Since December? Can't believe it.

My new book-length manuscript has been a finalist in two contests: 2010 Marie Alexander Prize from White Pine Press and 2011 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Poetry Book Contest, judged by Nikki Finney.

So don't give up!

On the way home from a party on 4th of July, we saw a branch in the middle of the road with two brown leaves sticking up in the air. As we got closer, we realized the leaves were the little heads of two caramel kittens. When we stopped the car, they came running. Six weeks old and abandoned on the road. This happens all the time down here. We had picked up another kitten a year or two before, and found him also right in the middle of the road, on the yellow strip. Do they think they're safe there? More likely to be seen? Risky business.

We brought the kittens home, named them Julio for the 4th of July and Frankie for his ole' blue eyes. Friends of ours in town happened to be looking for two kittens to train up as mousers, so Julio and Frankie have found a happy home. We're babysitting for them at the moment, for a week while our friends are away. If somebody will tell me how to upload photos onto this thing, I'll post one. They're really cute.

Stakey Flythe has a wonderful poem in the August 8 issue of The New Yorker. He is a fine poet who lives in North Augusta and deserves to be better known. Jessica Greenbaum, who is the daughter of friends here in Augusta, also has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere. Keep an eye out for her. Sarah Gridley, in Cleveland, is the daughter of friends, too - that is not the criterion for inclusion here, but she is doing interesting work.

The heat has abated a bit. A fearsome summer in every way. For enlightenmnet, read The World Without Us. For delight, listen to Jonathon Schwartz on WNYC or SiriusXM Channel 4, 12-3 Monday-Saturday, 12-4 on Sunday.

Happy late summer days.