I often thought about how I would celebrate my first acceptance letter. On numerous occasions, a bottle of Dom Perignon would come up reminding my taste buds of the first time I drank this delicious sparkling wine. So, I decided that Dom and I would have a "date" if I was lucky enough to be published. When I received an email from The Cypress Dome on February 16, I did not have Dom as a date but a cheaper version. Instead of celebrating with champagne, I celebrated with the leftovers of an old, almost to the point of vinegar Cabernet Sauvignon I had left in the fridge. It didn't matter because the salty flavor from the tears of joy that ran down my blushed cheeks, was better than any cheap wine or fancy champagne I had ever tasted. My friend Dom will just have to wait for another day.

Earlier this year I took part in Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés's panel Composing and Critiquing in Color at the Association of Writers and Writing programs held in Minneapolis. This was the first time I attended an AWP conference and the first time I was part of a panel. While at the conference, I also attended a multitude of workshops, gathered information from various presses, journals and publishing houses, and met one of my favorite authors, Luís Alberto Urrea. If you have never been to this conference, its worth taking a look.