Stories and poems may be timeless, but writers are not–as Stephanie Carpenter recognizes in “On Being Ma’am-ed.” Though we may long for eternal inclusion in anthologies that celebrate that rare combination of youth and talent, the window of opportunity for such an event in one’s own career closes much more rapidly than we want to know. As Carpenter, a Ph.D. student in English and Creative Writing, says, “If I have a publicist, somewhere down the line, it’s unlikely she’ll be pitching my age; if my books are reviewed, the reviewers won’t be exclaiming over my precocity.”