A former academic turned partner at Bain & Company, Gregory LeStage brings discipline, grit, and clarity to both his professional life and his poetry. When not writing, he devotes himself to hands-on restoration projects-rescuing an 1810 Cape Cod barn from demolition, rebuilding the cab of a 1949 Chevy farm truck by hand, coaxing a 1962 Vietnam-era Dodge M37 back to life, or or keeping a 1940 Farmall tractor running. His love for old tools, enduring things, and work done slowly by hand informs both his writing and his way of being. LeStage holds a PhD and Master's from Oxford University and a BA from Trinity College. His poems have appeared in numerous publications, and his first collection, Small Gods of Summer, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Prize and his second, Hope Is a Small Barn, was a runner up for the Julia Ward Howe Prize. Whether in a workshop or at the page, he works with what he has: memory, imagination, and the desire to connect. For him, poetry is no different than carpentry or restoration-it's about joining one word to another in a way that might hold.