Laurie Kuntz, M.F.A. 1992 brings a world of perspective and emotion to her award-winning poetry. Since the 1970s, the Brooklyn, New York native and her husband Steven Debonis have traveled, taught, and worked around the world. She was an ESL teacher and teacher trainer in a Vietnamese refugee camp in the Philippines for more than a decade, lived on a Kibbutz in Israel, worked the grape fields in Greece, and lived in a Tibetan Monastery in Nepal.

Currently, Kuntz is associate professor of creative writing at the University of Maryland’s Asian Division on Misawa Air Base, Japan, where she also teaches language arts at the on-base high school. She previously edited the university’s literary magazine, Blue Muse. Her publications include three poetry collections, Women at the Onsen (Blue Light Press, 2003), Simple Gestures (Texas Review Press, 2000) and Somewhere in the Telling (Edwin Mellen Press, 1999), and two English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) books, New Arrivals, Books One and Two (Prentice-Hall, 1982, 1992).

Kuntz’s many accolades for her writing include first prize in the America’s Review political poetry contest. In 2003 she received three Pushcart prize nominations and was a finalist in the Emily Dickinson Poetry Contest sponsored by Universities West publishers. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications including The Bloomsbury Review, The Louisville Review, The Southern Review, The Eleventh Muse, Poetry Miscellany, The New Virginia Review, The South Florida Review, The Sun, and The Contemporary Review. In October 2004, her poem, "My Son has a Sleepover while Bush Deploys Troops," was set to music and choreography by the Uppity Theatre Company of St. Louis for their theatrical production, Peace Out: An Artistic Resistance to War. Kuntz’s literary achievements were honored in a one-act play, The Poet Speaks, performed in Misawa, Japan in 2001 for Women's History Month.

Interviewed in December 2003 by www.rocksaltplum.com, Kuntz said that she wants “to bring the outsider into the world I write about, whether it be a Japanese onsen (hot bath), a boat ride down the Mekong, or celebrating my [now 16-year-old] son’s 7th year. A true compliment for me is when a reader says that the poem evoked a respondent chord.” (See www.lauriekuntzpoetry.homestead.com).

Celia Brickman, B.A., A.D.P. 1987 recently published Aboriginal Populations in the Mind: Race and Primitivity in Psychoanalysis (Columbia University Press, 2003). She is a clinical, faculty, and research member of the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy of Chicago. Brickman has delivered talks at New York University, Yale University, Rutgers University, Johns Hopkins University, Ohio Sate University, the University of Ottawa, and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. In June 2004, she presented “Race in Psychoanalysis: The Colonialist Legacy of Freud’s Work” at the 93rd annual conference of the American Psychoanalytic Association in San Francisco. Brickman’s published articles include: “Primitivity, Race and Religion in Psychoanalysis,” in the Journal of Religion (vol. 82. no. 1), and “Self and Other in the Self-psychological Approach to Religion,” in Postmodern Self Psychology: Progress in Self Psychology (vol. 18, The Analytic Press). Her review of Eli Zaretsky’s Secrets of the Soul: A Social and Cultural History of Psychoanalysis (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004) appeared in the Chicago Tribune on June 6, 2004. Brickman received her Ph.D. in religion and the human sciences from the University of Chicago, Divinity School, where her dissertation was awarded the university’s Colver Rosenberg Prize.

Rhae Eaton, B.A. 2003 ADP published her poem "Sorting," which reflects upon her participation in the North Cascades Institute fifth annual Nature Writing Retreat at Sun Mountain Lodge in the Methow Valley, Sedro-Woolley, WA in October 2003. Eaton lives in Colville, WA. (See www.ncascades.org)

Mary Kramer, B.A. 1988 ADP received an individual artist’s grant from the Indiana Arts Council in 2003. Her work was exhibited at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, the Swope Museum of Art, the Community Theater of Terre Haute, IN, and the Katrina Lasko Gallery in Bernalillo, NM.

Daniel Levitt, B.A. 2002 former New College wrote an essay titled, “Little Critters Everywhere: Why N’Sync is #1,” which he turned into an interpretative dance production. Levitt reports that he is a body double for American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, and teaches aerobics and Pilates in his spare time.

Ellen Marshall, Ph.D. 2003, M.A. 2000, B.A. 1998 ADP took early retirement from the Newark (Delaware) Police Department and is now full-time faculty for the Criminal Justice Department at Delaware Technical & Community College, Georgetown campus. She completed her UI&U doctorate with concentration in psychology, and is the daughter of Katherine Marshall, B.A. 2000 ADP.

