Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Heading to Waterville at lunchtime to meet with Elizabeth Garber. It's a first step in hammering out interview questions for our Maine Humanities Council project. As you may recall, she and I have been invited to develop a podcast script focusing on our experiences as poets who turn to writing prose. We're different kinds of poets with different kinds of prose, so the conversation should be broad, to say the least.

If you happen to have read Tracing Paradise by now, it's not too late to throw in your two cents. What questions do you have? What thoughts can you offer from your own experience as a writer or a teacher of both genres?

Dinner tonight: Steamers. This will be more affordable than usual since my shellfish-loving eleven-year-old is still at camp. He is the kind of child who finishes one lobster and then looks around for a second. He's hasn't found a second lobster yet, but he's always hoping.

4 comments:

Herself said...

I am reading "Tracing Paradise" and have reached Chapter 2. Since I've read your poetry, and heard you read/ teach, I find it interesting that your writing voice stays intact in the transition between prose & poetry.

I absolutely loved the depiction of Harmony- especially nosiness. Anyone who's lived in a small town, off the main road will understand the panic of someone noting your out-of-town guests license plates.

Looking forward to more chapters after lunch.

Dawn Potter said...

Actually that voice thing is something that Eliz. and I talked about a lot at lunch. Hers varies, mine less so. Interesting, isn't it?

Ruth said...

Dawn,

I greedily finished "Tracing Paradise" and now have started it again in order to savor the next layer of details. It is like having a conversation with you. I agree with Byrne's English that your voice stays intact in the transitions.

Dawn Potter said...

Ruth, I love the word "greedily"! Reading can be such a piggish delight, can't it? I'm proud to have evoked it in you.