For most of us, the first months of the pandemic were a numbing transition. In March 2020, I left my office at my community college believing I'd be back the next day. I did not return for almost two years.

This was a new loneliness.

By November, fear had reconditioned me. I crossed the street if others approached, fearful of other bodies as though they were rasping zombies from The Walking Dead. Handshakes and hugs were unthinkable. I wore masks made of anything. A trip to the grocery store was a fluorescent expedition.

But with that loneliness came new tools. Zoom, something few of my colleagues in education were using before the pandemic, was suddenly an intimate space.

In November of 2020, in Zoom with a few friends from Stonecoast, the idea came up: why not hold a literary reading with and for friends from Stonecoast? Make it family style. Low pressure. New or published work. No bloated intros. Just, hi, this is Robin or Morgan or Lauren, they're working on some writing and want to share. We took our name from the old Stone House in Wolfe's Neck State Park in Maine where the Stonecoast MFA used to hold residencies.

I asked for help from other alums. The marvelous Amanda Pleau stepped up, and the two of us ran a weekly reading series for more than a year and a half. We recorded each broadcast so that those who couldn't make our time could watch later. After a while, Shannon Bowring came on to help.

For me, the entire thing was marvelous. Those were isolated days, and talking with writers got me writing again. And not just me: one of the favorite things Amanda and I heard was, I haven't been writing much, but I wanted to get something together for this. Wonderful!

Now, the world has reopened, and the informal reading series has become an informal podcast. Before, most of the broadcast was authors reading their work with small bits of conversation; now, the podcast consists of conversation with short readings interspersed.

Also, each new episode typically focuses on a recent book. Readers don't have to be Stonecoast alumni, and I'm planning a podcast series that will introduce poetry to those who may not be familiar.

As before, our tone is down to earth, person-focused, and emotionally sincere.  I offer craft notes for those of us who are writing or who want to write.

My hope is that the series holds interest for accomplished authors and for those new to reading contemporary literature. We check our egos and pre-conceptions at the door. Here, we approach writing for the best reasons--to experience delight and to be instructed about our human world.

I'm working on a single, book-length poem that mirrors the style of the classic epic. It's working title is Orion. It is already several hundred pages, and I hope to share bits of that process here, too. A poem like that takes a long time, and others might find some useful insights if I share what I'm doing.

Thank you for joining me! Love to all.

Troy Myers