“Every good story begins in medias res. There’s the part that’s Over. There’s the part that’s Next. In the middle gapes a gap. “Mind the gap” because the gap is the Now. The more we mind it, give attention—surrender—to the Now, the greater it seems to swell. The greater it seems imaginatively as we attend to what’s possible, perhaps especially to what’s improbable.”

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On September 8, 2022, award-winning poet and teacher Jeanine Hathaway delivered the inaugural talk for The Star-Splitter Academy’s school year.

In previous years, Jeanine has spoken to us about Joan of Arc, rhinos, kaleidoscopes, cephalopods, sound as touch, illuminated manuscripts, and the act of pilgrimage. This year, she contemplated transitions, in a talk entitled "Mind the Gap," which was followed by a conversation with the students.

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Jeanine Hathaway currently enjoys Professor emerita status from Wichita State University, having taught creative writing and literature there. She was a poetry mentor in Seattle Pacific University’s MFA Program.

Hathaway is the author of the autobiographical novel Motherhouse (1992), the 2001 Vassar Miller Poetry Prize-winning The Self as Constellation (2002), and a chapbook, The Ex-Nun Poems (2011).

Her most recent collection of poetry is Long After Lauds, published in 2020 by Slant Books.