I just returned from the Arkansas Literacy Festival, where I had the chance to hang out with the lovely Oxford American folks (check out their new Southern movie issue, so highly readable I read it cover to cover on the long ride back to San Francisco) and to catch up with old friends from Mobile, Tom Franklin (Smonk) and Jack Pendarvis (Your Body is Changing), as well as the wonderful Southern writer Ron Rash (The World Made Straight).

I was supposed to appear in a LitQuiz, but I missed it while sipping my martini in the lobby of the Peabody (they do the duck thing in Arkansas, too), which was a good thing because the only answer I knew was the one involving Curious George. But I did at least make it to my panel. I also caught David Jauss and Kevin Brockmeier on the Arkansas writers panel, and had a private tour of the Clinton Presidential Library along with San Fran local Walter Mayes and New York Times food critic Jonathan Reynolds, who said that the fried catfish at The Flying Fish ($7.90 for three pieces with fries and hush puppies) was excellent. Best of all, I got to catch up with family who lives nearby in Maumelle. It had been too long since I’d been down South.