Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Why blog? Here's why

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I often wonder why I keep this blog when I could just continue to practice my religion of Italian studies fetishism privately. I could ...
Monday, February 22, 2016

Two reasons I love Italian newspapers

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They always have an interesting take on American politics . To wit, the political cartoon about Hillary Clinton showing the Statue of Libe...
Thursday, February 18, 2016

Bassani on his characters (Nuovi Argomenti)

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"Basically, in my novel, every character worth considering is a manifestation of my own personal feelings." “Nel mio romanzo, i...
Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Louise Attaque - Du Nord Au Sud

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Lost entry from my car journal -- Here and there

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Oct 12, 2015 From the journal I keep in my car  The babysitter calls me at work today and I hear his voice down the phone line, tiny,...
Sunday, February 14, 2016

What I'm reading (literary schizophrenia)

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I want to record life exactly as it happens. But that's not easy. I mean, these days, you would need, in any given moment, to write do...
Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Anche tu, Jhumpa? (Jhumpa Lahiri loves Italy)

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Jhumpa Lahiri has somehow read my thoughts – and my diary. Yikes!  She doesn’t just love Italy. She lurves it. Like me. The Pulitzer P...
Monday, February 08, 2016

Fall arrives 'via FedEx' (Lost diary entry)

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From my diary: Sept. 24, 2014  Nothing comes gradually anymore. I say this as fall appears to have arrived in Atlanta via FedEx, ra...
Friday, February 05, 2016

From my Bennington journal

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Nostalgia is a kind of fictionalization. We're often nostalgic for things that never happened. ( Mark Wunderlich lecture)         ...
Friday, January 29, 2016

I miss you, Bennington

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The cozy little perch I fashioned for myself at Bennington, during the Winter residency.
Thursday, January 28, 2016

Talky Time

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Try hard (very hard!) to remain firm when your toddler tells you that instead of quiet time, he'd prefer "talky time." And h...
Friday, January 22, 2016

Bennington by night

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Conveys some of the magic of being at Bennington College .
Wednesday, January 20, 2016

What I'm reading (for the next five months)

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Here's my reading list for my final term in Bennington's MFA program for giggles...  (Note, it's half the length of a norm...
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Sunday, January 17, 2016

We get to illuminate the human condition

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Novelist Charles Bock came to speak at Bennington during the Winter residency. And he leveled with us about hard it is to produce a novel...
Friday, January 15, 2016

Lost entry from the Leo Journal

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From a diary entry, last October, uncovered here at Bennington, while I have some time to review and revise: “I have a story to tell yo...
Monday, January 11, 2016

At Bennington

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Went swimming. Has nothing to do with writing. Nothing and everything. Because it's a way of seeing new things, especially when you...
Wednesday, December 16, 2015

My Year in Review?

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I recently discovered a piece by the writer Alexander Chee from 2014 in which he summed up his year in writing. And oh what a year it w...
Saturday, December 12, 2015

Found -- in an Italian journal circa 1995

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A quote from the great Italian poet and writer Eugenio Montale. English first, then Italian: I don't understand why we are born...
Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Who's decking the halls?

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ME! Spode Christmas tree coffee cups just for the holiday season? Check.
Monday, November 30, 2015

Atlanta in the Fall

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Atlanta in the fall is a delight ...and remains so late into the season. To wit, these two photos, taken at the park in my neighborhoo...