What We’re Writing

Mary Kaplan (BS ’74) 

Kaplan, a clinical social worker, highlights African-Americans’ contributions to the U.S. military before describing their fight for racial equality at the Tuskegee Veterans Hospital, the first American hospital to treat black war veterans. While Tuskegee made strides in care and research, and employed several black physicians, it struggled to desegregate its staff and was marred by the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study of the mid- to late- 1900s, one of the biggest medical research scandals in history. (McFarland, 2016) 

Jessica Topper (MLS ’93, BA ’92) 

Topper calls this modern-day romance “a much ‘I Do’ about nothing novel,” but there’s a lot going on in this classic love caper. The story is peppered with fun twists and turns as it follows Laney Hudson, a heartbroken free spirit who lugs her mother’s wedding dress and a whole lot of her own baggage onto a fateful flight, and literally bumps into Noah, an uptight tech-whiz with his own demons. (Berkley Sensation, 2015) 

Edited by Patricia Tansey (BA ’73) 

Tansey shares the works of some of Buffalo’s most prominent writers in this compilation of Western New York poets. From former UB professors Irving Feldman and the late Bill Sylvester to well-known Buffalo talents like Marjorie Norris and Ansie Baird, both UB grads, the anthology celebrates the diverse voices that have helped create the WNY region’s deep literary roots. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2016)