On Official Hiatus.

May return with important announcements…or when I figure out how to balance teaching a full load of classes with writing. Ha–that’s a good one.

• Come out to the Decatur Library Monday evening to hear Josh Russell introduce his second novel, My Bright Midnight. The event is sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book.

• I’ve enjoyed reading life advice on Everybody Say Ho: A Field Guide for Happy Living. Chris’ humor, self-deprecation, and wisdom are worth a read.

• I cringe every time I see a “Best Of” list about schools and programs, especially MFA programs. The lists are typically convoluted, misleading, and ultimately vapid. However, I quite enjoyed the AWP’s 2011 Ranking of MFA Programs. It is a must read for those in the discipline.

• Lastly, don’t forget about the Decatur Book Festival September 3-5!

If you have any conferences (near Atlanta) to add to this list do let me know. Also, I’d like to hear about upcoming Reading Series for my next list.

SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) is hosting its annual conference at the Loews Atlanta Hotel November 5-7. The theme is “The Interplay of Text an Image.” I was sad to see I’d missed the Eudora Welty Society’s call for papers for their panel titled “Text and Image in Losing Battles”: “From signs to photographs to letters to oral history, Eudora Welty employs layers of visual and verbal texts in her 1970 novel Losing Battles. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of this novel, this session seeks papers that examine the interplay between
text and image in, arguably, Welty’s most complex novel.”

TYCA-SE (Two Year College Association, Southeast) is hosting its annual conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in downtown Decatur, March 3rd-5th, 2011.

The Georgia State University Graduate English Association is hosting its 11th annual New Voices conference October 7th-9th at GSU. This year’s title is New Voices 2010: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which centers on the theme of humor and comedy.

My father could command a room, entertain a table of friends. But also, he was a private person: sometimes quiet, always considerate of others.

He had an interest in, and an aptitude for, many things: science, agriculture, language, music. What fueled his days was a keen interest in the world around him, a hyperactive drive not only to understand things, but to create things.

Not only a chemist, an inventor. Not only a gardener, a master of heirloom tomatoes. Not only a husband, a true partner. Not only a father, a figure of influence and inspiration.

I remember Easter egg hunts based on riddles, each egg containing a word puzzle leading to the next hiding place, each riddle more complex than the next. He taught me everything about playing pool when I was 12. When I was a teenager, a time when many children are pulling away from their parents, my house was a gathering place for my friends. My father made everyone feel welcome, and he would engage my friends in lengthy conversations and late-night scrabble games. He took me to use the equipment in the labs at his work for my school science experiments. Undoubtedly, my investigations were elementary to him, but he knew what was important was the expereince: the process, the time spent, the energy exerted, the thinking and the doing, not the end result.

I have with me not only these memories, but what my father has given me: a deep investigative, yet compassionate, interest in the world.

Some of us may think, at times, that he was considerate to a fault. But, who can fault he who only wants to present others with excellence, aptitude, and consideration?

We will remember him at his best.

We will experience fully, look deeply, and create all that we can for ourselves and those whom we love.