I completed my third (and final) residency in my MFA program in January. To say that this program has changed my life is an understatement. In the words of my friend and former Madwomen mentor, Tess Barry, it is a “two year bath in champagne.”

I have worked with incredible mentors, had the pleasure of meeting and listening to many renowned visiting writers, and made lifelong connections in the friends I have found here.

Here’s our group at Steel Cactus: Amy, me, Jaclyn, Phillip, Cathy, Hannah, and Sam.

And then at the famous Jazz Night: Gerry, Phillip, Jaclyn, me, Cathy, Richard.

I met the remarkable Sandra Cisneros, award-winning author and beautiful soul.

I presented my craft talk, Writing the Wandering Home: Place and Placelessness in Poetry.

And here we all are at the final dinner, the original crew: Richard, Cathy, me, Gerry, Jaclyn.

& the three musketeers, the girls: Jaclyn, me, Cathy.

I would not have made it through this program or the past year of my life (including surviving Ireland!) without this incredible human. Thank you, Jaclyn. We did it!

My brilliant, powerful teachers: Judith Vollmer and Jan Beatty.

I am beginning this last practicum with a full reading list, and a notebook full of goals. I’m not sure what shape my manuscript will take, but I know my voice is shifting the more I grow in this program, and I can’t wait to see how it sounds.