Category: personal

In L.A.

I am in Los Angeles this week, catching up with my friends and family and doing a bunch of events. My trip was off to a great start (the TV in the car-rental office was broadcasting news of Rumsfeld’s resignation). I taught a master class in fiction at UC Riverside on Wednesday. It was at once terrifying and exhilarating to be in the classroom again, and I had a great time. Then on Thursday I taped a radio show and went to watch a rehearsal for the New Short Fiction Series, so I haven’t had a chance to catch up with my email yet. Apologies to those of you who are awaiting an answer.



Out, About

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days. I’ve been busy with packing, traveling, teaching, and reading election coverage. I’m pleased with the outcome–particularly for my friend C., who volunteered for Jim Webb. But the results weren’t about Democratic leadership as much as about George W. Bush. Still, the news of Rumsfeld stepping down deserved a full, off-line celebration. More soon.



Reading Recaps: Olympia and Seattle, Washington

Audience: 40-50 at each location.
Anxiety index: 1 (out of 10).
Surprise guest(s): Several academics.
No. of Moroccans who said hello: 6.

I drove from Portland up to Olympia and then Seattle this weekend under whipping, miserable, constant rain. At one point, my car started to shake and I thought the glass would give in under the weight of the water. But I made it on time and even had time to check email and dry up before my readings.

The Olympia group was made up of very diverse, hard-core readers (my favorite kind) and they seemed thoroughly engaged. Because the room was set up without a podium or mike, it allowed for a very cozy, very intimate discussion of the book. We talked quite extensively about Hope but also about my new novel, which I am desperate to finish soon. And someone asked me about my Nation essay “The Missionary Position”–I’ve noticed there’s always interest about this piece at my recent events. Hmm.

The Seattle reading was at Elliott Bay Book Company, one of my favorite bookstores in the world. (Hi Rick!) Much to my delight, the reading was very well attended. There were three high school exchange students from Morocco who were very excited to be there, and one of them jumped up and shouted “Woo-hoo!!” when she found out I was from Rabat. The discussion was wide-ranging: the process of writing Hope, characters’ choices, favorite writers, language, language teaching, immigration, representations of Islam, the veil as a symbol of identity politics, and even whether you can buy alcohol in Morocco (the answer is yes.)



Housekeeping

There will be some renovations and updates to this site in the next few weeks, so please be sure that your RSS subscription is up to date. I would suggest using this atom feed, or alternatively this xml feed. More soon.





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