Recently in on the road Category
My husband James and I are heading out tomorrow morning for Macondo, the writers' workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros. (Isn't she pretty in that picture on her website? And gotta love those boots, too.)
That's Sandra's house, the site of the original Macondo Workshop, below. Now the workshop has grown so big that it's housed at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.
I'm excited to be co-teaching a workshop on memoir with the gifted and hilarious Lorraine López, author of the great story collection Soy la Avon Lady, the YA novel Call Me Henri, and the forthcoming novel The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters, which I can't wait to read. Our masters-level students are knockouts, too: editors, authors, professors, and award-winning journalists. It's going to be tons of fun.
Macondo is terrific: warm, nourishing, and focused on both writing and on social justice activism. It's a great place, and I can't wait to reconnect with writer Maribel Sosa, who first suggested Macondo to me. It's where I've met so many cool people, including writer and Chicana lit scholar Amelia Montes, who brought me here to Nebraska, and Pat Alderete, about whom I've blogged before (here and here).
James & I'll be driving down from Nebraska and stopping along the way in Oklahoma City and Austin, to see my brother Tony, his wife Cool Julie, and fearless baby Indigo. I'm so excited.
My
That's Sandra's house, the site of the original Macondo Workshop, below. Now the workshop has grown so big that it's housed at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.
I'm excited to be co-teaching a workshop on memoir with the gifted and hilarious Lorraine López, author of the great story collection Soy la Avon Lady, the YA novel Call Me Henri, and the forthcoming novel The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters, which I can't wait to read. Our masters-level students are knockouts, too: editors, authors, professors, and award-winning journalists. It's going to be tons of fun.
Macondo is terrific: warm, nourishing, and focused on both writing and on social justice activism. It's a great place, and I can't wait to reconnect with writer Maribel Sosa, who first suggested Macondo to me. It's where I've met so many cool people, including writer and Chicana lit scholar Amelia Montes, who brought me here to Nebraska, and Pat Alderete, about whom I've blogged before (here and here).
James & I'll be driving down from Nebraska and stopping along the way in Oklahoma City and Austin, to see my brother Tony, his wife Cool Julie, and fearless baby Indigo. I'm so excited.
My
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I'm just back from a wonderful, whirlwind residency at Pine Manor College in
Boston. It was a joy to see the students and faculty, and I love the
readings at night in what used to be a grand old mansion and is now
devoted to one of the most diverse women's colleges in the country.
I got to see my lovely friend (I always think of her as an Arthurian Celtic supermodel in deep cover as a contemporary librarian and mom), the YA author Laura Williams McCaffrey, who writes the blog Here There Be Dragons. She was reading from her forthcoming new YA novel, which will include panels of an original graphic novel within its text. (The graphic novel is a book some of the characters are reading, and the two texts are interwoven throughout the novel. Cool!)
Mike Steinberg, founder of creative nonfiction journal Fourth Genre, read from his lovely, dogged memoir Still Pitching, which I'm now reading. Thumbs up. If anyone you know loves baseball, Still Pitching is a no-brainer gift, but even as a clueless non-sports-fan, I'm still really enjoying it. I'm also reading More Daring Escapes, by poet Steven Huff, who's new to the faculty and who seems like a complete gem. He also has a weekly radio show, "Fiction in Shorts," on NPR-affiliate stations. (I understand that you can stream the show, and as soon as I find out how, I'll put up a link.)
I also got to see my beloved Laure-Anne Bosselaar, poet and LaureAnnetini maker extraordinaire, who gave a dazzling reading in that throaty voice of hers. Her work makes me swoon (and I learned, to my deep un-surprise, that she was taught and mentored by one of my all-time favorite living poets, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, who makes me high every time I hear her read). Laure-Anne not only gave a knockout reading but also made us her famous drink each evening, when the faculty sat out on the porch of the big old house where we stayed and talked writing and life for hours. It was like writers' summer camp.
Helen Elaine Lee read a beautiful story about an aging couple that made me want to run home and hold my husband. YA novelist An Na read from her new book, The Fold, and she did all the voices--a hilarious performance. An adolescent Korean-American girl is offered the "gift" of plastic surgery, which will make her look more "American"--i.e., more white--by removing or reducing the epicanthal fold in her eyelids. The gorgeous cover is below.
