Hello, class of 2008! Hope you’re vaxxed, relaxed, and summering to the max. Just a handful of updates from our class this time around—thanks to all who wrote in.

Ruth Hupart and her husband welcomed their first child, Zev, at the end of 2020. By the time you’re reading this, Ruth will be back from maternity leave and at work on carbon capture and sequestration at the International Finance Corp. “If anyone else is working on that they should reach out,” she says. Congrats, Ruth, and keep up the good work!

David O. Smith moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, this past winter to pursue an intensive atelier-style track of painting in oil with his mentor Tony Ryder. In addition to six hours a day of painting, David has been applying like mad to grants and residencies for the coming years. This winter was his first time oil painting, although he’s been drawing and painting for 30 years and working in fine arts for a decade.

Also on the creative front, Meredith (Russo) Mathias’ debut novel, The Shimmering State, will be published in August by Atria/Simon & Schuster, under the name Meredith Westgate. Congrats, Meredith!

And Corinne Foster writes in to share that she had abdominal surgery. “I don’t recommend it to anyone,” she says. Duly noted.

—Chris Barth, 315 14th Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413; (609) 405-9153; cbarthrun@gmail.com