Maddie turned two in January–and will be three already next month. She’s been in a Montessori school this fall and really doing well. She makes us feel so proud, and scared.We went to New York in February. We walked next to many of the sycamores of Brooklyn and experienced the city in a snowstorm, when all those urban woodsmen really come in handy.
In March, I served a two-week residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City. It was a great time and I did a bunch of work on my novel, in addition to meeting some pretty cool people and becoming a regular at a hot pink taco stand.We tracked down the grave of former Omaha political boss Tom Dennison on Memorial Day. I was kind of baffled at first that his marker was so understated, as I expected to find an ornate mausoleum, but I dug up some research later in the year that suggest that Dennison may have been pretty much broke by the time of his death.In June, my review of Lydia Peelle’s short story collection, Reasons For and Advantages of Breathing, appeared in the summer issue of Prairie Schooner.In a busy June, we attended the Geist/Jonas wedding in Stoner Haven, Colorado. Er, Fort Collins. (We didn’t have time to visit the Cheba Hut, but did fit in a short visit to the New Belgium brewery for some samples.) A short story, “Let Your Hair Hang Low,” appeared on MARY this month.“The Man Who Never Was” appeared in Portland, OR rag Weekday in July. “Shame Cycle” was a finalist for the LitPop Fiction Contest, but didn’t ultimately take the prize.July also saw us up to Niobrara for the Blankenfeld family reunion, which included a tour of the original homestead site. This was awesome.The Cincinnati Review chose “The Current State of the Universe” as winner of its Robert and Adel Schiff Prize in Prose in September. The story will appear in their Spring 2011 issue. I also made a guest appearance on their blog, writing about the story’s inspiration.In November, we visited the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. My review of Nadifa Mohamed’s novel Black Mamba Boy was also accepted for publication in a future edition of Prairie Schooner.
It’s been a great year and hopefully 2011 is even better. (Is anyone else having trouble not typing 2001?)
Theodore Wheeler 
Excellent post and what seems to have been a great year for writing, reviewing, and adventure. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, Ahmed!