Teaching at Vermont College, one year in.

I've been teaching at Vermont College of Fine Arts for a year now. I began teaching wondering what it would be like to share some of what I've learned over my years as a writer. I was eager to be involved in an academic community. I mean, let's face it. To be a writer is to be a shut-in. Long hours alone, which I cherish, but sometimes I want to be out there, connecting with other writers.

I've learned to be a better teacher, and better editor of students' work. No big surprise there. Do anything intensely and you get better at it. What I didn't expect is how much I've learned about my own writing process. There are incredible lectures by smart, well-prepared writers, visiting authors who add their amazing lectures, and late nights in the faculty room, which veer between industry gossip, swapping of writing and teaching tips, and a heady, exhausted exhilaration as we make it through the intensity of the ten day residency.

We have a lovely graduation each residency. Here I am beeing the "hooder" for the ceremony, as Mandy Robbins gets her diploma. Thanks to Shelby Hogan for the photo.

Marla Frazee and Libba Bray were our visiting authors this last residency. Both of them were spectacular. Libba whipped up an awesome blog post about her time with us. Here's Libba post, On Gratitude.

We've also got a faculty blog going, Write at Your Own Risk. Here's my most recent post, Tough Love From an Old Poet, on Mary Oliver.

Kindling Words

I've gone from rainy California to snowy cold Vermont. Very, very cold snowy Vermont. It really does look like this.  A little less snow, a lot more cold. It is exquisitely beautiful. Enough to pull poetry from the air while staring out at the night.

Round moon
Blue Snow
Hare goes hungry

I'm here for Kindling Words, a writer's retreat. Chris Raschka is doing the illustrator's strand, I'm doing the author's. And yes, Chris is as smart and amazing and wonderful as his art. You can quickly see where his art comes from -- his brain isn't sitting around in any square kind of box. He gave us a great view of his process.

 

Here he is playing the squeezebox to the accompaniment of one of his book dummies to show us his relationship between 12 musical notes and color, ala Chris. Amazing. 

Don Weisberg, president of Penguin Young Readers, gave a great talk on where he sees publishing going. One word description: he's very optimistic. Sees how the internet connects people to books, authors to readers. We finished off the evening (at least, I did, some people partied, others went to the outdoor hot tub which I though was crazy at -5 degrees) with a first read through of Gregory McGuire's new play. I was "props."

Off for breakfast and making sure my PowerPoint works.

Welcome in the new year!

It sure feels like 2009. There is something about that first Monday after the first of the year. We had truly spectacular times with our family this year. Some of the best eating ever -- our boys had a bunch of their very best friends up to Mendocino (thirty, to be exact), and they spent the days collecting mussels from the Pacific and mushrooms from the woods and the last of the apples off the trees. We ate Candy Caps and Cauliflower mushrooms and even a lingering, hidden Boletus. The kitchen was a madhouse of cooks who made steamed mussels in broth and all kinds of mushrooms and apple pie. Lots of reading, resting, playing music by the fire, writing (last go-over on manuscript before editor pulls it from my hands and gets it to the copy editor) and watching the sun set over the ocean. Can you see the God's rays in this photo? Beautiful!

We finished off the celebrations with my husband's birthday party last night. Our son Will jumped in with both feet and showed us how to make a Vietnamese dinner. More madhouse chopping and sauteing and boiling and wrapping and then, finally, the delicious eating.

Couple of really cool articles to check out: Nina Lindsay is doing her mock Newbery discussion at the Oakland Library. This is a fantastic way to discuss books by the Newbery criteria. Nina has chaired the Newbery, is one really smart, well-read woman, and she writes incredible poetry as well. If you can't make it, at least try to check these books out from your library or pick up a copy at the book store. This is a compelling group of books.

Kerry Madden just got her first starred! review on her bio on Harper Lee and gave me a nice shout-out on her blog, Knoxville Girl.

And Roger, over at Read Roger flags a great article on the financial squeeze in the book biz. It's a fascinating, nail-biting-inducing article, Puttin' Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing in the New York Times.

That brings us back to 2009. Time to put on your work gloves. It may be an austere business, but it's our austere business.

Sunset

I love it when the light begins to intensify as the sun goes down. Colors deepen, distances seem to compress. Then, when it is truly dusky, I can have a rush of feeling very melancholy. There is some pause, some loss in the air. I think there's some English or Scottish word for this. The gloaming?

But tonight as I was bringing in wood for the stove, the sky lit up and my melancholy disappeared in the blaze. To celebrate, I sat down and wrote for four hours.

Overheard conversations: a one-off, or a whole novel

I've got an overheard quote in Leah Garchik's funny column today on love. Funny as in laugh-out-loud, not funny as in odd, weird.

I'm one of those faithful readers who starts my day by opening the Datebook section of the Chronicle and reading Garchik's Public Eavesdropping of the day. And I always check to see if I know the person who sent it in. Just for fun.

And of course, I'm always listening for overheard bits of conversation. They can be much more fun than the whole, complicated story.

Or heart-wrenching. Walking to the library on UC campus recently I overheard a young, attractive blond woman saying to another: "I'm her birth mother. I just want to have a relationship with her."

That's the start of a whole novel, right there.