
2000–2009
A poem by Leah Silverman, MFA ’00, "You'll Remember the Blood," has been published in the Winter 2023 issue of Passager.
Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair, the debut novel by June Gervais ’02, from Penguin Books, came out in paperback this summer.
Bill Macholdt ’02 exhibited at Raritan Valley Community College, where he also teaches, in January 2023. The show, “Ideas in Form,” was exhibited at the Art Gallery at the College’s Branchburg campus in New Jersey.
Jessica Nadeau ’03, who received her MAT in Art education from Art of Education University in 2021, has been teaching art at a public school in Maine for 15 years. She was recently named the 2023 Maine Elementary Art Educator of the Year.
Ryan C. Tittle '05 won 2nd Prize in Blue Institute’s 5th Annual Words on Water Writing Contest (Adult Poetry Category). The poem, “The Rain Dance,” is published digitally at Blue Institute's website.
Fantasy novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell '05 will be available through DAW in early 2024.
Cosmo Whyte ’05, a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, was featured on artnet.com. The article touched on his recent work, including works from his second solo exhibition at Anat Ebgi in Los Angeles.
Modesto Flako Jimenez ’06 was named by the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton as one of five Hodder Fellows for 2023-2024. During Jimenez’s fellowship, he will conduct research on the science of dementia and the resources currently available to African American and Latin American communities in dealing with issues of mental health and caregiving. He will also begin developing a series of instructional caregiver videos in Spanish and English.
On March 25, Matt Scott '06 and Sam Clement '08, bandmates in Beard & Glasses, took to the stage as part of the Vermont Arts Exchange's Basement Music Series. Seven Days reviewed Born at the Wrong Time, the group’s debut album. Reviewer Chris Farnsworth wrote, “Scott and Clement are so completely in control of their sound that they wield the different genres like carpenters do a tool belt.”
Britten Traughber ’06 recently gave an artist talk at the Medium Photography Festival in San Diego. “X marks the Spot” highlighted the combination of her long running documentary portraits, self portraits, and performance art in Burlesque under the stage name ‘Bea Trouble’. Britten has served as the Oral History Coordinator for the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas and is the founder of Tucson Tease Burlesque, a quarterly burlesque review voted “Best Burlesque in Arizona” in 2023.
Early in 2023, Sean Adams ’08 published The Thing in the Snow, a hybrid satire/thriller from William Morrow. He joined the Otherppl podcast to discuss the book, which was the official January pick of The Nervous Breakdown Book Club.
Princeton Makes, a Princeton-based artist cooperative, and Ragged Sky Press, a local publisher focused on poetry, in New Jersey, welcomed Anna M. Evans MFA ’08 for its Second Sunday Poetry Reading series in September.
Fantasy of Loving the Fantasy, a poetry collection by Jennifer Funk '08 was published in June by Bull City Press.
Daydrielane Osorio ’08 spoke to the Greenville Journal about her photography and the magic of the carbon transfer process.
Tod Goldberg MFA ’09 will be featured on Alta Live’s Writers on Writers. The Zoom presentation is a program of Alta Journal, a quarterly publication for anyone seeking an insider’s take on California and the West.
Sitting in Bars with Cake, based on the 2015 novel by Audrey Shulman ’09, is now streaming on Amazon Prime. The story is based on and dedicated to Shulman’s close friend Chrissy Osmulski, who used to work in Bennington’s Office of Admissions.
2010–2019
We Arrive Uninvited, the debut novel by Jen Knox MFA ’10, was released by Steel Toe Box in March 2023. The book won the Steel Toe Books Prize for Prose and the Winter Goose Publishing Award.
New York Times Magazine interviewed Safiya Sinclair ’10 about her work and lessons learned from her mentor, the poet Rita Dove. In addition, an excerpt from Sinclair’s memoir, How to Say Babylon, was featured in The New Yorker in July.
Theory of Colors, a screenplay by Shehrezad Maher '11, has been selected for Hamptons International Film Festival's 22nd Annual Screenwriters Lab, which will pair rising screenwriters with established screenwriters, directors, and creative-producers for a weekend of one-on-one mentoring sessions.
Amanda Phillips de Lucas ’11 has published her book Justice and the Interstates (Island Press). The book is an outgrowth of her dissertation research on highway building and activism in Baltimore and an essay series published on The Metropole in 2021.
In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel, a novel by Genevieve Plunkett '11, was published in August 2023 by Catapult Books. She joined with faculty Michael Dumanis and Mary Rueffe for a signing and readings at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum in September.
On May 1, 2023 Tender Machines by J. Mae Barizo MFA '13 was published by Tupelo Press.
"Gentle or Not," a poem by Laura Cresté '13 originally published in American Poetry Review, was featured on Poetry Daily on February 5, 2023.
Bronwyn Maloney ’13, an animator and sound designer, was featured in The Highlands Current.
The second season of New Hampshire Public Radio’s Bear Brook podcast, hosted by Jason Moon ’13, is now available. The podcast has been recognized in the Irish Examiner, the LA Review of Books, and KCBS radio, among others.
Bennington College welcomed Alison (Young Eun) Cho '14 is the new Associate Director of International Students and Scholar Advising.