Steve Robinson, B.A. 1999 ADP of Colchester, VT is the Williston Historical Society's archivist and edits the Society’s quarterly bulletin. Robinson plans to earn his M.L.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cheryl Scharling, B.A. 2002 ADP received an honorable mention for her personal essay "Young Woman on the Porch" in Writer's Digest 72nd Annual Writing Competition, which received more than 18,000 entries. Scharling’s essay placed 67 in the memoirs/personal essay category. Scharling lives in Cobleskill, NY and is writing a collection of essays, each to be accompanied by a "vintage" black & white family photo, which she hopes to publish under the working title of "Bittersweet: A Family Album."

Lynn Harris Worth-Smith, A.A. 1954 was selected for inclusion in Marquis 2003 Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Women. An antiques dealer, dog show judge, field trial judge, and free-lance writer for dog publications, she serves as AKC Delegate for the Vizsla Club of America. Worth-Smith has been editor/publisher of several newsletters relating to purebred dogs, in particular the Hungarian Vizsla, and now edits a newsletter for the Virginia Gamebreeder and Hunting Preserve Association. She is a graduate of the New York School of Interior Design.

Charles Accardi, M.F.A. 2001 recently participated in the group show Visual AIDS benefit "Postcards from the Edge" in New York City. He has participated twice before. Accardi lives in Topanga Canyon, CA and works as a contractor for Honda Research and Design Art Department in Torrance. (See www.mercygirl.com)

Muriel Angelil, M.F.A. 2000, an environmental artist and sculptor, created Rebirth, a site-specific installation in a large tree on the grounds of All Saints Church, Brookline, MA. The work was seen through February 2004. She also presented a slide lecture on her sculptural installations at Richard J. Daley College, Chicago, IL, on February 2, 2004.

Irene Axelrod, M.A. 2004, B.A. 1992 ADP is the head manuscript librarian at the Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library, one of New England’s older libraries and a major resource for maritime history and art, New England life and culture, American decorative arts, Asian art and culture, Native American history and art, the art and culture of Oceania, natural history, and genealogy. Located in Salem, MA, the birth and dwelling place of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Phillips Library has an extensive collection of Hawthorne’s manuscripts and is a major hub of Hawthorne scholarship. Axelrod was quoted in the January 29, 2004 Boston Globe article “Local Scholars Take Second Look at Hawthorne” about museum visitors from as far away as Japan seeking to learn more during this 200th anniversary year of his birth.

Emily Bilman, M.F.A. 1999 lives in both Geneva, Switzerland and Norwich, United Kingdom, where she is pursuing her Ph.D. in modern poetry at East Anglia University. She attends many poetry readings and festivals and is seeking a publisher for two poetry manuscripts, along with her large haiku collection.

Mark Cox, M.F.A. 1985 authored Natural Causes (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004), a collection of verse that celebrates human complexity and connectedness. In 2000, Cox, who teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, was the 24th poet‑in‑residence at The Frost Place, Robert Frost's farm in Franconia, NH. Cox contributed to the anthology, The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices from the Robert Frost Place, Volume One (CavanKerry Press, 2000), along with Vermont College M.F.A. in Writing Program faculty member Mary Ruefle, the 1999 Frost Place poet-in-residence. Cox’s other honors include a Whiting Writers' Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, and a Burlington-Northern Faculty Achievement Award, along with fellowships from the Kansas Arts Commission, the Vermont Council on the Arts, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Cox served as poetry editor of both Passages North and Cimarron Review, and his previous books include Smoulder (Godine, 1989) and Thirty‑Seven Years from the Stone (Pitt Poetry Series, 1998).

Beth Helms, M.F.A. 2003 won the 2003 Iowa Short Fiction Award for her first novel, American Wives (University of Iowa Press, 2003) (See www.powells.com)

Lory Lockwood, M.F.A. 2000 exhibited her work, “Images of Desire,” at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA, November 2003. Lockwood’s paintings of cars, motorcycles, and mannequins rendered in super-realistic fashion engage the human fascination with objects that represent desire. (See Network, Fall 2003)

Ron Mohring, M.F.A 1998 received the 2003 Washington Prize for his first full-length poetry collection, Survivable World (The Word Works, 2004). He also won the 2003 Oscar Wilde Award from Gival Press for his poem "Birds of Paradise,” and will judge next year's competition. Mohring’s poetry has appeared in magazines including Alaska Quarterly Review, Hanging Loose, and Pivot. He also published several chapbooks, including Amateur Grief (Frank O’Hara Award, 1998), The David Museum (New Michigan Press, 2002), and Beneficence (Pecan Grove Press 2003). Mohring served as 2003-2004 visiting assistant professor of English and senior associate editor of the literary magazine, West Branch, at Bucknell University, where he received the Philip Roth Residency in Creative Writing and the Stadler Fellowship.

