A literary magazine with Taco Bell as its touchstone? It’s actually not as cheesy as it sounds. Unwrap one of the two existing volumes and find: An essay that examines the Taco Bell Chalupa and its relationship to NBA basketball. A poem that goes into a Taco Bell bathroom stall to look at addiction. A Crunch Wrap Medical Chart written by a nursing student.

That an American studies alum created a literary magazine centered on a shared piece of Americana—the fast food chain Taco Bell—should surprise no one. After all, MM Carrigan ’04, founder of Taco Bell Quarterly, often tells people that an American studies (AMST) degree “taught me how to consider, examine, think.” Carrigan uses this foundation in creative writing by “telling the stories of objects and places, and rigorously examining how they operate inside of me. That’s also a description of AMST, in a nutshell.”

UMBC: When did the idea occur to you to start a literary publication devoted to this fast food restaurant?
MC: In the spring of 2019. One of those late morning ideas after the second cup of coffee hits.

UMBC: What’s one or two of your favorite pieces?
MC: From Volume 2, Jake Bailey’s “Psychosis at the Bell” excited me, a punk poem exploring schizophrenia and Taco Bell. Terry Horstman’s “Malik for the Win,” is a traditional piece of longform sports writing, through the lens of a basketball Taco Bell promotion. I just love how we get a range of writing.

An undated photo of MM Carrigan ’04, courtesy of Carrigan.

If you saw a senior engineering student sitting on a bench on Academic Row, furiously typing away on his laptop, you might assume he was working on a lab report or a capstone presentation. If that student was Zack Smedley ’17, chemical engineering, though, you’d be wrong. While his peers were fretting about classes, finals, and post-graduation plans, Smedley spent the first half of his senior year working on the manuscript that eventually became his debut young adult novel, Deposing Nathan.

Garnering praise from the likes of Kirkus and the New York Times since its May 2019 publication, Deposing Nathan centers around Nathan and Cam, two high school-aged boys from very different backgrounds whose tumultuous relationship eventually results in a brutal fight, leaving Nathan stabbed in the stomach. As Nathan delivers a deposition about the events leading up to the fight, he unveils a year-long story of friendships, adventures, secrets, and tragedies, eventually revealing the unexpected truth of his injury.

Smedley has been surprised and moved by the effect his book has had on readers. “Every week, I get really, really long emails from a few readers saying it helped them,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of a response.”

The composition of Nathan’s deposition

The idea for his debut novel didn’t come to Smedley all at once; he describes it instead as an amalgam of several smaller ideas. He knew that he wanted to write a “courtroom drama that was a little less soap opera-ish,” which is how he got the idea to use a deposition as a framing device. He also knew that he wanted to write a book about LGBTQ+ teenagers. A bisexual man himself, Smedley felt that a lot of mainstream young adult LGBTQ+ literature was fluffy and unrealistic, and wanted to come up with a story that was more gritty and complex. From there, he began working to construct a story that incorporated each of these ideas. 

The process began with almost six months of outlining and conducting research—including taking both a biomedical engineering class and a medical terminology class at UMBC in order to better write the character of Cam, a self-taught genius of all things medicine. After completing the manuscript, he started sending query letters to literary agents over winter break. The daunting process was old hat to Smedley; he had queried agents before, once for one of the many novels he wrote in high school, and again for a project he completed during his freshman year at UMBC. However, Deposing Nathan was his first successful venture—he received an offer of representation from an agency just after graduation. 

You never know where inspiration will strike

UMBC was the perfect place for Smedley to launch his writing career; he credits the campus’s environment as a huge motivator for starting Deposing Nathan. In high school, he explains, writing was more of a hobby than something he wanted to seriously pursue. But that changed when he came to UMBC. “The atmosphere it established, I’m convinced, is what helped pull this book out of me,” he says. “I still think of it, a little bit, as my home.” 

Though Smedley didn’t study English or creative writing at UMBC, he did take one screenwriting class the summer before his junior year. That class ended up being a favorite of his—and it was a major source of inspiration during the book’s early stages. “[Deposing Nathan] actually started in my head as a screenplay,” Smedley explains, but he later decided to write the story as a novel instead.

