Patricia Lockwood (and me!) in the Vulture

This article may well be my greatest claim to fame! That I knew Patricia Lockwood when we were participants of the online poetry forum Poetry Free-for-all in the early aughts. In fact, she was one of three judges to crown me winner of the forum's PFFA Apprentice contest (a la Trump) after several grueling rounds of poetry challenges. It was always an occasion when Patricia posted one of her own poems in the forum for comment. The voice in the poems was always mesmerizing, the writing startlingly original. She deserves every bit of her success since then. The Vulture article below describes the long years spent in the slush pile before she was picked up by major publications. It also recounts the devastating health problems and family tragedies that have plagued this writer. After reading the article, my admiration for her has grown even stronger. How wonderful it is, that in the face of everything that life throws at you, you can remain funny, filthy, and tender.

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