Post from the road:
Survived the readings in Kentucky and Ohio with no major incidents, I’m happy to report. I loved being a guest-teacher in publisher Tom Hunley’s WKU classes in contemporary poetry – the students were so articulate and interesting I would have loved just staying there chatting with them. The crowd at WKU was surprisingly big and enthusiastic – the faculty there were very welcoming – it was just an ideal trip. Tom and his wife Relaina hosted a party afterwards for me and the students and faculty – Relaina even made cookies decorated with red icing versions of my book cover and the blurbs (Michaela you would have been impressed)
Going back to University of Cincinnati was really disconcerting – the campus has been really improved since I was there – but my professors all looked younger than I remembered. How does that work? My college roommate – who I hadn’t seen in years – came to the reading, which was really cool, and I enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting some of the new graduate students there.
Today my parents are having a book party for me so I’ll get to hang out with old friends and some new folks as well. Then tomorrow flying back to Seattle…and back to my normal life…