Observations from the first full day of the residency:
--Dorm lighting is highly unflattering.
--Dorm beds are made for 18-year-olds.
--Grilled cheese-egg-ham sandwiches make a great breakfast.
--If you arrive early to the cocktail reception, you may get a private wine tasting.
--My creative nonfiction colleague Susan Tekulve is super-smart about writing novels-in-stories. (I can’t possibly summarize her excellent craft lecture, but she discussed what a true novel-in-stories is, the characteristics of n-i-s using examples from Love Medicine, Olive Kitteridge, and Our Kind, and she was a fierce advocate for the form. I plan to nag at her until she adapts this talk for an article for the AWP Chronicle.)
--My smart and chatty workshop group will be awesome!
--I’m exhausted already, but I don’t want to miss a minute, so no way am I going to bed early!!
