I just learned that my friend (and high school prom date) Katherine Ace passed away. She was a brilliant artist. I featured her work in the first issue of Litbop. More importantly, she was a compassionate, intelligent woman with a quirky sense of humor, a feminist, and a fighter who told stories through her art. She was as colorful as her paintings, and her absence makes this world less interesting. The last time we spoke was a long phone conversation near the end of last year. We discussed art, our families, some shared memories of long-ago adventures, and the love/hate relationship we both have with our fractured country. She was a little drunk, and a little giggly, and a little delightful, and that’s how I will remember her.