Have just packed my bags and am heading out the door, sayonara to the great cold state of North Dakota. At dinner last night I sat next to Mary Gaitskill, author of Veronica–in my mind one of the best five books of fiction the past couple of years. She’s a lovely person, warm and funny and as vividly smart in conversation as she is in her books. I also got to talk to the poet Leslie Adrienne Miller, with whom I comisserated on motherhood, and had the opportunity to hear her read from The Resurrection Trade, a startling and fascinating book of poems inspired by medicine and the body.
Thanks to my friend Liz Harris-Behling, who, along with her colleague Heidi organized the whole thing. Thanks to Brian Maxwell, and to Kari, for driving me around. And to Tom Carraway for his managerial expertise, as well as the great party at his house. Home now to the fog, and my two beautiful boys.
Hi, I did not get a chance to see you read in Grand Forks but I was able to go to the readings by Stuart Dybeck and Li Young Lee. Yes, I agree that Dybeck gave an enjoyable reading. Just one short story but he read it very well and it was an interesting story that had a surprising plot twist to it. When he described the story at the outset, and the poem that inspired it, I had no idea that the story would take us where it took us. And that element of surprise worked quite well, I thought, in the story.
As for Li Young Lee, wow, that man was very captivating. I just read that he will be reading at Notre Dame University next week and the little blurb for that event states that anyone who has heard Lee read knows that he a a fine reader of poetry. And I totally agree. He read very, very slowing and somewhat softly. It made me literally lean forward and almost want to hold my breath so I did not miss anything. Fortunately, I was sitting up close, right behind Stuart Dybeck, in fact.
I loved his little comment at the start, when he said he could not read poetry at all that night because there was no podium. More specifically, I loved it when he said that what he really needed was a closet, that he would have liked to have gone in a closet and just opened the door to us a crack, and to have read his poetry from there. He eventually did read five or six poems before the event turned into a conversation with the moderator and audience.
I have been to many, many events at the conference in Grand Forks over the years and it really is a wonderful event, with all events free and open to the public. Best wishes.