Emma’s choir took first place today in a competition in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Emma sings high soprano, and she has a gorgeous voice. She also has a passion for music, and it’s rare that the tinny sound of her tunes aren’t trailing along in her wake. You have to get her to take out her ear […]
While preparing for my library talk about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I made a number of discoveries, many of them about my own process. So, in no particular order: 1. No matter how busy and overwhelmed I was on various other projects, doing a small amount of work every day toward the library […]
This Wednesday–tomorrow–at the downtown branch of the Everett Public Library, 7 p.m.–I will be talking about and (if all goes as planned) leading a discussion about Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a sentimental book, racist, political to the point of being propaganda. It is also a very powerful book and an important part […]
Saying “thank you” hardly seems adequate. This morning I am feeling blessed by my generous friends. I am also thinking about Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, which I have been reading with my American literature students. Most of my students are really, really young, and it’s not an easy book for them. When I asked them to […]