After an October full of my sons’ birthdays, lots of grading, and Halloween festivities (side note: we were awesome in our Super Mario Bros. costumes), November was full of poetry.

Photo by Sarah Butterfield

UMKC, my masters alma mater, brought me out to Kansas City to give a poetry reading at The Writers Place. I loved reading in the company of Jermaine Thompson, Bonnie Bolling, and Jason Ryberg, and I loved being in that wonderful venue full of friendly faces. It was a bittersweet event though; my thesis advisor, Michelle Boisseau, passed away the day before I got to town. I closed my reading with one of my favorite poems of hers. I’m grateful for her guidance and for the way she pushed me forward in my writing.

Photo by Natasha Ria El-Scari

The next day, I also led a workshop at The Writers Place on revising and submitting work for publication, Later that afternoon, I got to read poetry alongside Karen Craigo at the Johnson County Library’s Leawood branch. All around, I felt so celebrated by my mentors, grad school peers, and friends. These events were a wonderful way to celebrate Tasty Other‘s first year of publication! 

I was also pleased at the end of November to have two of my poems, “The Book of Us” and “The Book of Cons,” published in Issue 6 of Ink & Letters, which is available for purchase here.

I wish us all a December that’s just as full of good poetry and good people.