Whidbey Writers Workshop

So I headed off for a few days to teach on Whidbey Island in their unique MFA program (http://www.writeonwhidbey.org/mfa/) and came away, frankly, blown away. The students, the teachers, the setting were all superlative. I’d expected to find serious dedicated writers, but I didn’t expect their generosity and humility and good humor. I’d expected some nice views, but I didn’t expect to get weepy from the sound of waves lapping on the sand.

Each morning I’d walk the beach from the dorms to rehearse my hour-long presentations over and over to myself—this my own hang up, my own version of OCD; I have to do it before bookstore readings, too—and I’d watch seabirds against the blue blue Sound and the green forested Olympics on the horizon. Each afternoon, I’d speak. (Phew, got that over with!) Then each evening, I’d hang out with the writers and try to soak in as much good energy as I could.

One night I got to spend some time with Jason, my old trail crew buddy, who’s working out there on historic preservation projects. When he gave me the grand tour, including sunset from a driftwood beach with seals flapping just offshore, I understood why we don’t see him on the east side as often as we used to.

Meanwhile, from in Stehekin, Laurie reported that smoke settled hard from wildfires in B.C. Mosquitoes and yellow jackets grew plentiful and cranky, and zucchinis in the garden got predictably out of hand: one per five-gallon bucket. Now I’m home, and the brush is brown and the wind is hot, and the pickup truck we barged downlake cost more to fix than I made at Whidbey, a lot more. Still, I’m thinking that if they ask me back, I’ll go. In a heartbeat.

Garden, outhouse, lightning, not-quite-a-glacier, and some books

Summer is in full swing in Stehekin. The past couple weeks have included a fabulous 20-mile day hike to Pyramid Peak, a night camping at 6500’ watching lightning strike 360 degrees around us, and windsurfing with our friends, Ron and Vicki, to celebrate their brand new land purchase. (“The hard part is over,” said Ron. Ha ha.) Today alone included garden chores—harvesting way too many cukes, zukes, basil, cilantro, spinach, peas, and jalepenos and planting peas and curly cress (What is curly cress? We don’t know. Just happened to have the seeds)—picking up our weekly gallon of organic milk from our neighbors with a cow, commenting on about thirty student memoirs, then digging a new outhouse hole.

This week a new essay “The Seam” appears in Under the Sun. You can pick up a copy if you’ve got a (really) good bookstore in town. Or you can order one at the website: http://www.tntech.edu/underthesun/ Next week, a shorty about my ambivalence about being a writer called “The Dictionary Reader” will appear on the back page of High Country News (http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.14/the-dictionary-reader). Meanwhile, I weaseled my way around the fact that Jon Riedel and I didn’t make it onto the Easton glacier like we were supposed to last month. We got close, so I called the piece “Glacier’s Edge” and SueEllen Campbell graciously accepted it for her forthcoming, hugely ambitious, book The Face of the Earth.

Recent reading: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Blindness by Jose Saramago, Lush Life by Richard Price, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi, and Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. Next up: I Want to Take You Higher: the Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone. I can’t wait.

A couple of shorties

So, whenever I'm frustrated at the keyboard - which is, of course, often enough - or inspired or frankly, in need of cash, I start work on a short essay. I love the form, how it forces you to condense your thoughts, to hoard your words, and mostly to get to the damned point. Sometimes these shorties (usually around 900 words) start out as much longer pieces, five or six times as long. Sometimes they just come out in a mad rush.

One downside to the process is that by the time I've condensed my thoughts and sent the essay off, and then, maybe, it gets published, a whole lot of time has passed. Such was the case with this one, which I wrote a year or so ago when our dear friend Wally was just beginning to seem sick. Wally died three weeks before it came out. Which is starting to seem like a disturbing pattern, since the short essay I wrote about our cat Daisy last year ended up coming out the week she died. Maybe I need to write on a lighter subject. Anyhow, if writers got to dedicate little 900 word ditties, this one would be for Wally ... and for Mike and Nancy Barnhart who took such good care of him toward the end of his life.

"Natural Comfort"

http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.10/natural-comfort?src=feat

This next one started out much longer, and the long version gives more credit where credit is due to our local volunteer fire chief, Bob Nielsen, who had the idea for the weekly work parties and who has been the driving force behind them. So this one's for Bob ... and for the regular Monday night gang.

