Just when I thought I was closing out the year with as much good news as my heart could carry, came an email from the director of Mercer University Press, with the subject line, “Question.”

What could he be asking, I wondered. Did I forget to attach something when I’d sent him my second book manuscript, Bloodstream? (I talked about how this work came together in my previous post.) I’d sent the manuscript and a poetry CV…could there have been a formatting issue? I opened the email with questions of my own.

“Would you like a contract for Christmas?” he asked. “If so, I’ll send one tomorrow.”

I think that short communication will go down as one of the most memorable emails I’ve ever received.

Did I say that my heart almost missed a beat? That every bone in my body was vibrating? That I was frozen in delight or I’d have been literally jumping up and down with excitement and gratitude? All of these things are true, but burnished by connections known and unknown that led to the creation of this manuscript, which took place unexpectedly last summer, and against the backdrop of my first book, The Grief Committee Minutes, which was at the time unspoken for. And which led me to submit to Mercer University Press in the first place.

A wonderful poet, Dr. William Woolfitt,  and I had been messaging last summer about some other poetry-related things when he came up with a “crazy idea,” as he called it: What if I were to curate some poems from my previous two chapbooks and put those with new and uncollected work, to come up with a second book manuscript? Prior to our communication, I had no conception of a second book…not even a glimmer of a concept was dancing around my brain for such a project. But Will’s enthusiasm intrigued me, at some point, I thought: why not?

The bottom line, of course, is that I did accept an offer for publication of The Grief Committee Minutes from Saint Julian Press, and in September, my book came out. Meanwhile, my second book was just a manuscript, which I continued to finetune.

But a key part of this story is why I sent Bloodstream to Mercer, and why I had special hopes of eventual publication by this press. It has to do with another Mercer author suggesting that my work might be fit for this press, after which I perused the website and realized that MUP had published my father’s last book, Tillich: Then and Now.

A religion scholar, my father had written several books, and much about Tillich, during his academic career. While I have all of his books, I can’t say his publishers were exactly on the tip of my tongue….:) However, when I initially sent Bloodstream to the press, I had become aware of this connection. What I wasn’t aware of, though, was that not only had MUP published my dad’s last book in 2000: it turns out, the press had also published an earlier book he had written, about the Baptist preacher, Carlyle Marney, which came out in 1980.

It was the very first book the press ever published.

If that’ s not a magical link, I don’t know what is.

I can’t speak to my excitement about having a book of my poetry accepted by such a distinguished press without acknowledging the sentimental thrill I feel at knowing that my father, who passed away in 2017, published two books and had a wonderful relationship with this same press spanning two decades.

Bloodstream‘s expected publication is Spring/Summer 2026. I’ll be sitting on and savoring this sweet news for a while yet, as I continue to promote TGCM and cherish its presence in the world.

Two book contracts in one year? I’m not sure if I’m worthy. I am sure that I am blessed.