The course’s professor, John Carillo, also played an important role in the novel’s early stages. “He took a look at my opening book pages and gave me feedback on them and encouragement,” Smedley says. “That was the summer I had started writing the book, so it definitely had an influence on me.”

Other than Carillo, Smedley also cites two of his chemical engineering professors, Taryn Bayles, who now works at the University of Pittsburgh, and Mariajose Castellanos, senior lecturer and undergraduate program director of chemical engineering, as great supporters of his creative work. “During my senior year, [Castellanos] knew I was writing a book, and she kept saying, ‘Hey Zack, some day, when it’s published, be sure to give me a signed copy,’” he recalls. Two years later, he received a Facebook message from her asking for that signed copy. Smedley replied, “I’ll do you one better. You’re in the acknowledgements.”

“My engineering students have such full schedules that when I learned that Zack was writing a book, it floored me!” Castellanos says, explaining that while many of her students have creative hobbies and interests, Zack was unique in his ability to balance his studies with his writing. “That, I don’t see very much, and I’ve been teaching here for 15 years.”

Post-publication plans

Since Deposing Nathan’s publication, it has received enthusiastic responses from readers and reviewers alike. The Kirkus Review gave it a coveted starred review, and it appeared on lists published by Book Riot and Publisher’s Weekly. It even received a glowing review in the New York Times’ list of “Y.A. Novels That Let Teenage Boys Be Vulnerable,” where it was called “a superb story, told in an original and masterly way.” 

But the most fulfilling feedback Smedley gets is from his fans themselves, many of whom are moved by the book’s depiction of a young Christian boy from a strict family struggling to understand his sexuality. “I got an email one day that was four paragraphs long that said, ‘This is the book I’ve been waiting for. This is like the missing piece in my life,’” he says. Since then, he’s received many similar emails from fans expressing their gratitude.

So, what does the future hold for this emerging author? Originally, he hadn’t planned to start another book right away, but after Deposing Nathan accrued so much positive attention, he and his agent agreed that he should put out another in order to avoid losing momentum. Now, he’s working diligently to complete the first draft of what will eventually become his sophomore novel, all while working full-time as a chemical engineer. His fans are sure to be waiting eagerly to see what he comes up with.

*****

Header image: Zack Smedley ’17 celebrates graduation with True Grit. All photos provided by Smedley. 

Every so often, we’ll chat with an alum about what they do and how they got there. Today we’re talking with author Krista Wagner ‘99, English, about her career and newly published book, Intent.

Name: Krista Wagner (formerly Brooks)
Job Title: English Instructor
Focus Area: Composition and Literature
Grad year: May 1999

Q: What drew you to UMBC for your studies?
UMBC is a very reputable school and is interested in seeing their students excel. The English department is committed to ensuring that their students grow exponentially in critical reading, writing, and thought.

Q: Besides working on your latest novel, Intent, what have you done in your spare time?
I also wrote a screenplay for Intent. I received my M.F.A. in Creative Writing from National University in 2013. I have been an Adjunct English Instructor since 2008.

Q: Were there any particular influences in your life that contributed to your novel?
The idea for Intent seemed to come from nowhere. However, my love for thrillers and desire for truth both contributed to the movement of the plot. My three children and husband and my love for God carried me through the journey of writing the story.

Q: Can you recall any professors or advisors at UMBC who inspired you?
Professor Michael Fallon inspired my creativity through avenues of poetry. Professor Suzy Anger was especially enjoyable to work with as she helped me see how much further I could go with my writing.

Q: What has been your greatest achievement in your career as a writer? Your greatest challenge?
My greatest writing achievement is this novel–my first. The screenplay version of it was most challenging as it wasn’t easy to leave so much “white space” and be forced into thinking in blocks of pure action and dialogue.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your profession?
I love being able to help students realize their potential. The ways of writing are infinite, and I enjoy seeing my students harness their gifts and strengthen their ability to perceive what they are capable of.

Q: Is there any advice you’d like to give to students at UMBC?
Hold onto your integrity and never give up. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Every so often, we’ll chat with an alum about what they do and how they go there. Today we’re talking with novelist Mary Volkman – whose pen name is Margo Christie – about writing and living a colorful life. Volkman’s debut novel These Days won second prize in Amazon’s 2012 Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

Name: Mary Volkman, aka Margo Christie
Grad Year and Major: 1992, English
Job Title: Writer
Employer: Self-employed
Your Website: www.margochristienovelist.com

Q: Tell us a little about how you wound up at UMBC. What’s your background?

