“What I knew, and what my old instructor had intuited, was that I needed a change of environment to make progress. You cannot move forward in the writing if you remain still in the world, my professor had written in his email.“

“let’s begin with his disappointment he carries it

onto the platform with my suitcase black strap biting…”

“I want to be the kind of woman who comes off with the

wipe of a hand—foundation streaking from a good night’s show,”