So, I went to a poetry reading today.

Don Bogen. He's a fantastic poet, with a publication and awards list a mile long, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Camargo Foundation fellowship, and a Fulbright Scholarship. He's a professor at the University of Cincinnati and the editor of the Cincinnati Review.

I picked up a copy of his book An Algebra after the reading (because for once, I had the funds to buy a copy of a visiting writer's book), and when I introduced myself, he knew who I was!

Bogen had just come from a reading at Birmingham Southern College earlier in the day (where I gave a reading back in April and have a handful of fans), and one of my readers mentioned me to him, and told him to keep an eye out for me if I came to his reading.

He asked me to send him a copy of Bone Fragments, which is simultaneously the most exciting and terrifying thing to happen to me all week.

Here's one of Bogen's poems, House.