The Extra Year

The emphasis of "The Extra Year" focuses on the responsibilities of the poet: to observe, track, and share details of the human condition with others, especially in times of illness. In October 2018, Post was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, with a bleak prognosis given the tumor wrapped around a major artery. This hasn't hindered him from living a full and active life and keeping positive for himself and those around him. In late February, he began taking a poetry workshop from Santa Cruz County poet laureate, Danusha Laméris. In five months, he has written over 200 poems, and has poems published in or to be published in three national literary magazines. "The Extra Year" tracks the progression of his physical and mental states after six months of chemotherapy and a soon-to-be Cybernife radiation procedure, with poems that delve into death and dying, humor, anger, and the joy of being alive. Jory Post has been an educator and writer for 40 years as well as making handmade books and journals with his wife, Karen, as JoKa Press. He participates in a playwriting group, a fiction writing group, and a poetry workshop with Santa Cruz County poet laureate, Danusha Laméris. He is the cofounder and editor of phren-z, an online literary magazine, serving Santa Cruz County writers for 8 years. His fiction and poetry have been published in Catamaran Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Porter Gulch Review, Red Wheelbarrow, 82 Review, and upcoming in The Sun.