"Just Right Here"

http://www.oregonquarterly.com/summer2009/old_oregon.php#fire

Test Ride wins River Teeth contest

My book Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey was named 2009 winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Contest. The book will come out next year from University of Nebraska Press.

The book honors my father and others that acted courageously during the 1956 Tallahassee bus boycott and also my mother who has shown remarkable courage in her long battle with cancer. The fact that she -- along with several of the "foot soldiers" from the Tallahassee movement -- will be able to read the book is a prize in itself, one that's both humbling and gratifying.

Life after Molokai

So how much writing can you pack into one week on a remote and gorgeous island in the Pacific? A whole lot, as it turns out, if you’re dedicated enough. I’m not. But the eight writers who joined me for the first annual Molokai writing workshop at Teresa Graham’s lovely home (http://www.hawaiivillamolokai.com/) buckled down at the keyboard for hours on end, and came up with some real gems. This, on top of readings, discussions, and workshops. Oh, and not to worry, there was still time for swimming, exploring the island (a little) and drinking wine (a lot!)

Now I’m back home in Stehekin, putting away skis, cutting next year’s firewood, getting ready to plant the summer garden, and trying to buckle down with my own writing (rewrites on Test Ride, a handful of new essays, that elusive young adult novel) before the busy season kicks into full swing.

Events on the horizon include the June workshop at Flick Creek, Making Stories Move, a trip to a glacier in July with geologist Jon Riedel (you can check out Jon’s glacier monitoring program at: http://www.nps.gov/noca/naturescience/glacial-mass-balance1.htm)
and three days teaching at the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program’s fall residency http://www.writeonwhidbey.org/mfa/residencies.htm

Almost Spring

The sun is out in Stehekin – big news this gray winter! – and the pace of life is beginning to pick up for Laurie and me. Laurie’s begun early season pruning in the apple orchard, and I’ve got two memoir classes going at Gotham Writers’ Workshop, as well as a daily stint with the fine young writers at the Stehekin School. This year, they each picked a town on the U.S. map blindfolded and wrote historical fiction set in that town. So I’ve been reading some very cool stories about places as diverse as Atlanta, Georgia, Council Bluffs, Iowa and Silver City, New Mexico.

Last weekend, I also had the chance to read from my new memoir Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus for about twenty five of my Stehekin neighbors at an annual event sponsored by Arts and Humanities of Stehekin. It was a much-needed confidence boost for me to have such a supportive and enthusiastic crowd show up. The icing on the cake, for all of us, was seeing tiny new snow flakes fall in the headlights as we crept back home along the lakeshore.

In writing news, the new anthology Wild Moments: Adventures with Animals of the North (University of Alaska Press) includes an essay of mine, “The Woman Who Gardens with Bears.” I also have a short memoir – a love story, no less, called “The Fall Line” – in the current (Feb. 09) issue of Mountain Gazette. Check it out if you live where you can find a hard copy. The website http://www.mountaingazette.com/ is usually about a month behind.

St. Mary's College and Real Work

Greetings everyone!

It's been a busy fall/early winter. I spent November as the Artist-in-Residence at St. Mary's College Maryland. This offered me the chance to catch up with my old friend Jerry Gabriel (www.jerrygabriel.net) and his wife, poet Karen Leona Anderson. We had a great time walking along Cheasapeake Bay, seeing eagles and swans, having bonfires on the beach, and cutting and splitting firewood, East Coast-style (oak, maple, pine, gum ... gum???). I also enjoyed getting to spend time with students at St. Mary's -- young, eager, earnest writers. And the best part of the deal: I found the time more productive than I ever would have imagined, finishing up two long essays that may be the capstones to a new collection.

Here's an article from the St. Mary's student newspaper about my reading in late November: http://www.smcm.edu/pointnews/artsandentertainment/articles/issue69-6/voices-artist-redefines-home.html

After the residency, Laurie and I visited my brother in NW New Jersey and even ventured into NYC for the first time ever. We adored Brooklyn, especially the Botanic Gardens. Laurie has a new ambition to work there as a volunteer pruner. If anyone has connections, drop a line. If you have any doubts about her qualifications, you can check out this recent rant -- I mean, essay -- from High Country News: https://www.hcn.org/issues/40.21/real-work