Reading Room
Recent publications by Members of the U of U Community
Ryan Quinn BS’03 recently published his debut novel, The Fall (CreateSpace, December 2010).
In The Fall, three college seniors at an isolated New England university are thrown into an unlikely triangle that—like all fateful relationships—alters the course of their lives. The novel is a coming-of-age story about identity, contemporary friendships, first love, and the unraveling of secrets that aren't meant to live on. Quinn says, “Salt Lake City and my experiences at the U shaped much of the inspiration for this book.”
Ryan Quinn grew up in Alaska. After graduating from the University of Utah, where he was an NCAA champion and All-American skier, he worked in book publishing for five years in New York City. He now lives in Los Angeles.
Brenda (Baumgartner) Stanley BS’92 recently published I Am Nuchu, a young adult novel set on the Fort Duchesne Indian Reservation in Eastern Utah (WestSide Books, November 2010). Barnes and Noble’s YA buyer chose the book as a nationwide YA selection.a
I Am Nuchu tells the story of Cal Burton, a biracial teenager who is forced to move from his comfortable life in Spokane to his mother’s childhood home on the Fort Duchesne Reservation. As he struggles to understand the culture and the attitudes of the people both on and off the reservation, he learns of a tragic murder that has haunted his family’s past. He eventually discovers what is important in his life as he struggles to uncover a painful truth.
Stanley wrote the novel almost 30 years ago when she was a teenage mother living on the outskirts of the reservation. Stanley is now the news director and anchor at KPVI-TV NewsChannel 6, the NBC affiliate in Eastern Idaho. She published her first book, the cookbook The Zucchini Houdini, last July
Hester Schell MFA’91 has just published her first book, Casting Revealed: A Guide for Film Directors (Michael Wiese Productions, February 2011).
From union paperwork to posting effective audition announcements and insider know-how, to effectively launching the most important factor in pre-production: Casting. From step-by-step guidelines on running casting sessions, to tracking down agents who represent who you want to cast, this book is a complete guide to getting the best actors on board.
Michael Wiese Productions is the world's top publisher of film guide books. Hester Schell is a master acting teacher, writer, producer, stage and film director, actor, mentor, and coach. Her academic background includes serving as a tenured professor of Theatre Arts at De Anza College in California, where she pioneered the film acting and stand-up comedy programs, and guest stints at the University of London, San Francisco's Film Arts Foundation, and The San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. Recent plays and screenplays include Colony Collapse, The Dark Room, and Soul's Messenger. She has recently directed at the Provincetown Playwrights Festival and New England Russian Theatre Festival.
Raymond Kuehne BA’64 published Mormons as Citizens of a Communist State: A Documentary History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in East Germany, 1945–1990 (paperback edition, University of Utah Press, May 2010; first published in German in February 2008 by Leipzig University Press).
Kuehne objectively presents a montage of government and church records, personal interviews, and pertinent background information to relay the history and experiences of the thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in East Germany during the time when the country existed as an officially atheistic state.
Raymond M. Kuehne was born in New York City of German immigrant parents and has studied as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Marburg and as a National Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of Virginia. He served in the North German Mission and the Freiberg Temple Mission.