Last year, on my way out of Boston to Dallas, I applied for a job at the arts organization that I used to work at and was passed over for someone who was more immediately available (already in Dallas, though I was due to arrive 1-2 weeks later), had "more grants experience", and who was also a writer/grad from SAIC, fresh from graduation. I felt like that last detail about SAIC was particularly dangled in my face, as if to say, Ms. Pai, on paper and in person you're no different or more unique than the next candidate. My internal dialogue back then was dude, you're going to hire a novelist who's trying to finish her first novel instead of a poet who could build interdisciplinary programs? And you think that she won't have more commitment issues than me (who had already worked for said organization and proved one's self)? So while surfing blogs today, I discovered, that as predicted and foreseen almost 1 year ago, Yvonne left her job after the season ended and is now cranking on finishing that novel that took the backseat for a year and loving her new job. Sounds like how Equivalence got written. So is arts admin just not a culture suitable for or structured enough to support the needs and the temperament of serious, dedicated artists?