Dear ones,

Thus concludes a year, another full of mirth and myrrh. When I cast the sidelong glance, here are the peaks topping the geography:

• This was the year when I went to New York to read from Phases at Mockingbird

• The year my book got this new review

• The one in which I published two academic articles: this one and this one

• The year I signed my first book contract for an academic project (more details to come in a future newsletter!)

• The year our church, St Ambrose, started

• It was when we went to Arizona for all those weeks so Amber could make her new ballet Apex.

• The year Lucca started kindergarten

• The one where Hopkins read poems at my birthday 

• The one when I went to Mt. Rainer for the first time

• The one when I dug up whale bones with Peter

• My first writing retreat at Camp Casey

• First stay in a yurt

• The one where we were in the magazine

• My first Lilly conference, at Hope College in MI

• The one where I had the most fun reading Hamilton, The Kingdom, and this De Quincey biography.

• And the one during which I listened to these records more than anything else