This site and blog have been through a lot of changes since I created it in 2010, primarily with the goal of presenting my work. You’ll notice some things have changed: The previous content has been fully wiped, there’s a swanky new layout theme, and (if you’ve been here before) URL redirection. Nifty!

As an undergrad and graduate student I used this space as my writing and teaching portfolio. These things were required in several classes that pushed toward academic and professional development. But as time went on my work became outdated and I wanted to write about writing, what I was doing, teaching, etc. The latter never really happened. The excuses are endless: School, teaching, moving, editing, my other blog.

Yes, my other blog. Some of you probably arrived here from there. For those not familiar with it, Yay Words! is where I regularly post poetry and short prose, and have compiled multi-author, free PDF collections based on themes and writing challenges. It’s my baby, and I’m happy with how many people enjoy it.

I’ve attempted several times to branch out there. Made goals to write book reviews, or talk about other people’s blogs and poems, interview other writers, point out podcasts or albums I’m enjoying, and all those things a good literary citizen should do. Every time I venture into it, a post or two happens, and they quickly get lost in a sea of poem posts. This confounded me for a long time; I attributed it to what must be laziness and unwillingness to commit (disregarding the fact I’d fairly successfully kept up the blog for three years now with approximately 550 posts). I felt like a bad literary citizen despite my involvement within the writing community and editorial duties. Not to mention all these things had to do with words, right? Why wouldn’t addressing all these other things not fall under the tagline, “A celebration of language and the written word (with a little art on the side)”?

It comes down to function: Yay Words! has its rhythm and purpose; I would be remiss to ignore that, especially when it’s worked so well. While I feel like I could be open on Yay Words! if I wanted to (my followers are cool people), it just doesn’t feel right. Essentially I have no public space just designated for representing me as a person (who wears many hats), what else I’m doing, and the things I enjoy. Sure, there’s Facebook, but at 444 friends and questionable privacy settings it’s still not public. (For the record “four hundred and forty-four friends” is fun to say.) These things just get lost on my other blog—they don’t fit. And that’s okay.

So that brings us to here and this site.

What this means:

More immediately I’ll be starting to post again and making an effort not to treat this blog like a red-headed stepchild. Topics will range from books I’m currently reading to cynical readings of fortune cookies. All those things I keep saying I want to address will follow. It’s getting my #litcit groove back, but also displaying what I care about as a someone engaged in the arts from multiple lenses.

Less immediately I will be slowly re-uploading and updating work into my portfolio. Some things won’t be come back; some things I want to update before they see the light of day again. If there was something you had linked to on your site, or were using for this or that, please let me know and I’ll get you a copy. I’ve saved everything.

What this doesn’t mean:

Yay Words! is not dead. I will still post my creative work there and be hosting writing events. (Hint: March is coming up, and I will again be providing doodles for inspiration. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the opening post I wrote last year.) So basically, this reboot doesn’t change anything happening over there. It will continue to happily chug away.

Despite my best intentions and my revelation of what needs to be done here, it probably won’t happen overnight. I’m still teaching, editing, sleeping (sometimes), and all that other stuff, but I feel like I’ve reached the point as a writer, professional, and person where I can do this as long as I have patience with myself. It’ll take a while to find my rhythm. Again, that’s okay.

And with all that being said, welcome back, me.