catapult magazine

Now that the music thing is done, Calvin’s English department updated their site on the literature conference. Apparently they have commitments from Buechner and Joyce Carol Oates. If we’re lucky, maybe Schaap and Cook will show up! (That should be funny if any of you have been to a couple of these things.)
Anyway, I missed the last one but am really looking forward to next year. Hopefully we’ll see blisster and Dave and some of the others there. Check out the link and plan early!
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival.htm

Jason—are you still looking for a ride? Can you get out to DC? My plans are still very ambiguous as to how I’m going to get there, but one option may be to drive, and if you can get here, perhaps we can ride together. I have to work Wednesday yet…though perhaps I can get off a little earlier than usual.

Yes, there are a lot of “maybe’s” and “perhap’s” in there. :)

If I end up driving, Saturday night and Sunday morning in Three Rivers might work nicely, if it’s still an open offer.

then, by all means, you should drive. we’d love to have you in three rivers!!

If anyone is in need of a place to stay while attending the festivities in the grand Grand Rapids please feel free to stay with me — Kirstin and Norbert let me know if you need my contact info.

I would love to see you all again and save you a buck or two

Chehalis

What did everybody think? I thought Patterson and Enger were great. Buechner came off like a marvelous grandfather. I was a bit disappointed in Oates. It seemed as though she was up there for the sole reason that she had to be. I didn’t find her address very well organized or particularly inciteful. Bummer.
It was wonderful to see some old friends (like blisster) and I absolutely loved meeting some new people. Thanks for hanging out with me Anna and it was nice to talk to you for a while Kate. I’m sorry I missed you Allipoo.
Does anybody know what’s on the possibility list for 2006? I don’t suppose Solzhenitzin is still alive and kicking is he?

Actually, Solzhenitzin is still around. I read a fantastic article about him (and the war in Iraq) in the April issue of The Believer magazine. Here’s a link to their site. Unfortunately, the article isn’t online, but you can and really should go buy the magazine if you can find it.

www.believermag.com

i, too, enjoyed Enger and Paterson, as well as Neil Waldman (illustrator, The Velveteen Rabbit and such, three out of his four siblings ended up as visual artists). i heard Thomas Lynch was great (funeral director/writer), but missed his session.

i was surprised at how disorganized a lot of the lectures were, including Oates, but i’m right in the middle of We Were the Mulvaneys and it’s interesting to hear her slightly neurotic, Jersey-accented voice reading along with me. same with Lauren Winner’s matter-of-fact voice reading Girl Meets God along with me now.

it was really nice to display for *cino in a place where people “got it” after the first sentence of explanation. very few blank stares and a lot of new mailing list sign-ups.