Meetings
The politics of scheduling: We do not reschedule. They reschedule on us. Sometimes right before-hand, hours before. The assistants are unfailingly polite, effusive. “We are so sorry.” People in their...
View ArticleSpring Quarter: A Thank You Note
I taught them Mark Doty, Mercy on Broadway and Description. These are poems, and it was a short fiction class, but they got it. There are stories that can be told in a line. There are stories that have...
View ArticleThe Problem With Me
I am in Marina Del Rey because I have spent money on a workshop about pitching freelance ideas. (That’s not the problem. That’s fine, in theory.) Backstory: I was once a journalist. Hones to G-d....
View ArticleThe N.A.C.C.O.P.A.
Nashville. I drink endless cups of coffee and read poetry and yes, listen to country. Earlier, H. was experimenting with an old Casio keyboard. Now, P. is downstairs learning songs to play on his...
View ArticleOccupy the University
One of my students showed up at office hours to talk about the protests. She wanted to tell me about the general assembly. She wanted to know: Why did thousands of people turn out at Cal, and only...
View ArticleIndex
End of the quarter: 9 days from now Hours on the train: 2 Hours commuting: 4 Hours out of the house: 11.5 Predicted height of stack of student portfolios: 2.5’ Number of things in the media that made...
View ArticleHit Me With Your Best Shot
The Atlantic, while a storied magazine that hires talented writers, seems to have adopted an editorial policy that can be summed up in three words: “Provoke, provoke, provoke.” It’s like they lopped...
View ArticleBuilding 29
When I first visited UC Irvine, I was already committed to going to grad school there. I thought I should take a look around. We drove down from Los Angeles for the afternoon and spent the entire time...
View ArticleCommute
My commute takes fifty minutes when there’s no traffic. Here are the times I’m guaranteed not to have any traffic: Saturday at 7 am. I commute to a college campus, generally speaking, in order to teach...
View ArticleSummer Anthems, One More Time
I let my students out of their final and told them all, “Have a good summer.” I had to come down on them, this morning. There was a thing with grading, and grades, and whether they had to complete the...
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