So, I’m the managing editor for this little creative nonfiction (CNF) lit mag called Under the Gum Tree. We’ve published hundreds of artists and writers, and I manage a small staff of readers and editors.

Attending the AWP conference gets easier every year. What was once overwhelming is now energizing. Obviously, some of this is experience.

I received my print copy of Issue 17 today. It’s a fat one– 108 pages! And it is, as always, beautiful. The art on the cover and inside are interpretations of poetic forms by Scott Helmes, an artist who introduced himself to us at AWP in Minneapolis.

I love getting the email notice that the new Issue of Under the Gum Tree has arrived! It means, of course, that all of my team’s hard work has produced a thing of beauty that others can enjoy.

The first year I attended the conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, I went as a writer.