UMW Alumna Author Tells Her Own Story for Cultural Celebration Keynote
Beka Kruse Wueste ’06 had been filling notebooks with poems, plays and prose since childhood, but she was reluctant to show her writing to others. That was impossible to avoid when she took a class with Professor Emeritus of English Warren Rochelle at the University of Mary Washington.
“You couldn’t take his writing workshop without sharing your work,” she said of Rochelle, who saw her strengths as a storyteller. “I reconnected with him after I started publishing my work to thank him for the impact that he had on my career.”
Wueste, who majored in art history, has now published three novels and a short story collection, the latest of which – Human of the Year – was recently named one of the Best Indie Books of October by Kirkus Reviews. She’ll share her story in her keynote address at UMW’s Gender and Sexual Minorities and Allies (GSMA) Cultural Celebration, sponsored by the James Farmer Multicultural Center, on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m., in the Hurley Convergence Center’s Digital Auditorium.
Her works of fiction, which also include The Unsent Letters of Lucy Prior, Fireflies in a Jar and My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death, explore experiences across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, bringing to life diverse voices not always represented in media.
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