Thanks, Jack

I first read this in August 2005, a seed Dear Layla came out in 2015, fruit That is why I want to use short chapters, each with verselike heading, and very many such chapters; slowly,…

¡Ray Pruitt, Presente!

I just found out that a classmate died last year in Japan. Ray Pruitt studied two years at Bellarmine (1978-80), then eventually finished his Bachelor’s at Harvard before doing law at Yale. Ray, Anne Walter…

Writing to Wake Up

1. Natalie Goldberg: I also place on the altar a photo of Allen Ginsberg in a yellow wood frame, sitting in a white shirt, cross-legged, his face captured in an uncanny smile. He is our…

The Typewriter Is Holy

Later this summer at Cafe Ventana, I’ll be facilitating a reading group of the new book, The Essential Ginsberg.  I was just rereading Bill Morgan’s history,  The Typewriter is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat…

He Would Have Never Gotten Tenure

The thing is to get under the students’ skin and arouse enough enthusiasm that they get under their own skin.  This means allowing yourself to be yourself in class. My own best teachers were WC…