Ioway or Bust

One year left. In a scant five days I’ll be back down to Ioway. Am I excited? In some ways. I’m ready for the structure of my teaching and learning, ready for the deadlines of Workshop and for the peculiar atmosphere of Ioway City where all my friends and colleagues are all interested in literature [...]

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With or Without Me

On Saturday night Regina was fortunate enough to attend the U2 concert at TCF Stadium. Her ticket was in a luxury box with great food and easy parking and she experienced the concert with other attorneys from her firm. It was a stormy night in the Twin Cities and despite the rain U2 played a [...]

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To Be Two

This summer has flown by. Even with the withering heat and humidity, the days seem to race by. Everything has been easy and fluid – no forced sorties down to Ioway. No grading papers. No requisite workshop letter-writing. No emails to answer from students. Just pleasant mornings with Henry. Cereal and milk and oatmeal and [...]

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The Back of My Hands

Last week, settling down in front of my laptop, trying to think of some kind of Facebook status update, I thought I know these roads like the back of my hands. But I’m becoming tired of Facebook, so I didn’t write anything at all. Then, on Friday, back in the car and driving north to [...]

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Back (In Black)

Alright, I’ve been away from Light Travels Faster Downhill for a period now approaching two months. I have some good reasons: 1.) I’ve been thinking about my stories. A lot. As in, staying up at night, laying in bed, wrestling with imaginary characters and invisible plot lines, etc. In the last three weeks and specifically [...]

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PBS At The Iowa Writer’s Workshop

Tomorrow (Tuesday March 1st) PBS will be filming our workshop. That is to say, Sam Chang’s workshop; twelve students including myself. The class is always conducted in the most dramatic of the Workshop’s spaces: a room with a great circular table and expansive views of the Iowa River. In the early evenings crows gather by [...]

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Back To School

Come Monday, I’ll be back on the road. Driving south down to Ioway. What a terrific month it has been. I am ready to get back to my studies, my teaching, my writing, my reading, my friends, and my academic routine. But a month at home with Henry has been amazing. I am already excited [...]

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A Christmas Story, Of Sorts

My first semester of graduate school is over. Hard to believe how quickly the time has rushed by. All the evenings driving through the Midwest. Through torrential rains, past windmills, infinite fields of Ioway corn, nuclear sunsets, small-towns, frigid cold, snow. The early days of teaching: the anxiety and disorganization. The first few workshops: discovering [...]

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Genius

Last year at this time, I had about fifteen applications floating around in the United States Postal Service to various and sundry universities and colleges around the country. In the end, most were not interested in me. But luckily, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop was. When I first talked to Sam Chang, I was in denial [...]

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Agent

I met with another agent today. A very nice woman, highly accomplished and influential within the publishing industry. Handed her my manuscript. We had a nice chat. Parted ways. I watched her put my manuscript, my stories, in one of three stacks. Wondering which stack meant what. It’s so hard. I’m SO close. I’m here, [...]

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