Hinx Minx

Not unrelated to the topic of my last post, about actions and efforts and living with outcomes we can't control: My friend Becky has been working diligently, and living with a lot of "almosts" for the last year or so. That changed this week when she won the Ohio State University Press /The Journal Poetry Prize.

This is awesome, not just for glory and the cash prize, but because it is a prize where they publish your manuscript, and in the academic job market, a published book puts you in a whole different category.

It takes fortitude send out poem after poem, to write $25 checks and send off manuscripts when the outcome is uncertain at best, but writers like Becky do it repeatedly. They do it when they are happy and hopeful, and also when they are depressed and feel like they are throwing their money and their efforts into an ever-sucking black hole.

So it is a real pleasure to see such efforts pay off. Yay, Becky!!!