Fran, a band led by frontwoman Maria Jacobson ’14, has released Leaving, a sophomore album that is “angular, precise and filled with melodic entanglement.”
The New York Times convened five notable translators who bring literature from other languages into English to discuss the joys and challenges of the job, including Visiting Faculty Member Bruna Dantas Lobato '15, who translates Brazilian literature. Lobato’s translation of Stênio Gardel's The Words That Remain was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. Works by Lobato have been longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, and won the 2023 English PEN Translates Award. Lobato's next book, Blue Light Hours, is anticipated in the fall of 2024.
Kelly Sather MFA '15 is the 2023 winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for a collection of short stories. Sather's debut book, Small in Real Life, was selected by author Deesha Philyaw and will be published by The University of Pittsburgh Press in October.
Granta recently published “Messages with the Supplicant,” a short story by Visiting literature faculty member Nicolette Polek ’16. "Outdoor Day," a poem by Polek, has been featured in The Atlantic.
Sydney Bradley ’18 has received the Henfield Prize from Columbia University for the short fiction she wrote her first year as an MFA student. Bradley has been published in the Bennington Review, the Harvard Advocate, Washington Square Review, and other literary journals.
Ashby Combahee '18 was highlighted in Reckon for February's Library Lovers Month feature on “14 Badass LGBTQ Librarians You Should Know.” Ashby is the head of the Septima Clark Learning Center, part of the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN, and started as a music librarian during their time at Bennington College.
The band of Dana Foote ’18, Sir Chloe, created an album using her senior work, which propelled her into a tour with Beck.
All Classical Portland promoted a concert by pianist Tony Lu ’18 and 45th Parallel Universe in January 2023 at the Roger O. Doyle performance studio.
Dani Robbins ’18 show “PLAYFIGHT: unprofessional wrestling theater” combines theater, wrestling, and dance and has been performed at the Portfringe Festival in Portland, Maine, in 2022 and at RVK Fringe Festival, in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the summer of 2023.
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," a poem by Matthew Tuckner '19, was featured on Poetry Daily.
Asad Malik ’19 was interviewed on Irish Tech News’s Money Never Sleeps podcast about his new next-gen multiplayer augmented reality fighting game for your phone.
Kyanna Sutton MFA '19 published a review of "Binge-worthy Shows Celebrating Women of Color," for The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects.
2020–2023
Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio '20 has been awarded the Wallace Stegner Fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University.
"Speaking Their Language: My Dual Roles as an Arabic Learner and an ESOL Teacher," an essay by Katie Hibner '20, has been published by TSOL International Association's Refugee Concerns Newsletter.
In March and April 2023, Aaron Landsman MFA '20 premiered Night Keeper, featuring David Guzman '21 and choreographed by Hilary Clark MFA '20, at The Chocolate Factory Theater in Long Island City, NY.
Art Gets What it Wants, a play by Christiane Swenson '20 and directed by Delaney Circe '21, was performed in October. It follows two artists high on ego and short on stability who embark on a doomed collaboration that destroys their friendship and the fabric of the universe.
Ahmad Yassir ’20 took first place for his work as digital sales and marketing specialist at the annual New England Newspaper Association’s annual awards banquet in May.
A Very Happy Woman, a documentary written by Tamar Giligashvili '21 as her advanced work at Bennington, was awarded Most Creative Short Documentary at Women's Voices Now 2023 Film Festival.
Andreea Coscai ’22 of Her Time Romania welcomed guest Gloria Steinem to a webinar about gender equality worldwide on the platform.
Five poems by Ashley D. Escobar ’22 were published in Hobart, and Escobar’s poem "Nighttime at the Plastic Factory," first written in a workshop taught by faculty member Michael Dumanis, was published in A Gathering of the Tribes. She recently curated a poetry reading for the Brooklyn Rail, featuring Edwin Torres, Filip Marinovich, Julien Poirier, Matt Proctor, and Escobar. Watch the archived show here. Escobar was recently mentioned by poet Eileen Myles in an interview with Cultured. Escobar is cited as a writer Myles “can’t stop reading.”
Stephanie Sellars MFAW '22 recently published her essays, "A Rogue Job" and "Please Give Me This Grant I Don't Deserve," in Hobart Pulp and Defenestration, respectively. Earlier versions of the essays were part of Sellars's MFAW thesis.
Srichchha Pradhan ’22 was crowned Miss Nepal World 2023 after defeating 23 other contestants in the pageant's grand finale.
Bennington College Shipping and Receiving Clerk Cass Skarka '22 inspired her Bennington College colleagues as she undertook to collect supplies and coordinate delivery to those affected by severe flooding in Vermont.
In Georgia Today, Lika Torikashvili '22 writes about helping to establish an E-Learning platform that provides internet, digital resources, tech hardware, and college courses to Afghan girls who are forced to meet in secret to access their education. Read our story here.
Poet Shane McCrae has selected the poem "Whales" by Xiao (Smile) Ma '23 as the winner of this year's Academy of American Poets Prize Competition out of 93 poems submitted by 31 Bennington students. In recognition, Xiao Ma will receive $100 and publication on the Academy of American Poets website.
"The Point of Articulation" by Car Simione '23 has been published in Four Way Review.