Felicity (MFA) is a writer and teacher living in Omaha, Nebraska.
Most recently, her poem “God, Like Me, a Mother” was published in the January issue of Sojourners magazine. “Fika on Marstrand Island, Sweden” and “StarDate: August 27, Moon and Aldebaran” are available online at The Sunlight Press. Another poem, “At the Nadia Bolz-Weber Lecture,” was published in The Tishman Review.
I’ve always appreciated my name, even though I never give it to a barista. It means happiness. You can read it in British novels. For me, it came from my dad.
“If I have a daughter someday, I’m going to name her Felicity.” This is what he told my mom on their first date at the Pizza Hut.
When I was born, she added the middle name Jo (after the Little Women heroine), and I’ve been lucky to live my forty-plus years in the beautiful birthright of the name they gave me together.
I come from faith people – and I’ve also learned a lot about life from people who would never describe themselves that way. I like to read Wendell Berry novels, Mary Oliver poems, and Eula Biss essays.
What do I write? I blogged for years as a writing outlet (a few posts still available here) and then was lucky enough to attend graduate school in Creative Writing. Now my writing could be poems, essays, or something about a 1984 regional production of “Annie.” I want to write about everything, but too often that translates into writing about nothing.
Lucky in life, I married a music guy. A lot of nights I go to sleep listening to him playing the piano downstairs. We’re watching our four kids grow up, and it really is the good life.