Alumnus Fred Schepartz gets novel published
Well, it's kind of old news, but I just joined the DCAA, so I guess it's new news. Earlier this year, my novel "Vampire Cabbie" was published by Literary Road, a small press based in Seattle.
The novel tells the story of a 1000-year-old vampire who loses his vast fortune in the stock market crash of 1987 and is forced to get a job. He moves to Madison for a cush job in a lab at the UW, but when he arrives, he finds the job had fallen through. Stranded and desperate, he decides maybe driving cab might be the answer. Our vampire hero ends up getting hired at a worker-owned-and-operated cooperative cab company.
"Vampire Cabbie" may be of interest to Cardinal alumni who find they miss Madison. Or it may be of interest to Cardinal alumni who still live in Madison, but miss the Madison of their youth. The setting is the late 1980s and features many classic landmarks and characters that aren't around anymore.
Acclaim for New Daily Cardinal Biography
Doug Moe, columnist for The Capital Times in Madison, recently talked with Allison Hantschel about her new book, It Doesn't End with Us: The Story of The Daily Cardinal. The book also features a foreword by Richard Schickel, Time magazine film critic and fellow Cardinal alumnus.
Of the book, Moe writes: "[It] made me jealous for my own student newspaper days."
Read Moe's complete review and the full interview here:"Story of Daily Cardinal relights fire for news biz"
It Doesn't End with Us is available from Amazon... but, if you act now and renew your membership with the DCAA at the director level of $100, we will ship you a copy signed by Allison for your library for free!
Your donation will go towards supporting DCAA programs that sustain the Cardinal and the students who work at it today.
Use the donation form on the right to make your contribution and we'll contact you to arrange for delivery of your copy. Of, if you prefer, send an email to cross (at) dailycardinal.net to make your donation over the phone.
Don't miss this chance to experience the Cardinal's history, as told by your fellow alumni. It Doesn't End with Us is a great opportunity to reconnect with your own student newspaper days.
DCAA Scholarship Founder Marilyn Shuman Dies
From her memorial in the Chicago Sun-Times:
Born in Spring Grove, Minn., Ms. Shuman was class valedictorian at Frederic High School in northern Wisconsin and graduated in journalism with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was managing editor of the Daily Cardinal. After graduation, she took a job with the Easter Seal Society in Elyria, Ohio, and moved with the organization when it relocated to Chicago. She later worked as associate editor for Success Unlimited and as editor of the Great Books Foundation's monthly publication Gadfly until her first child, Kristin, was born in 1955.
Working as a free-lance writer while rearing her three children in Arlington Heights, Ms. Shuman produced numerous travel and other articles for the Daily News, writing under both the names Marilyn Shuman and Marilyn Johnson. She wrote a Daily News travel column largely about trailer camping called the Pampered Camper in the 1960s and '70s and in the '70s also wrote an advice column called "Ask Marilyn."
During that time, Ms. Shuman also was public relations director for UNICEF's Chicago office and served on the organization's board. She returned to school in her 50s, earning a master's degree in media and communications from Roosevelt, and in the 1980s, she was public relations officer for the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. As a volunteer she helped on Democratic campaigns, including George McGovern's presidential run in 1972, and with meals for the homeless.
"My mother was a model for me and others, demonstrating that women could rear their children, work using their talents for the benefit of others and volunteer," Chicago-based civil rights lawyer Betsy Shuman-Moore, Ms. Shuman's daughter, said in an e-mail.
Shuman was inducted into the Daily Cardinal Hall of Fame in 2000 along with many of her fellow staffers from the World War II years. Shuman served as military editor at the Cardinal and was promoted to managing editor in 1943. She and a number of other women provided invaluable service to the Cardinal in keeping the paper going; many other student newspapers suspended publication during the war years.
In 2002, Shuman organized an effort to provide scholarships to Cardinal editors who served more than one term at a desk or position in an effort to keep experienced staffers in place. The Winner's Circle Scholarship has since awarded more than $3,000 to deserving Cardinal editors. For her efforts Shuman was named the DCAA's 2003 Alumna of the Year.
The DCAA would like to extend its condolences to her family. Her work on behalf of the Cardinal was extraordinarily valuable, and she will be very much missed.