Two new things

1. A pair of poems that I wrote first in Spanish & then translated into English have been accepted for publication! The Spanish & English will be published together in Reunion: The Dallas Review.

Last night I read them along with a few others during an event at AWP--& it turned out that the young man sitting next to me was a Colombian writer, & he really liked the Spanish versions! He is involved in a literary/cultural journal & invited me to submit work. That's high praise; Colombians traditionally value poetry very highly.

2. I'm judging a poetry contest! I was recruited for the task by an old friend from a writing group back in the 1990s. He's now teaching high school English & helps to run an annual literary contest & festival among regional schools. So I have about 150 poems to read, comment on, & rank this month. No need to do numerical rankings, but I'll need to assign awards or honorable mention to about a third of them. And in late April I'll spend a day at my friend's school, leading a poetry workshop twice & then presenting the top awards at a ceremony.

Taking on new challenges makes me happy.