A month ago, I got an e-mail from Mary Jean. “You don’t know me,” she wrote, “but I work at Tractor Supply and I’m the one who knows where everything is. I’d like to take your writing class.” I invited her to join us today, and she dd, and she will fit in perfectly with this quite remarkable group of writers.

She has a farm, she calls herself a farmer of “useless animals,” she has battled the secret informers of the animal police and the challenges of living with animals and paying for them. She wants to write about the real life of real farms. Can’t wait to see her stuff. She has a transsexual rooster.