Lorena D. Mathien, chair and associate professor of business, has published Why NOT Me? How to Pick Yourself Up by Your Bra Straps and Keep Living after Breast Cancer Diagnosis (Design Marvel, 2024). Mathien’s mother and sister were both diagnosed with breast cancer in their 40s and, four months after her 40th birthday, a routine scan revealed Mathien herself had cancer. Nine years later, as a two-time survivor, Mathien shares her story. All proceeds from the book go to After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, a cancer mentoring program, and the Sister Study, a research organization on hereditary breast cancer.
John Serio, B.S. ’65, published a book, Perennial Earth: Poetry by Wallace Stevens and Paintings by AlexisSerio (New Perennials Publishing, 2022), which won the 2023 Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. The book features over 30 of Stevens’s poems with corresponding paintings by Serio. Although retired, Serio continues to be an active scholar, publishing articles and editing books such as the corrected edition of Collected Poems by Wallace Stevens (Knopf, 2015).
Deborah Gallagher Barger, B.S. ’76, published her first novel, Virgin Snow (NFB Publishing, 2023), under the pen name Moxie Gardiner. The story revolves around a young girl growing up on Buffalo’s West Side during the 1960s. After graduating from Buffalo State, Gallagher worked for eight years as a journalist in Washington, D.C. In 1986, she began a career in government, serving in senior positions at a number of federal agencies for the next nearly 30 years. She retired from the federal government in 2015 and started her “encore career” as a blogger and writer of historical fiction.
John B. Thuersam, B.S. ’77, has written and published two books, Plymouth’s Civil War: The Destruction of a North Carolina Town (Shotwell Publishing Company, 2024) and Key West’s Civil War: Rather Unsafe for a Southern Man to Live Here (Shotwell Publishing Company, 2022). They are available on Amazon.
Maura J. Casey, B.A. ’79, a longtime journalist, former member of the New York Times editorial board, and Buffalo State University Communication Department Hall of Fame honoree, has written and published her debut memoir, Saving Ellen: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery (Skyhorse Publishing, 2025). Set in Buffalo in the 1960s and 1970s, the book traces the author’s recovery from alcoholism and sexual assault and tells of her irrepressible older sister, Ellen, who fought to claim her dream of becoming an athlete despite a terminal diagnosis; her smart, feminist mother whose World War II Army service prepared her to manage her own platoon of six children; and her adulterous, alcoholic father who, at the end, was haunted by shortcomings and regrets. Ultimately, it is a story of humor at unexpected moments as well as the grace of reconciliation and gratitude.
Roberta Worthington, B.A. ’81, B.S. ’93, M.P.S. ’97, recently published her third novel, The Battle for Periphery (Tannhauser Press, 2024), a fantasy and young adult-crossover book with settings inspired by Letchworth State Park, Panama Rocks, and Old Fort Niagara. Her first two books, Relic and Eye of the Peacock, are supernatural mysteries and also have settings inspired by locations in Western New York.
Renée M. Sgroi, M.S. ’23, who graduated with a master of science in creativity and change leadership, had her second poetry collection, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding (Guernica Editions, 2024) published. It was listed on the CBC Books list of highly anticipated fall 2024 books.