We have a new essay up today as part of our How Did I Get Here? essay series. https://www.alexandriaquarterlymag.com/how-did-i-get-here-brit-washburn-part-i

This is a three-part essay that will be presented every Monday for the next three weeks, so stay tuned for Part II, which will appear on September 26th, and Part III, on October 3. By way of introduction, I’ll let R. Overbey (Endlessly Small, AQP) take it from here:

One needn’t know Brit Washburn personally to fully appreciate her work. Though I can tell you that the love, kindness, and beauty radiating from the writer’s words do also from the writer herself. As with much of her poetry, the essay here displays wisdom in a gentle embrace with curiosity—a youthful spirit moving with abandon, though already aware of its fragility.

So here is where we find her. Where are you yourself as you read this essay? Where are we all? Seeing the same sights, or perhaps the oblivious target on which the sights are set? Maybe neither. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Does anyone ever consider themselves worth envying? I’ll never know. But I can say that reading Brit’s work causes me to consider the love, kindness, and beauty that I myself am offering the world.

-R. Overbey