Iambic Infatuation

When a girl shows up to her own birthday celebration, a nighttime garden party, and meets an intriguing stranger … well, that just makes the day that much more special.

In our case, that stranger was Sam Witt, a visiting writer at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Even after hours of wine and cigarettes, we still remember a few things: He was born in England, then moved with his family to North Carolina; he received an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop; and he’s currently single. During the course of our conversation, he recounted a joke he heard on NPR that was actually funny, which is kind of unheard of, and did so with deadpan delivery. Oh, and he wears glasses.

From Google, we gleaned Sam’s other crushworthy qualities: a Fulbright Fellowship to St. Petersburg in 2001, where he studied and wrote Russian poetry for 13 months; a stint in San Francisco writing for Wired and Salon; and a highly coveted Yaddo residency last spring.

But what cinched the crush was the conversation the next day, in which our sisters and mom all agreed that “the new poet in town” (as he was referred to at the party) was cute. The Fischer girls, it should be said, have excellent taste.

That’s why this week we love Sam Witt.