Long's Peak

Long's Peak stands 14, 255 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park here in Colorado (just outside of Estes Park, where I spent some time today).

I climbed (hiked is the more appropriate term; I bore no equipment for scaling rock faces) this mountain in 1999 with my then-supervisor and friend Silas.

I had lunch with Silas and his three-year-old son today at Mountain Sun on Pearl Street in Boulder. Good to see how well he is doing. He is a bona fide 100 percent milkman; you know, like delivering bottles to your doorstop milkman. NO shit. It's a good living and I wish him and his family all the best.

When I was nearing the end of my Bachelor's degree in Baltimore (2000) at Towson University, I walked into the new Barnes and Nobles and spent some time scanning the titles in the poetry section. One title stood out: Long's Peak by Chester Wickwire. The cover had a picture of Long's Peak. Applying the logic that I once hiked this verysame mountain, I purchased the book. After I fininshed reading, I noticed that it was published by a Baltimore press, BrickHouse Books. The publisher of BHB was listed on the title page: Clarinda Harriss. The name was familiar; I had an inkling she worked at Towson University. So I looked her up in the TU directory, sent her an e-mail inquiring about any internhip possibilities, heard back from her soon thereafter, and thus began my on-again off-again tenure as an Assistant Editor with BrickHouse Books.

This past year, I was reading manuscripts for BHB and came across a unique and lively book of poetry: The General Is Asked His Opinion by Omar Shapli. I wrote up a brief review of the book and told Clarinda that she should publish this title next. Her reply was the she didn't have the funds to do so. My reply: What if I published it? With her blessing, I wrote Omar a letter offering to publish his book, and thus was born twentythreebooks. The General Is Asked His Opinion will be available for online purchase in the next few weeks.