Ho-ly smokes. I've been pleased, frightened, surprised - basically every emotion - with the reaction to my Wilson Quarterly piece, "Secondhand Stories in a Rusting Steel City." 

My supportive MFA program featured it; Longform picked it for a weekend read (no, I didn't select it myself!); and BuzzReads, delightful website of the long and short, said some of the nicest things about it (above).

The reaction on Twitter has been similarly flattering:

There is nothing quite like this feeling. 

Before I put this one to bed and focus on new stories, I wanted to be sure to note, as a couple readers have pointed out, that Braddock is thankfully not so destitute anymore. The bulk of time I spent in the shop was during the worst parts of the recession, and slowly but surely, the town has been recovering since then (as we all have). I think it's important, though, that we don't forget the hard times as we move forward into the future. Speaking of...

What are these new stories? you might be wondering. A play, of all things - more on that collaborative project coming soon. A few stories pitched out in freelance land - you'll be the first to know when those come of something. And finally, returning to my extracurricular grad school love, a screenplay based on my weird neighborhood, not too far from Braddock. Stay tuned, y'all. More good things are bound to happen.

If you're one of the 11,000 or so scribblers attending AWP in Minneapolis this year, flag me down! I'll be checking my Twitter feed and would love to meet you. 

Better yet: On Friday from 9 am to 10:15 am, I'll be talking with a few other very smart folks about how to best use social media. The panel will be applicable not only to writing program peeps, but really anybody in the literary world looking for a few tips and some tried-and-true methods for upping engagement.

This'll be my second conference in as many months. In March, I attended my first CASE Editors Forum, which was as inspiring as it was informative. Alumni mags aren't often seen as the most exciting publications, but there's no good reason why they can't be. Lucky me that Pitt Med is as sophisticated as it is beautiful, and how nice to be reminded of that. I'm stoked for my upcoming feature about pathologists and precision medicine at Pitt—stay tuned for it!