It was a terrific trip, with lots of great reunions with old friends and discoveries of new, especially the three lovely new students in creative nonfiction, who had the kindness (and stamina!) to keep showing up for three-hour workshops each day. Kerry, Cindy, and Erin: Thanks! Great job! You made the week great. And my former student Faye did a knockout job introducing my reading. She was so moving that it was a seriously tough act to follow. But what an honor to be introduced so warmly. Thanks, Faye!
I got to see my lovely friend (I always think of her as an Arthurian Celtic supermodel in deep cover as a contemporary librarian and mom), the YA author Laura Williams McCaffrey, who writes the blog Here There Be Dragons. She was reading from her forthcoming new YA novel, which will include panels of an original graphic novel within its text. (The graphic novel is a book some of the characters are reading, and the two texts are interwoven throughout the novel. Cool!)
Mike Steinberg, founder of creative nonfiction journal Fourth Genre, read from his lovely, dogged memoir Still Pitching, which I'm now reading. Thumbs up. If anyone you know loves baseball, Still Pitching is a no-brainer gift, but even as a clueless non-sports-fan, I'm still really enjoying it. I'm also reading More Daring Escapes, by poet Steven Huff, who's new to the faculty and who seems like a complete gem. He also has a weekly radio show, "Fiction in Shorts," on NPR-affiliate stations. (I understand that you can stream the show, and as soon as I find out how, I'll put up a link.)
I also got to see my beloved Laure-Anne Bosselaar, poet and LaureAnnetini maker extraordinaire, who gave a dazzling reading in that throaty voice of hers. Her work makes me swoon (and I learned, to my deep un-surprise, that she was taught and mentored by one of my all-time favorite living poets, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, who makes me high every time I hear her read). Laure-Anne not only gave a knockout reading but also made us her famous drink each evening, when the faculty sat out on the porch of the big old house where we stayed and talked writing and life for hours. It was like writers' summer camp.
Helen Elaine Lee read a beautiful story about an aging couple that made me want to run home and hold my husband. YA novelist An Na read from her new book, The Fold, and she did all the voices--a hilarious performance. An adolescent Korean-American girl is offered the "gift" of plastic surgery, which will make her look more "American"--i.e., more white--by removing or reducing the epicanthal fold in her eyelids. The gorgeous cover is below.
It was a terrific trip, with lots of great reunions with old friends and discoveries of new, especially the three lovely new students in creative nonfiction, who had the kindness (and stamina!) to keep showing up for three-hour workshops each day. Kerry, Cindy, and Erin: Thanks! Great job! You made the week great. And my former student Faye did a knockout job introducing my reading. She was so moving that it was a seriously tough act to follow. But what an honor to be introduced so warmly. Thanks, Faye!
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Woo-hoo! My dearly beloved James and I are headed out in the wee hours tomorrow morning for a three-week road trip.
Our first stop will be in Austin, Texas, to celebrate our nephew Indigo's third birthday. (Indigo is the irresistibly cute progeny of Tony and Cool Julie from The Truth Book.) Apparently, his heart's desire is an overnight camp-out with his buddies, so we'll be roughing it with a gaggle of toddlers.
Then we'll head east to stay with James's folks, who live across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans--where I'll be doing research for a new book. I can't wait. We finally broke the bank and purchased a digital camera, our first, and I'm excited about putting photographs on the blog.
I'll be posting from the road, so check back! Take good care, everyone!
Our first stop will be in Austin, Texas, to celebrate our nephew Indigo's third birthday. (Indigo is the irresistibly cute progeny of Tony and Cool Julie from The Truth Book.) Apparently, his heart's desire is an overnight camp-out with his buddies, so we'll be roughing it with a gaggle of toddlers.
Then we'll head east to stay with James's folks, who live across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans--where I'll be doing research for a new book. I can't wait. We finally broke the bank and purchased a digital camera, our first, and I'm excited about putting photographs on the blog.
I'll be posting from the road, so check back! Take good care, everyone!
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Tomorrow morning, I head out to Cedar Rapids, Iowa! The delightful Carol Tyx, a former colleague at Wabash College, invited me to come give a reading from The Truth Book at the institution where she now teaches, Mount Mercy College.
Isn't it lovely? I can't wait to meet everyone.
Isn't it lovely? I can't wait to meet everyone.
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