Pam (P. J.) Balluck, doctoral candidate in fiction, placed second in the University of Utah’s Richard Scowcroft Prize in Prose, judged by Ron Carlson BA’70 MA’72, with her story “Braintanning.” She is co-editor of fiction for Quarterly West (www.utah.edu/quarterlywest).

Shannon Boffeli, a nurse practitioner at the University of Utah hospital, and his wife, Jennifer Hanks, won a free trip to compete in the international TransAlp Mountain Bike Race this month. The pair, racing as “Team Shannifer,” were one of five finalist couples given the opportunity to compete for sponsorship to the race by Race Face Performance Products. Boffeli and Hanks were the only Americans and husband-wife combo on the ballot of five finalists chosen from a pool of 550 applicants. The trip was awarded based on online voting, and the couple rallied friends, colleagues, and fellow Utah mountain bikers to vote for them. Hanks and Boffeli, who moved to Utah from Iowa several years ago, have both climbed through the rankings since they started racing at various NORBA events and other qualifying meets. The couple now regularly races on Team Revolution out of Sandy and competes in about 20-30 mountain bike races each year throughout the U.S.

Jenny Brundin, news director of KUER, was named best radio reporter by the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in its 2007 Utah news media awards. KUER is a noncommercial public radio station licensed to the University of Utah. Brundin has covered Utah politics, culture and science for KUER and occasionally hosts KUER’s daily call-in show, Radio West. She has also reported for public radio stations in Montana and San Francisco, as well as the Los Angeles Times, Toronto Star, Monterey Herald, and several magazines. Brundin has received national Clarion Awards for her work, including the documentary “Dugway: America’s Testing Ground.”

PJ Carlisle, doctoral candidate in fiction, received honorable mention in the University of Utah’s Richard Scowcroft Prize in Prose, judged by Ron Carlson BA’70 MA’72, with her story “Waiting for You.” She is managing editor of Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr).

Jeffrey Chapman’s story “Great Salt Lake” is forthcoming in Bellingham Review (www.ac.wwu.edu/~bhreview); his story “Chuck and the Fat Cop,” is forthcoming in Event Magazine (http://event.douglas.bc.ca/). Chapman is a doctoral candidate in fiction.

Jennifer Colville, doctoral candidate in fiction, received honorable mention in the Mississippi Review Prize competition for her story “Picture,” which appears in the contest issue this spring (www.mississippireview.com/); her story “Center” was a finalist in the Black Warrior Review’s contest (www.webdelsol.com/bwr/) and received an honorable mention in the Indiana Review Fiction Prize competition (www.indiana.edu/~inreview/index.html). She is on the summer faculty of the University of San Francisco’s MFA Creative Writing program.

Connie Coyne, The Salt Lake Tribune’s reader advocate, was honored in June by the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with the organization’s Quintus C. Wilson Ethics Award. Coyne writes a weekly column in The Tribune addressing readers’ questions and concerns. She joined the newspaper in 1993 as a copy editor, and has worked as the weekend editor, a general assignment reporter, and an editorial writer. She became the reader advocate in 2003. She is an adjunct professor in the University of Utah’s communications department, teaching introduction to news writing. Her newspaper career has included stints at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Shira Dentz, a doctoral candidate in poetry, was the most recent winner of the University of Utah’s Levis/Academy of American Poets Prize, judged by Susan Howe, and will be reading in the 2007-08 Guest Writers Series. Her manuscript Diagram of a Voice: was recently a finalist for the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize (www.aprweb.org/bookprize/bookprize.shtml) and for the Colorado Prize for Poetry (www.coloradoreview.com/); her poems “Chantilly Lace” and “Hands” were judged runner-up by Edward Hirsch in the 14th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest and were published in the Spring 2007 Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr).