A: You could call me a hard-luck story. A refugee from a broken home, I dropped out of high school at age 16. But you could also call me persistent. I’ve always been creative, so upon quitting high school I immediately enrolled in classes at Catonsville Community College [now known as the Community College of Baltimore County, or CCBC], first in the fine arts and theater programs, then in general studies. From there, the transition to UMBC was a natural one. While at CCC I discovered I wanted to write, so I inquired into UMBC’s English program. As someone who was footing the bill for college, UMBC was a good choice. The curriculum was a good fit and it was affordable. The staff consistently guided me toward available grants, and the rest I was able to afford myself.

Q: How did you wind up writing novels? What inspires you, and what do you ultimately hope to see come from it? Tell us about your recent successes.

A: I’ve been creative all my life. In my teens I painted. In my twenties I made jewelry and studied theater. In my thirties I made stained glass and wrote stories. I’ve lived a hard and colorful life, so I always knew there was a novel in me. I think it was my contemporary interest in real-life stories, especially those with some “grit” to them, which got me going. My book, These Days, is about a starstruck teenage stripteaser who’s enamored with the good old days of burlesque and makes the best of her circumstances by reviving them. Though it’s fiction, it’s closely related to my own experience stripping on Baltimore’s “Block” in the late 70s. Like I said, I’m a refugee from a broken home. I come by “grit” legitimately!

My writing, from my short stories to These Days, focuses on “creative-but-fallen characters who long for redemption.” I believe all human experience is worthy of consideration. In writing about stigmatized people like strippers, my hope is that readers who’ve experienced any sort of societal marginalization will come away from my work with a sense of fellow feeling, with a sense of “I’m worthy of consideration, after all.”

I promote These Days through burlesque performances. Recently, I did a reading/performance with a stand-up comedy show in Denver. It was frightening! Comedy audiences can be brutal, and I always had in mind that my work would make people cry or commiserate, not laugh. Yet I managed to make them laugh! And I got my message – that of celebrating the beauty of all humanity – across without alienating anyone. I believe the open-minded environment of a higher-education institution like UMBC helped in this regard.

As These Days is set in Baltimore, I’ve had some success in reaching out to the Baltimore literary community for help in promoting it. I have a reading scheduled on Saturday, October 19, as well as an interview with Aaron Henkin of Baltimore Public Radio WYPR’s “The Signal” program. Details about both of these events can be obtained via my website. Additionally, I received a call from the owner of The Ivy Bookshop, expressing interest in carrying These Days in their store. Interest in my book has really picked up as a result of reaching out to people.

Q: Is there a particular class or professor who really inspired you at UMBC?

A: Tom Nugent, who I had for Creative Writing. He was witty and fun but no-nonsense when it came to teaching the craft of writing. I was writing life-inspired stuff even then, and he helped me eliminate flowery “over-writing” and get down to the nitty-gritty. He was what I’d describe as an “immersion” writer in that he immersed himself in whatever environment he wanted to write about. I read that, while working for The Baltimore Sun, he lived for a week at the crumbling, flea-bag Congress Hotel in order to write about the marginalized, lonely folks who called it home. He came to UMBC with a wealth of experience. We were very fortunate to have him around.

Q: What is your favorite UMBC memory?

A: Wow! There are many. I loved hanging around the cafeteria exchanging ideas with fellow students. As a writer, I’m a student of life. I loved hearing people’s stories, especially the ones that differed markedly from mine. I gravitated toward foreign-born and gay students, as well as creative, counter-cultured ones like myself. The more exotic their stories, the better I liked being around them! Like I said, UMBC was a very open-minded place.

English alumnus Adam Trice ’04, discusses his “graveyard country rock” band Red Sammy in a new interview with Baltimore City Paper editor Lee Gardner.

Read the full interview here.

After graduating from UMBC, Trice earned his M.F.A. in creative writing and publishing arts from the University of Baltimore. His band, Red Sammy, recently released a third album, A Cheaper Kind of Love Song.