AWP 24

Hello!

Sam’s new book, Dark Bird, is finally out! And it’s beautiful!

We had a great time at our first AWP in Kansas City. We sat with his publisher, Barrett Warner, of Galileo Press, met many other interesting writers and publishers, and attended stimulating panel discussions and readings. Not to mention the vast (and overwhelming) Bookfair.

The experience was an excellent reminder of… myself! That might sound silly, but the last several years have been focused on learning how to be an ESOL teacher, and there’s been very little time for any creative writing.

Two moments were especially important to me. One evening we attended an off-site reading of poets and fiction writers associated with UB and Hopkins, Baltimore in KC. We already knew several of the readers, and we were excited to hear those new to us. Also in the audience was a woman who looked very familiar even though I couldn’t place her. Surely we’d met at other writing events. She looked at my name tag and excitedly explained that I had chosen one of her poems decades ago when I was reading for The Baltimore Review – and it was her very first publication! It meant so much to her that she’d always remembered who signed that acceptance letter. Shout out to Heather Rounds! The beauty of Smalltimore…

The next day I was walking through the bookfair trying to be my usual introverted self when I came upon the Finishing Line Press table. An older gentleman was standing there I thought must be Mr. Maines who runs the press with his wife. When I was close enough to see his name tag, I saw I was correct. I turned to him, instead of quietly slipping away, and said, “You must have hundreds of people come up to you and say that you published their first book.” He smiled and said, yes, he recognized my name. We chatted for a few minutes, unable to recall exactly which year Finishing Line published my first book, Touch. Eventually Leah joined us, and there I was meeting these people for the first time.

It is wonderful to have faces to put to the names of people who’ve been important in our lives. The parallel nature of these moments reminded me that the world is indeed round. We are all more connected than we might remember or recognize. And that is delightful!!!