MFAwesomeness

Hey All,

Sorry I haven't been making regular posts. It's been a bust month or so. After the break, things really picked up around here. And it feels different, too. A little more confidence, a lot of learning, coming into a voice that feels authentic, substantial, has room for growth.

I have a crush on my fiction workshop insturctor. She's a visiting professor for the semester, Chrstine Schutt. I really can't say enought good words about her. She's so in tune with language, poetics, meaning, that workshop constantly goes in directions I don't expect. She will solve your plot problems without even mentioning plot, just sharpening, deepening, darkening the tone. She sees the good in every story and encourages us to cut the bullshit - bring the whole story up to the quality of your best line. It's inspiring to me.

Maybe that's because I'm such a poet myself. Words are just fun. Plots fun, character, ideas, are fun too, but words are so organic and they flow out of you. Words are about process and they make the process a treat.

Yesterday she read for the Raymond Carver reading series and I was blown away with her storytelling style. And her humor, and her depth. I can't wait to read more of her work. Then, after the reading, we all went to the Italian restriant in Little Italy, and she was a big hit, there too. She told me to be wild with my work. Wild, she said, and I wished right then I told her I have a crush on her because what would be more wild then that? anyways, I didn't but it's true. I kind of wish she was my aunt or somehting, and I could call her up to shoot the shit and listen to her talk about writing.

Well, well, what else. It's melting little by little here, which is encouraging after the storm and the our road that didn't get plowed for four days.

G comes home from work with fascinating stories about his co-workers, and customers at the fish market and it's plain to see, University life is a sheltered, non-representation of the city's people. Real people, real problems.

G is reading Arthur Flowers' book right now, "Another Good Lovin Blues" and raves about it. He's truely impressed, is intrigued by Hoodoo and the Great Migration, thinks the love story is true to anyone who ever loved and lost. G being a muscian himself, knows what it's like to pin love of music against love of lover, and get out of it on top.

One of G's favorite line so far: "Only a fool is a fool all his life."

I'm glad he's reading it right now. I haven't since a was an undergrad and I think it would do me some good to pick it up again.

I'm torn right now as to whether I want to dabble in novel wriitng while I'm here that the Cuse. I'm ambitious to do it, but I'm still learning about shorts and do take on another challenge mught be pushing it. Still, if not now when I got the community, when? Always busy.

Oh! Bruce's Smith's poems blew me away when I say him read on Tuesday. I think I enjoyed it even better than the last time I saw him read a couple years ago. It's funny, plotical, emotional and incredibly intelligent and perceptive. He's also a crazy funny guy, asking himself really clever questions about his poems in between reading them, pretending they were questions we would ask if there was time.

Hope all is well.