Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

That’s Pulitzer Prize-winner Jorie Graham, y’all. She was the big focus in my first, and likely only, cover story for the Harvard Gazette. You can read it here.

She was gracious and frantic, like most creative types, myself included. I was scared as hell to meet her, I must admit; our email exchanges were a bit flighty, and she was skeptical about having me sit-in on some of her student rehearsals for a big poetry recitation she’s set up for April 29. Then we met, and she said I had a strong psychic presence, and I swooned. She’s amazing.

I also met and interviewed the inimitable poetry critic Helen Vendler, who regaled me with many fun stories I couldn’t fit into the piece. When I sent the finished product to her for clearing, she had edited the whole thing (even though I told her the article’s next stop was the Gazette’s in-house editor). “Wunderkinds,” she wrote to me, “is not the plural of wunderkind.” I’ll never forget that.

The year is winding down. So much is happening. I’ve been interviewing for a job that could land me in Mexico indefinitely. Cross your fingers. Anything could happen in 44 days!