You Between the Lines

DEBUT In high school, literary journal editor Will Langford called Leigh Simon’s poetry “all style and no substance,” criticism she hasn’t quite forgotten when she enrolls in an MFA program in North Carolina a decade later. When she runs into Will at a gathering for new students, former sorority girl Leigh discovers that all of her high school insecurities have come rushing back, especially since she already feels like she doesn’t fit in at her new program. Leigh, who prefers pop culture to the highbrow literature and poetry that the rest of her new classmates like, is still determined to land a coveted second-year fellowship with her all-time favorite poet, but so is Will. With only 10 students in their MFA cohort, Leigh and Will soon learn that it will be impossible to avoid each other, especially when Leigh realizes that some of Will’s poetry may be about her, and they’re forced to admit that their longstanding academic rivalry might have been a cover for something more all along.