Halina Duraj, doctoral candidate in fiction, received honorable mention in the University of Utah’s Richard Scowcroft Prize in Prose, judged by Ron Carlson BA’70 MA’72, with her essay “My Boyfriend Is a Fascist”; her story “Tenants” is forthcoming in Third Coast (www.wmich.edu/thirdcoast), and the story “Terrible Driver” is forthcoming in Witness (www.oaklandcc.edu/WITNESS). She is co-editor of fiction for Quarterly West (www.utah.edu/quarterlywest).

Eryn Green, MFA candidate in fiction, was recently nominated for a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship (www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/awards.html). His poem “Bones” is forthcoming in Diagram (http://thediagram.com/), and his poem “Stillness/ Forgiveness;” is forthcoming in Word For/Word: A Journal of New Writing (www.wordforword.info).

Kim Hackford-Peer is one of 38 students nationwide to receive a Point Scholarship, which average $13,600 and are renewable. The Point Foundation gives the scholarships to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Hackford-Peer is a graduate student at the University of Utah studying for a doctorate in education, culture and society. She hopes to continue teaching multicultural education courses to undergraduates, which she does now at the U while pursuing her degree. A Brighton native, Kim and her partner, Ruth, are the parents of two sons.

Nathan Hauke, doctoral candidate in poetry, has a book review, “Getting ‘Free Again’: Joseph Lease’s Broken World,” in Interim (www.interimmag.org); a poem, “Advent,” in the Spring 2007 GutCult online (www.gutcult.com/); and “Pastoral” in XANTIPPE (http://xantippemag.blogspot.com/). His poem “Parson Hooper’s Voice Comes Through the Back of My Head” is forthcoming in Parthenon West Review (www.parthenonwestreview.com/), while the poem “Home Like I Never” placed second in the University of Utah’s Levis/Academy of American Poets Prize, judged by Susan Howe.

Mat Iandolo has been named the new women’s tennis coach at the University of Utah. Iandolo was the head women’s tennis coach at Purdue for 16 years. He comes to Utah as the winningest coach in Boilermaker women’s tennis history and was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1998 and 2003. Iandolo’s Purdue teams advanced to the NCAA tournament five of the past 12 seasons, including three of the past five. Iandolo’s previous jobs included assistant positions at the University of Kentucky, UCLA, San Diego State, and Weber State University, of which he is an alumnus.

Brian Johnson (left), a University of Utah quarterback, is one of 65 collegiate football players named to the Maxwell Award Watch List. The award is given nationally to an outstanding college football player. Semifinalists will be announced in early November and three finalists will be named on Nov. 26. The winner of the 2007 Maxwell Award will be introduced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Dec. 6. Johnson is the fourth Ute named to a 2007 watch list. The others are offensive lineman Robert Conley (Outland Trophy), safety Steve Tate (Bronko Nagurski Award) and center Kyle Gunther (Rimington Trophy).

Rebecca Lindenberg, doctoral candidate in poetry, was recently awarded a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the July 2007 Sewanee Writers’ Conference (www.sewaneewriters.org/); she read in May at the International Poetry Festival in Bogotá, Colombia. Her poems “To Speak at Length, To Unburden” and “What Rings But Can’t Be Answered” are forthcoming in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (www.gulfcoastmag.org/); the poems “Which If I Never Thought to Mention It Before” and “Mouth to Mouth” are forthcoming in POOL: A Journal of Poetry (www.poolpoetry.com/).

Pepper Luboff, MFA candidate in poetry, has a poem, “spider monkey,” forthcoming in the Summer 2007 Colorado Review (http://coloradoreview.com/).

Christine Marshall, doctoral candidate in poetry, was judged second runner-up by Edward Hirsch in the 14th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest in the Poetry category for her poem “Quake,” which is published in the Spring issue of Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr); her poem “Suspension” can be found in the Spring CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women (www.calyxpress.org/journal.html).

Rachel Marston, doctoral candidate in fiction, has fiction, “A Necromancer’s Guide to Child Rearing,” in the Winter 2006 Massachusetts Review (www.massreview.org/).

