The highlight of my tour was in Columbia, MO today when my favorite college Engl...

The highlight of my tour was in Columbia, MO today when my favorite college English professor walked into the room. She gave me poetry--The River Merchant's Wife by Ezra Pound, A Mexican Guitar by Frank O'Hara, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock-- and if I have any style as a writer, it is because I started reading poetry in college. I still have my marked-up North Anthology on my shelf in New York. I attended the University of Missouri. I was educated at the University of Catherine Parke. Great teachers bestow such enormous gifts and allow us to imagine ourselves. I am grateful for my teachers.