I got an email that mentioned Taylor Swift’s new album release and Outlook tried to add Tortured Poet’s Department Meeting to my calendar as a faculty meeting.

Overheard on campus:

“I didn’t like Dr Pepper until I came out”

And here’s some kind of synchronicity: this grandma shares a birthday with Jericho Brown and his poem “N’em” is beautiful catching of these important backgrounded lives that make the world turn:

“They said to say goodnight
And not goodbye…”
poets.org/poem/nem

An essay I wrote about my grandfather last summer for Bitter Southerner is making the rounds again, so it feels right to let you know that his wife, my grandma, turned 89 yesterday. Here they are at their wedding shower 70 years ago.
bittersoutherner.com/feature/2023/o…

Cobbler has two ideal states: hot and freshly made with ice cream on top or a day old and straight from the fridge

One of my magazine writing students has dropped fake ads into his profile draft and I’m dying:

My collection of essays Eyes Moving Through the Dark is now available for pre-order Orison Books. Much gratitude to editors Luke Hankins & Jessie van Eerden, and to Kathryn Nuernberger, Alejandra Oliva, Nicole Walker, Amy Wright & Jeremy B. Jones for their kind words.

This form for a middle school field trip takes a pretty middle school view of life:

This clip from today’s NC State presser when Wes Moore is asked about Kay Yow. Whew. 😭

The North Carolina State women’s and men’s basketball teams are both in the Final Four. It is a sentence few in Raleigh believed they ever would utter, and the tearful glee of an overjoyed fan base is still in shock. nyti.ms/4cHiwqz

Happening now.

Nbd.

I’m really proud of us for surviving those years of Carlos Santana-plays-with-every-pop-star-he-can-find radio

🐺 🐺 🐺 🐺