After more than a decade working in the broadcast television industry, Sandy Calwell ’86 left the workplace to stay home and raise her son. Now a full-time wife and mom, and part-time author and speaker, the Wichita State journalism graduate promotes the importance of being grounded, focused and motivated as a parent in her book, What If … Parenting is the Most Important Job in the World? 20 Lessons You Want to Teach Your Own Children, available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble sites.
Janet Snyder ’70, who earned an undergraduate degree in speech at WSU, is a West Virginia University art history professor whose academic research focuses on medieval limestone sculpture and architecture, and representations of clothing, textiles and of the human form. Her newly published, richly illustrated Early Gothic Column-Figure Sculpture in France (Ashgate Publishing Co., July 31) is a comprehensive look at church portal sculpture installed between the 1130s and the 1170s, as well as an investigation into how patrons of that day and age employed sculpture to express and shape perceived reality through the use of images of textiles and clothing that had political, economic and social meaning. Snyder’s book is also available for order online.
J.M. Hayes ’66/66/70, whose two bachelor’s degrees are in sociology and anthropology, also earned a master’s degree in anthropology. A resident of Tucson, Ariz., Hayes took the fictional characters of his first novel, The Grey Pilgrim (1990), through a what-if version of 1940s Arizona history. This July, Poisoned Pen Press released Hayes’ sixth book in his mystery series that follows Mad Dog, a Cheyenne wanna-be shaman, and his half brother, Sheriff English, both of Benteen, Kan., who are also both drawn to Tucson, where Sheriff’s daughter, Heather, is a Sewa tribal police officer. About the newest book in the series, English Lessons, Barbara Peters, Poisoned Pen editor in chief, says: “Don’t miss a book that will both entertain and alarm you.”
All six of Hayes’ Mad Dog & Englishman mysteries are available for purchase online.
Tony Woodlief ’10, who earned a master’s degree in creative writing at WSU and also holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, is a writer and management consultant whose writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the London Times, among other newspapers. Two of his short stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes.
Somewhere More Holy is Woodlief’s first book. Published by Zondervan, the work, inspired by his conviction that “God is closer than we think, and that this is a good thing,” is described as offering “stories from a bewildered father, stumbling husband, reluctant handyman and prodigal son.”
