Matthea Harvey + Mary Jo Bang + Fanny Howe.

I have to say, Matthea Harvey was hugely charming and I love the title of the book Pity the Bathtub and its Forced Embrace of the Human Form. A lovely reading, and my husband accompanied me. I've also picked up a copy of Bang's Elegy to see how writing about passing might inform my own work regarding my grandfather.

Alex Lemon's book release party at Bryant Lake Bowl.

Hallelujah Blackout

Alex was an MFA student at the U of MN when I was an undergraduate. I remember seeing him coming out of class as I waited for my own (creative non-fiction, I believe) class to start. This is his second book (or third, if you also count chapbooks).

Relief: I will be attending the U of MN's MFA program for the next three years. I did apply to a series of low-res programs, eight of nine of which accepted me, but I think I need the structure of a regular residency program.

And so begins my own process of contacting the list of programs, both low-res and regular-res, to decline. This process has been incredibly surreal for me--rushing home to check the answering machine, wondering where I might end up, the panic and hope of waitlists, and on.

Went to see Mary Oliver (with dear friends Emily and Jen) in downtown Minneapolis. Was a wonderful event--the sort where the rest of the world vanishes and it's just one vision, Oliver, on the stage. So good.

Excited to find Eireann's book all the way in a charming bookstore in New Orleans!

I've written a review for Sun Yung Shin's Skirt Full of Black; it is appearing on CutBank and can be seen here: "Organs of Articulation."

Florida State University called to accept me into their MFA program. Bonus: my friend Becky Lehmann is in the Ph.D in creative writing program there.