Books by Centre Alumni

Most Recently Published

Browsing the bookstore shelves or library stacks for the perfect read can be a daunting task. Why not narrow
the field and choose a book written by fellow Centre alumni? From poetry collections and memoirs to history
and self-help, Centre alumni are a prolific bunch who leave no subject uncovered. Below are some of the
books most recently (2011 through 2012) published by Centre alumni. Click here for a more complete
list of books (that we know of) organized by class year.

2012


chandler Brooke Folley Counts ’03 has published Bluegrass Undercover, the fourth in a series of e-reader
books, under the pseudonym Kathleen Brooks, and has hit the top of the sales charts for
Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance on Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and Noble.
The other three books are Bluegrass State of Mind, Risky Shot, and Dead Heat. Her books
are available as e-books and in paperback.







chandler Sean Chandler ’08 published The Notice (Kindle, 2012), a fictional account of a young girl set
against the backdrop of the Bosnian War in 1992. Sean is working on his second book, a memoir
about the year he spent teaching near the North Korean border in 2010-11.






Brooke Folley Counts ’03 has published a series of three e-reader books: Bluegrass State of Mind, Risky Shot,
and Dead Heat, under the pseudonym Kathleen Brooks.
elkins Anne Dietrich Elkins ’62 has written Pioneers of Freedom (Tate Publishing, 2012), a historical
novel based on the life of John Payne, a general in the war of 1812.







beard Chuck Beard ’02 has written Adventures Inside A Bright-Eyed Sky. All proceeds benefit Adventures
Inside a Campus for a Cure, a charity organization he started that uses visual artists and musical
acts to raise money for cancer research and hospitals.







sanders Stuart W. Sanders ’95 is the author of Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky’s Largest
Civil War Battle (2012, The History Press), which examines what happened to Perryville and
surrounding communities once the firing stopped. Centre’s role during the aftermath is noted.







2011


edwards Lynnell Major Edwards ’86 published her third book of poetry, Covet (Red Hen Press, 2011).
She is an associate professor of English at Spalding University.







johnson Jane Sevier ’78 had her first novel, Fortune’s Fool, published
first as an e-book for Kindle and Nook (September 2011) and subsequently in paperback. Set in
1930s Memphis, it hit Amazon’s historical mystery bestseller list three days after its e-book release.
It won the Chicago-North Fire and Ice, Cleveland Rocks, and Golden Gateway competitions and
was a 2010 Romance Writers of America Golden heart finalist. And it also won Reader’s Choice
for Single Title/Mainstream Cover in the Houston Bay Area’s Judge a Book by Its Cover contest.



gray Retired after more than 25 years in the Army, Dwight Gray ’89 has published his first book
of poems, Overwatch (Grey Sparrow Press, 2011), which looks at war from a soldier’s perspective.







cooper Debbie Adams Cooper ’74 has written Letcher County (Arcadia Publishing, 2011), in the
Images of America series. A native of Whitesburg, Ky., in Letcher County, she writes, “When
I realized a few years ago that I had unwittingly spent my childhood among the beautiful
stone architecture built by Italian immigrants, I wanted to know more.” For more
information, please contact her at debcoo@setel.com.




porter Walter Lawrence ’72 has written Take Me To Texas: Lone Star Stories of Love and Other
Adventures (Luckenback Press, 2011). The collection of 12 short stories set in Texas
remembers favorite family times,the struggle to come of age, and the recollection of first
infatuations. Click here for Amazon.com review. A native Texan, Lawrence has written more
than 40 articles and the novel Texas Cool Million.




Robert Dickey ’54’s latest book is Greyhound to Vegas: The Odyssey of Hilda Reynolds Krause (self-published,
2011). The biography covers the life and sensational death of a successful Kentucky entrepreneur, from her
small café at the Greyhound bus depot in Bowling Green, Ky., to the casino scene in Havana, Cuba, before and
after Castro’s revolution, and finally to Las Vegas, where she was one of the founders of Caesars Palace. Her
death in 1974 was one of that city’s most sensational homicides. In contrast to her flamboyant life, her only
child, Charles Reynolds, became a justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court.

