CLASS OF 2013 | 2019 | ISSUE 3
Kristen Salustro is working on her fourth book and is expecting to publish it in 2020. Her debut novel was awarded a silver medal in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards in the sci-fi category, which made her so excited she accidentally bounced her partner awake at 6 a.m. on a weekend before shoving the announcement under his nose. She just passed her third-year mark at her day job and has been officially named someone’s manager.
Bryce Hollingsworth’s custom traditional dry stone construction business has been going really well. He spent two months this winter working with a certified dry stone Master Craftsman down in New South Wales, Australia, building a huge 600-foot long slate wall which was awesome. Since then, Bryce received the Preservation Trades Network’s International Trades Exchange grant, and used that to spend two weeks working with a Master Stonemason in Galway, Ireland. Later this fall, he will be traveling down to Lexington, Ky., to work with the Dry Stone Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving the craft of dry stone walling. This year has been insanely busy, but he’s been loving every minute of it.
Benjamin Smith completely missed chances to script supervise Batwoman and Utopia and is seeking forgiveness from himself. He completed his short film, Bump in the Night, in September, and is making plans to force it on audiences around the world. He likes to call it a short film, as if he really knows what he’s created. You can also find Ben performing improv and sketch at Second City in Chicago. He’s trying to have more friends and stuff. Improv is good for that. Need life advice? Improv, friends.
After nearly four years gallivanting around Asia Pacific, Julian Azaret is finally moving back to the USA! San Francisco and Cambridge have even odds. Zach Libresco just moved from Brooklyn to Harlem to be closer to his new job, modeling for the National World War I Memorial. His theater company, The Humanist Project, is remounting their devised clown show, centered on quantum physics and Russian fairy tales, in November and December at The Tank in Midtown! He is very happy to have moved closer to his best friend, Emily Hunt.
After spending five years in Washington, D.C., working on environmental policy for the National Wildlife Federation and later as a U.S. Senate staffer, Taran Catania moved to Burlington, Vt. She’s pursuing a Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont with plans to confront environmental challenges in new, better ways. (And yes, she still loves birds. In fact, she’s the seventh-ranked top birder in D.C. for 2018—including #1 female birder and youngest in the Top 10.)
Victoria Chu is an entertainment finance/corporate associate at Akin Gump in Los Angeles. She would love to connect with other Wes alumni in the entertainment/legal industry. Evan Hazelett is studying the spatial and racial politics of food and farming as well as critical urban histories and theories as a master in urban planning student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He hopes to pursue a PhD in human geography after this program. He’s also the editor-in-chief for The Urban Review, the student journal of urban studies and planning. On the side, Evan is trying to publish short stories and poetry, and at home he cooks himself to the ground. Shira Gaudet (formally Shauna Pratt) is pleased to announce her marriage to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes on June 2. She now has two children, Rebecca (4) and Michael (1). Both children attended the wedding; Michael slept through the whole ceremony. The couple’s first dance was actually a singing duet, “I’ll Never Tell” from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, “Once More with Feeling.” Rubber ducks abounded.
Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu