At my 45th Hollins University, everything came full circle. When I graduated in 1980, I was honored to receive Hollins’ Fiction Award. Classmate Cathy Hankla, who was a Hollins professor for 40 years, also received that award, and I invited her to read from her poems at the end of my session. I showed a few slides of my full career and read from THE SHORES OF OUR SOULS, A THOUSAND FLYING THINGS, and my work-in-progress MY FIRST FIANCE, about my freshman year at Hollins. Cathy’s poetry anthology is called “return to a certain region of consciousness.”
Thanks to my dear friend Sandy Kirkpatrick for taking this photo at the beginning of my presentation. She also took my senior photo in 1980. We had so much fun, moments I’ll treasure, but this one is the slide at the end of my presentation for good reason. Thanks to my Hollins buddies who attended!