Sarah Orton, MFA candidate in fiction, has a story, “The Red Coat,” forthcoming in July’s The Harrow (www.theharrow.com/journal/index.php/journal/index).

Christopher Patton, doctoral candidate in poetry, received honorable mention from judge Edward Hirsch in the 14th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest for his poems “Two Free Translations from the Anglo-Saxon” and “Weed Flower Mind,” excerpts of which are published in the Spring Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr). His poetry collection Ox was published in May by Véhicule Press (Montréal).

Jacob Paul, doctoral candidate in fiction, won the University of Utah’s Richard Scowcroft Prize in Prose, judged by Ron Carlson, with an excerpt from his novel manuscript A Song Of Ilan. He will be reading in the 2007-08 Guest Writers Series.

Zigmund “Ziggy” Peacock is leaving the University of Utah after 28 years with the Physics Department. As a lecture lab demonstration specialist, Peacock, 63, has made physics happen right in front of thousands of students by utilizing oxygen tanks, heaters, Bunsen burners and a plethora of more exotic laboratory equipment. The collection of lab gear he has helped collect fills about 2,000 square feet of storage space. A former president of the Physics Instructional Resource Association, Peacock’s personal Web page includes a snapshot of him playing “the sprinkler pipe didjeridu.” See for yourself by clicking on his name at this Web page.

Alf Seegert, doctoral candidate in British & American Studies, received dishonorable mention in the Bulwer-Lytton “Dark and Stormy Night” contest (www.bulwer-lytton.com/), an annual competition for the worst opening line of a novel, and will be included next month in It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, The Second Coming: A Collection of the Worst Fiction Ever Written, edited by Scott Rice (www.thefridayproject.co.uk/books/view/?id=56). Seegert received the University of Utah’s 2007 Ramona Cannon Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Nicole Sheets, doctoral candidate in nonfiction, won the 14th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest in the Narrative category, judged by Brian Evanson, with her essay “By Now It Should Sound Like Music,” which was published in the Spring Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr). She is nonfiction editor for Quarterly West (www.utah.edu/quarterlywest).

Ely Shipley, doctoral candidate in poetry, won the 14th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest in the Poetry category, judged by Edward Hirsch, with poems, “Encounter,” “In the Film,” “hair and dream,” “Through Walls,” and “Song,” which is published in the Spring Western Humanities Review (www.hum.utah.edu/whr); he received honorable mention in the University of Utah’s Levis/Academy of American Poets Prize, judged by Susan Howe; he will be presenting on a panel entitled Category Crisis: Gender and Sexuality at AWP in New York ’08 (www.awpwriter.org/conference/2008awpconf.php).

The University of Utah Physician’s Assistant program is tied for fourth place in U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2008” publication. To rank PA programs, the magazine contracted a market research firm that distributed surveys to “deans, other administrators, and/or faculty” at PA programs. There was a 56 percent response rate to the surveys. Anita Glicken, MSW, president of the Physician Assistant Education Association, cautions that people should consider the limitations of the methodology used to create theses PA program rankings. Many educators consider the U.S. News “reputational” or “peer assessment” surveys an inaccurate method for measuring the quality of a program.

Greg Winslow has been named the University of Utah’s new head swimming and diving coach. Winslow was most recently an assistant at Arizona State University for four years, coaching 12 All-Americans during his tenure. Six of his swimmers qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials, while others represented Great Britain and Hungary in the 2004 Olympics. He helped lead the 2005 women’s squad to a 12th place finish at the NCAA Championships, while the men’s squad finished in 14th in 2006. In August 2005, Winslow also became the head coach of the Sun Devil Aquatics swim club, which was named USA Swimming’s No. 1 Silver Medal Club in 2007. He previously served as the CEO and head coach at Air Force Academy Falfins swim club from 1999-2003.