Dear all,

Regarding good books: I've just finished reading Jazz by Toni Morrison and White Noise by Don DeLillo for my Contemporary American Literature courses. Both of these were very good reads. This summer I read Blindness by Jose Saramago. Holy camoley, what a read! Also check out The Cement Garden by Ian McEwen. And OH!! Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami, Difficult Loves by Italo Calvino (a short story collection), and I'm still harping on The Atlas by William T. Vollmann (I also hear The Rainbow Stories by him is good too, and he recently won the National Book Award for Europe Central).

There are also some good books on the topic of writing, some of which include The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi (the director of the MFA program at Warren Wilson College), The Demon and the Angel by Edward Hirsch, and The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino.

Keep up the reading!!! And write, write, write, write, till you've typed the tips of your fingers raw or you've run out of ink in your inkwell (or rollerball pen). I'd be interested in catching up with some of you. I haven't talked to most of you all in quite a while. Give me some news.

All best,

Eddie Gonzalez
Fall 05 alumn (ooohyeah!)


----- Original Message -----
From: Deborah Chester <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2006 11:21 am
Subject: [PWA-L] Hello!

> Greetings to all you PW folks!
> I had a productive, if hardworking, sabbatical last semester and
> am now back on campus, ready to encourage you to set up our first
> meeting of the semester.  We have many new faces to welcome.  I
> hope to get their names entered into our subscriber lists soon.
>
> September 27 will be JMC Jumpstart day, where new students come by
> the college to get acquainted, pick up information on
> organizations, and learn more about their majors.  I'm asking for
> a few of you to volunteer to either man our PWA table to answer
> questions and chat about PW in general, or can someone artistic
> make us a poster or some flyers, something to indicate that we
> exist and are a fun group?  Even if we glue a few book dust
> jackets to some foamcore board and stand it upright, we'll at
> least make our presence known.
>
> The 27th is a Wednesday, and the time will run from 1-5 p.m.
> Check with Heather Spencer in Student Services for more
> information.  Whatever you can fit into your schedule will be
> terrific.  No one expects you to sit at a table ALL AFTERNOON.
> (You could be writing instead.)  Or you can write your great
> American novel at the PWA table and look authorial and remote and
> mysterious, if you choose.
>
> I guess most of you are aware from Will's previous announcement
> that we've been granted a lounge for our use.  It's in Copeland
> Hall on the 2nd floor, to the right of the elevator.  We need to
> thinking about what kind of book/writing decor we want to set up
> in there.  I think we might want to consider an informal lending
> library to share books with each other whenever we get the urge to
> clean out our bookshelves occasionally.  There are plenty of
> bookshelves in the room, I understand.  We don't have to have our
> meetings in there.  It's just a place to hang out if you need a
> refuge on campus.
>
> Anyone have any publications or submissions to report?  Anyone
> have any good reads to recommend?
>
> Regards,
> DC
>
> Deborah Chester
> John Crain Presidential Professor
> Professional Writing
> Gaylord College of Journalism & Mass Communication
> University of Oklahoma
> Norman, OK  73019-2051
> Ph: (405) 325-4192
> [log in to unmask]
>