Reading in Nelson, Workshop in New Denver

Is this not the best reading poster ever? It was put together by Kootenay poet Linda Crosfield for a reading I'm doing next week with her and three other local writers. I think the photo was taken by Dana on the Metro in Paris, on the very ride where I wrote the poem "I Speak English, Wall Street English," which appears in I Cut My Finger. I have no idea where Linda found this photo!

Tonight I'm giving an abbreviated version of my There's More To Memoir Than Truth workshop in New Denver at Lucerne Elementary and Secondary School, from 6 to 8 pm. Admission by donation. Terry assembled this event pretty quickly, at my request, but I'm hoping for a nice, if modest, turnout.

The first day of working with the elementary school kids went really well. I did two 90-minute sessions with them, focusing on poetry and on principles of writing in general. It's a huge group — 40 kids — so it got a little rowdy at times, but some really good poetry was written during the sessions, and the students obviously enjoyed themselves. In fact, there were some amazing poetry passages that I wish I'd come up with myself.

In the evening, there was a mini-reading by the students. It had some very good moments, but was a little tainted by a few kids going up to the podium just to cut up. A couple of the students who had written strong work during the day were, I guess, too shy to present at the reading. There's another reading tonight, so I'm gonna see what I can do during the day's sessions.

This morning it's raining again and the lake is grey. But I like this. The Kootenays can do no wrong.

Over and out.