Kate Niles, M.F.A. 2001 published her first novel, The Basket Maker (GreyCore Press, 2004). A finalist in the Heekin Group Foundation Awards for a novel-in-progress, she received the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) Individual Fellowship for her memoir piece, “The Return of Birds,” in 2003. As visiting instructor of writing at the Writing Program at Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, Niles holds degrees in anthropology, archeology, and creative writing. Her book of poems, Geographies of the Heart, was published by Blue Heron Press in 1997, and her poetry has appeared in publications including The South Dakota Review, Fish Drum, and Bellowing Ark. Niles’ essay “The View From Here,” and other short stories have been broadcast on KSJE public radio and have appeared in The Louisville Review, Hurricane Alice: A Feminist Quarterly, and Words of Wisdom.

Jacob Paul, M.F.A. 2002 authored “Adventure: Scaling Mt. Olympus Sparks Writer's Determination,” one of four stories chosen from scores of Web entries for the special section, “How Adventure Travel Changed My Life,” published in the September 14, 2003 issue of USA Weekend in partnership with Outside, America's leading active-lifestyle magazine. Paul described how his adventurous break from the demands of his full-time marketing job in New York City and full-time studies at Vermont College provided “a newfound sense of accomplishment” and enabled him to complete his degree and continue pursuing a publisher for his first novel. (See www.usaweekend.com/03_issues/030914/030914travel.html#francisco)

Kate Waitte, M.A. 1999 is an academic advisor in the School of Continuing Education, Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic. She has opened Springboard for Success, a practice in life coaching devoted to women.

Scott Withiam, M.F.A. 1996, adjunct faculty member at Vermont College, is the recipient of last year’s Ploughshare's Cohen Award for his book of poems Arson & Prophets (The Ashland Poetry Press, September 2003). He co-edited The Onset Review, and his poems have appeared in magazines including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Ploughshares, Field, The Sun, Massachusetts Review, Third Coast, Sycamore Review, Puerto Del Sol, Harvard Review, and The Notre Dame Review. Withiam was the 1997 winner of The Sandhills Review Ronald H. Bayes Poetry Prize, the 1998 winner of New England Writer Robert Penn Warren Award, and the 2001 winner of the Two River Review Poetry Prize. He was also a co-winner of Inkwell Magazine's 2002 Poetry Competition.

Don C. Wukasch, M.D., M.F.A. 1999 practiced medicine and cardio-vascular surgery in Houston, Texas, for 25 years; published 107 scientific articles and textbook chapters; and co-authored with Denton A. Cooley, M.D. the surgical textbook Techniques in Vascular Surgery. He is co-author (with Jack Myers, M.F.A. Vermont College faculty) of Dictionary of Poetic Terms (University of North Texas Press, 2003). Wukasch’s poems have been published in Bayousphere 99 (University of Houston Clear Lake), Mediphors (national literary journal for health professions), Hearts of Glass, AMELIA, and Austin Writer. His poetry awards include first place from the University of Houston Clear Lake for poems published in Bayousphere 99.

Ada J. Yarbrough, M.A. 1986 retired in 2002 after many years of service to elderly in Boston, MA, most recently as an outreach worker for the Caregiver Alliance Program, a collaborative effort between Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly, Boston Senior Home Care, Central Boston Elder Service, Inc., Chelsea-Revere-Winthrop Home Care, and Ethos. Previously, Yarbrough, who also earned an M.S.W., worked for a decade at Central Boston Elder Services, visiting clients to assess their need for home care services. She also served as a part-time case manager for collaborative projects between Central Boston Elder Services, Community Development Corporation, Fenway/Back Bay Community Development Corporation, and Deaconess Hospital to assist more than 250 elders and persons with disabilities with housing and social service needs. After a promotion to public benefits specialist, she created referral and follow-up forms and designed a public benefits brochure for case managers to use on visits or in community outreach. In 1997 she became an outreach worker for the state’s new prescription benefit program. Through news media, fliers, and brochures and meetings with seniors at local churches, hospitals, senior centers and housing, and health fairs, Yarbrough educated the public and helped enroll more than 2,500 elders in the program. In 2000 she was recognized for her professional excellence by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Elder Affairs.