Here are a few of the things I've done this summer -- in retrospect I did accomplish a bit:
(1) In May and June, I taught an intensive three-week class in classic and contemporary sports literature. I met with my 18 undergraduate students every weekday for three hours. I made them read a lot. (2) In June, I taught two workshops in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, a continuing education program that draws adults from across the US and sometimes from other countries. As usual, this included leading a five-day session in “Turning personal experience into prose.” Then I led a weekend workshop, “Writing and publishing the personal essay,” taking the place of a teacher who was unable to come for a terrible reason—he and his wife had been in an auto accident, hit by a drunk driver, and she was badly hurt. (3) I hired a construction crew to re-shingle my roof and do a few other house repairs and renovations—we call this “deferred maintenance.” (4) I did yard work—mowed the lawn and cut brush several times. (5) I am very sensitive to poison ivy and other plant allergens and got rashes twice. To get rid of them, I had to take a medicine that makes me feel crazy. (6) I spent two weeks in New York City, overdosing on culture high and low: lots of theater, several movies, dance recitals, good restaurants. I had my fill of urban life and came home to Iowa City, a pretty sedate place. (7) I wrote three book reviews for an academic journal and am working on a couple more. (8) I read, for pleasure, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore”—the first book I’ve encountered in a very long time that I could hardly wait to get back to each time I put it down. (9) I got re-acquainted with my two sons—Nathaniel, 22, a jazz musician, and Gabriel, 20, a college student. Both have been home for the summer for the first time in quite a few years. (10) I have started to think about really getting ready for fall semester… more on that soon.
