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My first publication, a chapbook of poems, is about losing Florida and a teacher. I had written, in graduate school, a lot of poems about growing up in Florida. Then, my beloved teacher, Jerry Stern, discovered cancer had returned. I had just moved to Texas and accepted a position as an assistant professor of creative writing at a university there and all I could think about in that striking hot desert was loss: my teacher, my lush home state, childhood itself. I had a terrible car accident, and nearly lost my life, hence: Your Whole Life.
This book, out of print, won the Panhandler Chapbook Competition. The copy Hope College’s Van Wylen library had in its stacks was stolen right away and I felt so lucky, so read. (I always suspected/hoped it was Melissa, Sufjan, and Rob.)
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