Monday, July 30, 2007

Of Readings and Diaz


I wrote this article for the upcoming Cornell English Department newsletter about our reading series, which might be of interest to people thinking about applying to our program. It's a little bit long for this blog's posting guidelines so the link leads to my personal blog. Anyway....
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When Junot Diaz invited me to salsa with him at a noisy bar, I had this sudden image in my head of my MFA professors at the faculty club, surrounded by white cloth and wood panelling. They were persuading a white-haired widow to fund a new reading series so that students like me can have close contact with notable writers outside Cornell. This was probably not the kind of contact they had in mind, but I wasn’t about to stop myself. (more)

3 comments:

Sonia Quinones said...

Enjoyed reading your article! Was intrigued enough that I started checking out the Cornell MFA site and ran across a link full of interviews with your visiting writers. So now I'm even more intrigued.

What do you think about Cornell, likes & dislikes. Seems like such a small program (4 writers in year in each genre). How does what work for you?

Unknown said...

Hey, M!

Since you've actually danced with the man, any idea at all why the title of the new book? I'm hung up on this like an itch I can't scratch. I mean, Hemingway comes to mind right away (The Short Happy Life...). I guess I'll just have to wait until the book is out and I borrow it from the library (it's gonna cost $40... I mean, I wish I could afford that, but no). Any inside info on the title?

Unknown said...

Oh, just saw that the book is going to be $26, not $40. $40 is the book on tape.