Carleen Tibbetts: “I thought 2019 couldn’t be any more difficult than 2018, but wow, I was wrong! Stress from my mom’s death, my husband starting a new job, and a particularly tough paralegal class were the perfect storm for me to have a manic episode in early February.  I was hospitalized for a week, and then spent 3 weeks recovering at home.  During this time, I received kind words, letters,…

Carleen Tibbetts: “As some of you readers who follow me on social media may already know, this June, I lost my mother. She had been diagnosed with COPD about 10 years ago, and her health had been in flux.  When my father passed in the winter of 2017, she was moved into an assisted care facility.  I was able to fly out there in both Spring of 2017 and March…

  Isobel O’Hare: “Some of our readers might be aware that I lost my father while working on Issue Four, so I would like to use my space here in the editor letter to share a poem he helped me revise 5 years ago (he even gave it its title) and to dedicate this issue to David Vaughan (December 31, 1948-February 28, 2018).”           Carleen Tibbetts:…

  Isobel O’Hare: “I fell in love with erasure poetry in my MFA program, and the practice has become a regular part of my writing routine. I enjoy it most when it’s a conversation with an author I respect, but there is also something to be said for arguing with someone whose ideas you find oppressive. If you caught this article in the New Republic last year, you’ll know that the latter…