New England Review is pleased to present a gathering of alumni authors during Middlebury’s reunion weekend on Saturday, June 8, at 2:30 p.m. Dan Elish ’83, Lucas Farrell ’03, John Kolvenbach ’88 (with Alex Draper ’88 and Alec Strum ’08), Maria Padian ’83, and S. S. Taylor (Sarah Stewart Taylor) ’93 will read from their work in Middlebury College’s Axinn Center, Room 229.
Dan Elish ’83 co-wrote the book for the Broadway musical 13, which initially played at the Mark Taper Forum and won the 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for best production. His new musical Nine Wives (book and lyrics), written with Douglas J. Cohen (music and lyrics), was part of the Goodspeed new works festival in January 2013. In 2010, he was commissioned by Theater Aspen to write The Gifted and Talented, a play about bullying. Dan is also the author of ten novels, including The School for the Insanely Gifted, Nine Wives, and Born Too Short. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children where he also teaches piano.
Lucas Farrell ’03 is the author of two books of poetry: The Many Woods of Grief (University of Massachusetts Press) and Bird Any Damn Kind (Caketrain Press). He and his wife, Louisa Conrad (’04), run Big Picture Farm, a small goat dairy and farmstead confectionery located in southern Vermont.
John Kolvenbach ’88 is the author of the plays Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney, Love Song, on an average day, Gizmo Love, Fabuloso, and Marriage Play (or Half ‘n Half ‘n Half), which premiered in 2012 at Merrimack Repertory. Goldfish premiered at South Coast Repertory in spring 2009 and was then produced at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. The Magic also premiered Mrs. Whitney in fall 2009, under Kolvenbach’s direction. Love Song premiered at Steppenwolf in Chicago in spring 2006 and went on to the West End, where it was nominated for an Olivier Award, best new comedy. Kolvenbach’s plays are published by Methuen and licensed by DPS. Kolvenbach’s first screenplay, Clear Winter Noon was selected for the Black List in 2008. His short film, Gray Dog will be shot in New York in June 2013. Bank Job is his latest play. Actor and theater professor Alex Draper ’88 will read a part in Bank Job.
Maria Padian ’83 received her Masters in English from the University of Virginia, and has worked as a news reporter, press secretary to a U.S. Congressman, freelance writer, and essayist before returning to her first love: fiction. She currently lives with her family in Brunswick, Maine, where she writes young adult novels. Her published work includes Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress (Knopf, 2008), Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best (Knopf, 2011), and Out of Nowhere (Knopf, 2013).
S. S. Taylor (Sarah Stewart Taylor) ’93 is a writer and teacher living with her husband and three children in Vermont. She is the author of a series of mysteries for adults, a graphic novel about Amelia Earhart for younger readers, and, most recently, the first installment in a series of adventure novels for kids aged eight to fourteen, entitled The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man’s Canyon. Her website is www.SSTaylorBooks.com.