Last night I was at the NC Press Association Awards Dinner, seat-warming for my pal, Peter Vankevich whose Ocracoke Observer won an editorial award.

The event was somewhat bitter-sweet as McClatchy had laid off several reporters earlier in the day at News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. Many of those reporters were also award-winners. Many of us were unaware of the lay offs until this morning.

Today, I checked the awards site and saw that Walter had won 6 magazine awards. Among the people associated with Walter cited was a familiar name. Mine!

Yes I am a NCPA Award winner along the Jenn Hales who illustrated my poem from May 2025 and whose illustration was creatively cropped as the cover of the issue! No one told me or I would have jumped up and run across the stage.

So here you have it!

Or if you prefer the poem in context.

And the cover.

Thanks to Jenn Hales for finding something in the poem to visualize and to the designers for making such good and creative use of Jenn’s illustration.