I was thrilled to be invited to Fairmont State University to join the Kestrel team for a full weekend & celebration of Issue #50, to which I’m a contributor. It’ll be my first-ever trip to West Virginia, and I’ll be reading Friday night at the Gabor Folklife Center.

There’ll be panel discussions, lots of time for talking about process and form, and, it sounds like, plenty of opportunities to visit socially with other contributors and the Kestrel editorial team. I’m so excited! Today I printed out my itinerary, along with my flight and hotel information, and pulled out copies of my two chapbooks to have available for sale.

Part of the mystery of creative writing is that when you send work out into the universe, you just never know where it will wind up, or what any particular publication will lead to. My poem, “Evidence,” which appears in Issue #50, touches on several themes that recur in my work: the loss of my mother, environmental loss, and nature/wildlife. I’m so glad Kestrel took that poem and that I’ll be reading it publicly for the first time, in less than a week!

I know how much is involved in editing a literary journal, not to mention dealing with the logistics of planning an annual event like the Kestrel Celebration. I’m beyond grateful to Donna Long and the others from the Kestrel editorial team, and of course, to Fairmont State University for being supportive of the journal and its meaningful efforts to highlight their contributors. I’ve never been a part of anything like this, and I’m humbled and honored to be included.

I noticed the journal had created a link to “Evidence” on its website. You can read it here.