Two Special Offers

For My Paid Subscribers

Last month I saw the publication of a passion project I’ve been working on for several years.

In 2017, my dear writing friend Donald Quist started an innovative nonfiction journal called Past Ten where he asked contributors to reflect on a specific date exactly ten years ago, and the story of their personal journey from then until now in 1000 words or less. I wrote an early essay for him about the adoption of my daughter and the evolution of our relationship over the course of a decade, and loved the experience of writing our story so much that I joined his editorial team the following year as editor-at-large alongside his managing editor.

Me with Creator/Executive Editor Donald Quist and Managing Editor/Art Director Bailey Gaylin Moore at our Beaverdale Books event in Des Moines

Together, our team eventually had enough essays for a book, The Past Ten: an anthology, a collection of seventy-four select pieces from the journal across each month of the year, ranging in topics like mental health, addiction, identity, parenthood, marriage, professional successes and failures, and so much more.

Our contributors in both the book and the journal include writers from Iowa like bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf, Amy Lee Lillard, and Ryan Collins, several Iowa Writers Collaborative members like Grant Faulkner and Scott Garson, National Book Award Finalist Brandon Taylor, and other talented writers from around the U.S. and world.