Greeting from the computer lab at the VC campus in Montpelier!
I'd like to begin by saying HOWDY to all of the MFA students reading this blog, and let those who're trying to figure out which faculty members to pref that they should check out the following links: Kathi Appelt (author interview); An Na (author interview); Marion Dane Bauer (author interview); David Gifaldi; Margaret Bechard (author interview); Uma Krishnaswami (author interview)(blog); faculty chair Sharon Darrow (author interview); Brent Hartinger (author interview)(blog); Cynthia Leitich Smith (bio, writing life, essays and articles); Jane Kurtz (author interview); Rita Williams-Garcia; Leda Schubert (author interview); Tim Wynne-Jones (author interview); Julie Larios; Jacqueline Woodson; and Deborah Wiles.
I'm thrilled to be in such great company. This residency marks the first time I've met DG or JL, and though I've corresponded with BH online for years, it's my debut viewing of him in person (and quite dashing he is!).
I'm also wowed that Katherine Paterson is our visiting writer today. I've been in the business now ten years, and I've had the honor of meeting (and, for that matter, teaching with) some of the finest wordsmiths around. But there is always something extra special about meeting someone whose books I especially treasured as a young reader. Terabithia anyone?
I also was reminded of a few wonderfully inspiring titles she authored on writing, which I read when I was a beginner in the late '90s: A Sense of Wonder: On Reading and Writing Books for Children (Plume, 1995); The Spying Heart: Reading and Writing Books for Children (Puffin, 1990); and Gates of Excellence: On Reading and Writing Books for Children (Puffin, 1988). I need to remember to add these to my inspiration bibliography when I get back home. It doesn't look like they're all in print, but they can be found used and via libraries.
As for the trip, it was pleasantly uneventful--smooth flights in good weather. I flew Jet Blue for the first time and was most impressed! Loved the leather seats and the TVs in the backs of the chairs. On the way to JFK, which was where I had my layover, I sat next to a young girl in a handmade-looking blue checked dress with a white scarf bobbypinned over her blond hair. She told me her family did church work in Africa, but she was visiting them in Pittsburgh.
I ran into RWG at JFK airport. We were on the same flight to Burlington and shared a cab into Montpelier, stopping once at a grocery store for cookies and shampoo and then again at a drug store for an alarm clock that neither of us could figure out how to set (the directions didn't work, we swear!).
Last night we had the faculty dinner, catered by Le Petit Gourmet, which for me meant spinach-stuffed chicken and almond green beans (along with some peanuts and Triscuits on the side) and red wine. LS's husband and TW-J's wife were among guests in attendance.
Spooky Links
Quiz--What Teen Angst Novel Are You? from E. Lockhart, author of The Boyfriend List (Delacorte, 2005)(author interview). Note: I'm Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci (Candlewick, 2005)(author interview). Sounds right to me!
