Today's best Margaret Atwood quotation (from The Blind Assassin):

The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets.

That remark makes me laugh and laugh, and I don't even know what it means.

I've just been invited to judge the Maine state finals of the 2014 Poetry Out Loud competition, which will be held on February 26 at the Waterville Opera House--practically local! It is always a blessing to get a gig that does not involve hours and hours of driving in a nighttime snowstorm. So, Maine teachers, sign your kids up, so I can admire them on stage.

In other news, Teresa, Baron, and I might maybe, possibly, if it all works out, be going to Detroit this winter for a Frost on the Road professional development job. I'm pretty happy about this: it would be a huge opportunity for us to watch another arts organization at work and to make contact with a swath of teachers and teaching artists.

The Frost Place is getting ready to publicly reveal the 2014 teaching conference faculty. We've also got a couple of new Teacher-Consultants to announce, and we will be introducing our inaugural Teaching Fellow. There will be a big marketing push with NCTE this year, and I've got high hopes for a bustling success. Already I've heard from a number of interested newcomers, including more than one from outside the United States, which is wonderful.

Teresa and I realized, after doing a careful cross-comparison with several other teaching programs, that the Conference on Poetry and Teaching is unique in its broad applicability. Unlike the others, which are strictly focused on high school teachers, we serve K-12 teachers, university professors, MFA students, workshop leaders, lifelong learners, eager readers, poets--in other words, everyone. Plus, we have the Frost Place, which is one of the most beautiful settings in the world. So please come spend a week with us this summer.