I got these for 12 bucks
By the river
Between you and me, I’ve come to Iowa partly to have conversations like this…
Me: I think I’m being too obvious in my writing. As a journalist, you are trained to be clear and to tell people exactly what you think. To the point that it’s getting in the way of fiction. How do you do it?
S: Well, it depends. Sometimes, you need to hide things in the shadows.
Me: That’s the thing. I’m so bad at hiding things in the shadow. It’s all out, in stark white light.
S: Everybody’s writing is different. That’s just the way you write. When it comes to something important, you need to be clear. It’s your personality. You’re very generous in your writing.
Me: *melting from gratefulness*
George’s Buffet
Where writers go for beer (Manuel keeps the pitchers coming… Samuel dances to the blues… And I just sit and sit, looking at the TV showing weather warnings as a typhoon sweeps in over another part of the country… And then Lai Kuen aka Dead Cat and I walk back to the hotel and get caught in rain)
Back to school – “International Literature Today” class at Gilmore Hall, UIowa
My pal Amanda, secretly a rockstar although she claims she’s not when with us IWP lunatics
What happens in Studio 13 is instantly uploaded onto the IWP group chat and stays there
…also known as the best drag show in town, in the best LGBTA+ inclusive club I’ve ever been to in my sheltered straight life, and the one where Buddhi joins the twerking contest with no idea what he is in for and comes back to our table shaking his head saying “I dunno how to shake my butt!”
The one where I went to a Japanese restaurant next to the hotel and somehow got talked by the cashier into ordering their latest Chinese dish
Reading at Prairie Lights, Sept 8, 2019, featuring IWP writers
Bernie Sanders in Iowa City
