Michelle Buchanan is donating her portrait of me as a baby to WSKG’s forthcoming arts auction. I’m totally flattered, even if my eyes are hazel and I didn’t wear glasses until after I was 40. I may bid on this myself.

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A note I made in the comments stream the other day, about how Chris Vitiello and Mary Burger were my two “finds” the last time I taught at Naropa in 1994, jogged me into thinking I should mention this. I’m going to be teaching there again this summer, in the second of its four one-week programs, trying out something I’ve wanted to explore for awhile.

I’m generally a skeptic about writer’s conferences, and the summer program at Naropa is really the only one I know I ever would recommend to anybody. For one thing, the faculty over the four weeks is amazingly diverse. Just a few of the folks who will be there this year include:

Joan Retallack, Michael McClure, Elizabeth Robinson, Harryette Mullen,: Elizabeth Willis, David Antin, Lisa Jarnot, Thalia Field, Alan Gilbert, Chris Tysh, Samuel R. Delany, Zhang Er, Hoa Nyugen, Dale Smith, Quincy Troupe, Meredith Quartermain, Peter Quartermain, Rikki Ducornet, Sawako Nakayasu, Mark McMorris, Anselm Hollo, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Bob Holman, Kristin Prevallet, Johanna Drucker, Karen Finley, Fiona Templeton, and Lytle Shaw

One thing I like about these affairs is the incredible range of participants, among the students as well as the faculty. One way Naropa accomplishes this is through what it calls Zora Neale Hurston Awards, scholarships to students of color. They can be attending the summer program for BA, MFA or – my favorite – no credit. “The award covers partial to full tuition and may include housing for non-local residents for all four weeks of the Summer Writing Program.” That sounds about right.