Lady of Culture and Grace

Only in Kentucky

On Thursday I gave a reading at Western Kentucky University, where I was hosted by David Bell and Molly McCaffrey and warmly welcomed by their students and colleagues. Dave was going to introduce me as a “Lady of Culture and Grace,” per the plaque on the wall (& above), but he was too busy saying other very nice things and celebrating the 9th inning of the Reds’ Opening Day.

I met David and Molly on the very first day of our grad school orientation for teaching composition (which is as close to “the trenches” as I ever hope to come). And we’ve made our way through the ups and downs of the writing life more or less together ever since. They were kind enough to include my story “When to Hold” in their excellent edited collection, Commutability, about our journeys from here to there.

And now I’m thrilled to say that David’s novel Cemetery Girl will be published in October. It’s the first of a two-book deal with Penguin/NAL, and I got to hear all about its sale – a story that is probably almost as thrilling as the novel itself. And if that’s not enough, Molly’s story collection How to Survive Graduate School and Other Disasters will be published next month by Main Street Rag Press. (Preorder now!) I, for one, could not have survived graduate school without them.

Here are some pictures from the reading with cameos by Dale Rigby and students Megan, Brittany, Andrew, Jesse, David, and more! Thanks to everyone at WKU – I had a great time.

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Molly also made a gorgeous broadside of one of my stories, which I’ll feature in a separate post…