Suddenly Summer
January 1, 1970
Suddenly it’s June. My life has been consumed with planning, visa applications, foreign exchange rates, and the fact that Portuguese is not pronounced at all the way it is spelled! It is warm here, finally, and we are soaking up every drop of daylight.Next week, I will attend the conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in Rio de Janeiro. A group of us from the anthology Speaking Desde Las Herridas, recently published by the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), will present papers on the continuing dialogue between Mexican and American writers since 9/11. the conference is vast and includes a film festival. Rio has a lot of beaches. What to do?
Later this month, I will travel to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to study under the auspices of the University of New Orleans, I will study translation, Mexican literature and culture, and workshop chapters from my novel-in-progress, Cities of Gold.
The winner of the Bellingham Review fiction context should be announed shortly. Editor Brenda Miller asked me to be the final judge, and I enjoyed reading each of the final stories.
In August, I will attend the conference of the Society for CryptoJudaic Studies in Denver, Colorado. It includes two and a half days of history, geneology, art, music and literature. It is a time to catch up with old friends and a few distant relatives. We will also see our grandchildren, who live there, and maybe get our son, Ben, to break away from his summer job in California for the weekend.
On August 15, we begin the fall semester at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on Whidbey Island. Ten days of classes and presentations bring the faculty and staff close together, so close that we are happy to work by computer for the balance of the term! The program is growing and thriving, and if you are interested in writing, I encourage you to follow the link to the website. My colleagues are so well published and awarded, that I cannot begin to list their qualifications in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children and young adult literature.
May your summer allow you to finish at least one project! If not that, maybe your fortune cookie will say, as my husband’s did, “An alien of some sort will be appearing to you shortly.”
Follow the photos of my travels, including our recent train trip to Portland, on Facebook. Let me know what you are reading. I have recent work in an anthology called Seattle Noir from Akashic Press, which includes lots of good summer reading. Enjoy!