“‘It is a long road to Moxie,’ notes the speaker in ‘The Reality Show,’ one of the contemplative and ultimately hopeful poems that make up A Conversation with My Imaginary Daughter. Moxie, a throwback expression denoting the ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage; aggressive energy; initiative; skill and know how. So the poems in this chapbook give us the view, forwards and backwards, along that long, strange road. A sad, shrewd humor permeates this collection, as does a palpable sense of gratitude. What’s Franchot Tone to the fight one wages for identity against one’s mother, or Moses to the zeitgeist, except, in every life, connections to a vibrant imagined past mark the borders? As the speaker notes in ‘Second Banana,’ ‘Unity is the moment when living becomes history.’”
— Lyrae van Clief-Stefanon, 2012 poetry judge

Read the poem “A Conversation with My Imaginary Daughter” in Lambda Literary’s Poetry Spotlight