Time to Write?

You know that saying about how you have to make time to have time? Whoever said was full of s***. Whoever said that never had jobs like mine. I do 20 hours a week program administrative stuff that often turns into more hours and even weekend hours. Four classes a semester that have three different preps. Not that I am bitching (well, okay I am whining a bit), because I do love my work. I really do. I have a great Program Director for the NEOMFA, and I like the classes I teach: non-western literature, Chinese history, and this last semester a new one "Humanities in the Western Tradition" (think history of the western world from ancient Mesopotamia to Renaissance Europe).

But between herding the MFA cats (and I am not just talking students here), and lecture prep, and grading. I have not written anything worthwhile since July. Random snippets of poems, nothing solid. Sometimes when I haven't been writing in a while it feels like the words just go round and round in my head until it wants to explode. It helps to have friends an family to talk to about the ideas you have, but sooner or later you have to put them down on paper. Writing is how I process things. It's cathartic. The only other thing that works that way for me is reading.

Happily I just spent my last week of Winter Break reading a huge stack of books. You want to know what you should check my list on Good Reads. The only writing I will be doing soon is my syllabi for the Spring semester. Oh, for Spring Break and the next stack of books.

Neil Gaiman in Cleveland!

As if my life wasn't crazy enough (visiting writers Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky coming to NEOMFA, midterm papers, China Week at UA, end of Eik's & Runa's reign in theMidrealm ... ) guess who is coming to Cleveland this weekend? Oh yeah. Now I gotta go stand in line to get in and hope there is room to get a seat down front. And does my Blackberry have enough juice to record him? Crap! Can I bring my books to be signed? Or do I have to buy new ones. Hell! I'll buy new ones if I have to ... how many Neil Gaiman books are too many? The answer is there is no answer to that one.

Neil Gaiman, the British winner of the 2009 Newbery Medial for The Graveyard kicks off Cleveland Public Library’s 2009-2010 Writers & Readers series. At the Cleveland Public Library’s Lake Shore Facility (behind the Memorial-Nottingham Branch) at 17109 Lake Shore Boulevard in Cleveland. Call 216.623.2800 for more information. All Writers & Readers events are FREE and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Books will be available for sale by A Cultural Exchange at all Writers and Readers events. Start: Oct 4 2009 - 2:00pm

And they're off!

So the semester has begun. I have three classes to teach: 2 Chinese history and culture, and 1 non-western literature. I am also taking a doctoral level class in post-colonial literature at another university. Shoot me now. The good news is I should get in better shape this semester--I have to walk across campus for my classes! And, oh yes, I am still putting in 20 hours a week in administrative work for the MFA program. And trying to finish a thesis, a manuscripts of poems. And, silly me, I'd like a life outside of work, too!