Tomorrow I’m driving up to Tempe, AZ to teach at the Desert Nights, Rising Stars literary conference as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member. I’m really looking forward to it – not only do I have great memories of this conference from my time as a student at ASU, but I’m excited to take part in the panels and classes I have planned.

DNRS marks the beginning of a conference-filled spring for me: after this weekend, I’m taking part in two panels at the Tucson Festival of Books, and then in late March/early April I’m going to AWP in Los Angeles (where my load will be lighter: just one reading & probably some table time at the VIDA booth. Let’s hang out, writer friends!) Dave and I are also visiting New York in April, so it will be a whirlwind.

Other good things: I just found out I was selected for a Glenna Luschei prize in the Annual Prairie Schooner Awards, for my story “The Girls They Burned,” which appeared in PS last summer.

And, the walls are going up in my writing studio! Lots of excitement! Enjoy the paratrooping turtles.