It’s been kind of a crazy week. Nomination season is chugging along with lots of celebrating of amazing writers!!

I am grateful to The Hennepin Review for nominating All Wisdom Is Not Taught in Your School for not only Best of the Net but also for a Pushcart Prize. I know that both of these awards are nigh unattainable for someone like me but it’s really nice to be recognized. Thank you Hilal Islar!!

I am also very grateful to Ruby Literary Press for nominating The Reused Cool Whip Container for Best Microfiction. I really love this little obituary to all the plastic containers we reused as kids. Thank you April Bradley!!

A month or so ago, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Shipra Agarwal for her new Lit Yatra column, following in the footsteps another writer I admire Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar (read her interview here). Here’s the link to my interview! Thank you so much Shipra! You are a joy!

And now on to Araby, I was approached by Tom Conaghan, publisher of Scratch Books to write about a short story by a writer who had died before 1950 for Scratch Classics. I chose James Joyce and “Araby” - my favorite story by Joyce. You can read my take on it as well as Araby. It was really fun to dive back into literary criticism as I haven’t exercised that muscle in a long time.

And finally, I would love to include a wonderful one-minute review from Glenda Bailey-Mershon in her substack newsletter The Inspiration Shelf for my NiF Kahi and Lua. In her Introducing The Inspiration Shelf (scroll to the bottom), she glowingly says “Trust me—you’ll be surprised.” And maybe you will?

As always, if you are reading this, I am grateful for you too. Thank you! Sending love and light and so much creativity!