porter Isaac “Mark” McDaniel ’71 has written two books recently.
McDaniel spent two decades living as a monk at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, in Southern
Indiana. His book Days of Grace and Wonder: Journals 1976-2008 (Lulu.com, 2011)
is a daily chronicle of life inside the cloister of a Benedictine monastery during the exciting
years of reform that followed the Second Vatican Council. The book surveys a tapestry of
people encountered and places visited, the joys and tensions of life at close quarters with
more than 100 other cenobites, as well as the wider backdrop of nine presidential elections,
three papal conclaves, a half-dozen social revolutions, and the horrors of September 11,
2001.

porter
A Feisty Friend At My Feet is about his little Yorkie, Pondo (Blurb Books, 2011).





porter Will Lavender ’99 has written his second novel, Dominance (Simon &
Schuster, 2011), which a review in the New York Times (July 6, 2011) called “quick and
complicated.” A mystery, set like his first novel, on a college campus, received advance
praise from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Review. Lavender was featured in a Centre
web story for his work. Story here.




Andrew McNeill’s ’95 first novel, Breckenridge County (Headline Books, 2011), will be out in September. He
describes the book as “rural noir,” containing elements of Southern culture, criminal fiction, and political
thriller.
porter Kate Stout ’71 is the editor of From Hearth to Horizons: 125 Years of the Social Science
Club of Newton (River View Press, 2011). The book charts the 1886 founding and subsequent
growth of one of America's oldest, continuously meeting women's study groups. It provided
an outlet for women of the greater Boston area to present research papers. Study and social
action defined these women, and, in turn, they helped define their respective eras and the
women's club movement in America.



Sterling Phillip Sterling ’72 has written a collection of 15 short stories, In Which Brief Stories Are
Told (Wayne State University Press, 2011). The stories present a “collage of intriguing
moments” in the lives of average people—car salesmen, motel maids, parents, neighbors,
and professional colleagues, according to the publisher. “While varied in length from short
glimpses to longer narratives, each of the stories is defined by a unique perspective, as
characters present their version of a story—sometimes other peoples’ stories—clouded by the
same emotion, judgment, and passing of time that inhabit all of our memories.” Says one
review: “In plainspoken language, the stories leave a lasting impression. Some of them end
with a twist, many of them are full of Michigan imagery. Take the time to track down this
slim volume. You will be glad you did.”

zone2 Alan Schweitzer ’59 has written Zone 2 (iUniverse, 2011), his fourth fantasy novel. It
follows the character Brad Cole as he attempts to regain his memory after being beaten and
left for dead in the year 2059. In his search, Brad learns of a parallel world his company has discovered—Zone 2—a world in which the Nazis rose victorious out of WWII. With the help of
a beautiful and mysterious woman, Brad explores this strange new realm, desperately hoping
to find the answers he needs.



Harris Colleen S. Harris ’01 has published her third book, The Kentucky Vein (Punkin House,
2011), a collection of poems and essays. Centre appears prominently in one of the essays.
According to the publisher, “The poems and essays in The Kentucky Vein deal with our
connection to nature, exploring lessons learned from tobacco fields under harsh sun, the
lifecycle of quarried stone, childless tricycles, and the grass of a new subdivision asking
where the foals have gone. This collection is a rich symphony of images drawn from the
Kentucky landscape, people and history.”


porter Kent Masterson Brown ’71 has a fifth book, One of Morgan’s Men: Memoirs of
Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry (University Press of Kentucky, 2011).
Lieutenant Porter wrote his memoirs in 1872, and Brown spent five years editing and
annotating them. Porter’s memoirs cover his years as a Confederate soldier under John Hunt
Morgan from the outbreak of the Civil War until Porter was captured in June 1863, his
imprisonment at Johnson’s Island, and his release and his journey back home to Butler
County, Kentucky. It is the first memoir by one of Morgan’s men to be published since 1917.


johnson Frances Lambert Johnson '59 is co-coordinator of a cookbook, My Favorite Things (SPS
Publications, 2011), featuring recipes from celebrities (including Laura Bush, Arnold Palmer.
Paula Deen, Delta Burke), popular restaurants (including The Greenbrier, W. Va.; Queen
Mary 2, Cunard Lines; Sardi’s and Tavern on the Green, N.Y.C.) and more. This three-year
“labor of love,” as she calls it, supports Wheels For The World, a charity that provides
wheelchairs to those in need worldwide. Click here for more information.


To have your book included on the alumni books page please contact: Diane Johnson, Editor, Centrepiece
Centre College, 600 W. Walnut St., Danville, KY 40422, (859) 238-5717 johnsond@centre.edu