Archive for December 2010
20 years married. Who'd have believed it?
As of today, My Best Beloved and I have been married for 20 years. This comes as something of a shock, especially to me. Prior to meeting My Best Beloved I did not have a great track record with relationships. I blame myself for this entirely. I chose the wrong men for the right reasons,…
Read MorePaul Muldoon — A Poet in the Prison
Last week, Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize and T.S. Elliot Prize winning poet and poetry editor of the New Yorker, came to visit the weekly class I teach at a prison here in New Jersey. The classroom is in the basement of the prison. Bright primary-colored squares on the floor tiles, and pale blue walls strive…
Read MoreA Third Possibility
People frequently ask me, “Where did you go to college?” and some look as though I’ve just walloped them in the face with a flounder when I reply, “I didn’t go to college.” How can that be, I see them thinking, you’re a published author. Yeah. And in this era of nearly mandatory MFAs, I…
Read MoreWhat Can't Be Taught
Being a writer, I write, but I also teach creative writing. I teach a workshop once a month in a lovely bright room in a cafe in Princeton, New Jersey; and I teach once a week in a dim, goatish-smelling, basement cubbyhole in a prison in Bordentown, New Jersey. Except for the setting, and perhaps…
Read More