I’m currently sitting in a super hip hotel room, put up by my old MFA program so I could come up to Tempe and read at the Arizona State University MFA Program’s 30th Anniversary Gala. It was a lovely evening, and I felt privileged to be among the featured readers.

(I also gave a talk to the current grad students + some writing undergrads earlier in the day, the content of which was basically “Life after the soft womb of grad school will be cold and hard, now let’s get down to brass tacks about the business of publishing.” I’ve been told it went over well!)

In other news, The Daughters is on the shortlist for the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award (!!!), which is an infinite delight to me, no less because I share the shortlist (me in fiction, them in non-fiction) with Pete Turchi and Tara Ison, two of my beloved teachers and friends.

Two friends publishing great work recently:

• Lyndsey Reese, with a story in the latest issue of PANK
• Jeff Albers, with a story up at the Tin House Open Bar

Guyyyyys I loooovvvee you.

Oh hey & I don’t usually edit my posts to add things, but I am DOING THAT NOW because the wonderful people at Prairie Schooner (you can find my story “The Girls They Burned” in their summer issue, btw) asked me some smart questions about book publishing and then shared the answers. Take a look, and consider submitting to their Book Prize!