59º ~ beautiful spring weather, if a bit cloudy today, all the leaves are in the process of unfurling, the view is fairly neon with them, the Thanksgiving pansies continue to thrive as the temps have remained below normal
Life is scattered and fragmented, friends. And this, this is April. I offer you a view of my week in case I fail to appear here.
At the top of the priority list are my students and my grading of their third major essay of the semester. Given that we only have about three weeks of school left, and they have one more essay to write, they need me to stay on task so my comments on this paper can aid them in their last. We are finishing up workshop in creative writing and then I’ll spend a week having individual conferences with each of my 18 students in that class as they polish their portfolios. In the last class days after conferences, we’ll talk about the profession of writing and publishing. (The end is in sight!)
Monday, after teaching and office hours, we have a department meeting at one of our satellite campuses.
Tuesday, I head down to Hot Springs to visit a creative writing class at the Arkansas School for Math, Science, and the Arts (ASMSA). I love, love, love these visits and am really looking forward to it!
Wednesday & Thursday, teaching and see note above about grading. My goal is to have all essays returned by Thursday afternoon, because…
Friday – Sunday = the Arkansas Literary Festival
Friday, the Big Rock Reading Series, which I coordinate, will partner with the festival to host Martha Silano and Johnathon Williams, and I am super psyched about this reading. Having heard both Martha and Johnathon read, I know this is going to be fantastic. Our reading is during the day, and then, Friday night is the author party for the festival. Good times!
Saturday will be festival city from 10 a.m. until the cows come home. This year I’m delighted by the schedule as there will be poets in nearly every time slot. Here’s who I’m hoping to see/hear:
Steve Kistulentz & Christi Shannon Kline (both new to me)
C.D. Wright
Frank X. Walker (although his session is up against Richard Ford…hmmmm)
Christian Wiman
Then, Saturday night I’m participating in “Pub or Perish.” This began as a pub crawl with poetry readings at each bar. Now, it is in one location and features scheduled readers from 7 – 9 before an open mic.
Sunday will be a true day of rest so that I can hit the ground running the following Monday as we sprint to the finish line of the semester with the last two full weeks of classes and then the grading extravaganza that is finals week. The school calendar says that commencement commenceth on May 18. Wahooo!
That's a busy week, Sandy! Hope to see you at the festival on Saturday. We're trying to talk our boys into going. Why did they change the Pub or Perish format? Too many drunk poets wandering around town?
John, see you there!
I think they changed the format b/c David Koon had to drag the PA system from bar to bar. I'm also guessing that as the night wore on, the group grew smaller due to barroom attrition. 🙂
"At the top of the priority list are my students"
this is why we all owe a debt of gratitude to all teachers everywhere
thank you!
Thanks, Molly!!