This week the University of Michigan hosted a conference called Writing In Public to honor me and Shaman Drum Bookshop. It was organized by the historian Geoff Eley, my dearest friend over the past 27 years, the poet Keith Taylor, a beloved pal, and the poet Linda Gregerson, one of the most gracious people I know, whose book Magnetic North was runner up this year for the National Book Award in poetry. Nick and Elena Delbanco, two extremely goodhearted people, were on hand to help move things forward. Grad student Kenneth Garner made it all work.
1. With Geoff Eley, 2. Allison Swan & Keith Taylor, 3. Linda Gregerson
It was beyond a wonderful experience for me. At the same time it was difficult to be the recipient of so much good will. I don’t believe that I deserved the acclaim, but I accepted it on behalf of all the people committed to the culture of books. In retrospect, I think we need to celebrate our world more often. It is now clear to me that there is a large reservoir of people out there who care passionately about the Arts and Letters in America.
Actually, the conference was one of the high points in my life.
Andrea Barrett and Gary Snyder read at Rackham Auditorium on Thursday evening. State Senator Liz Brater presented me with a framed declaration just prior to the reading, and I feared briefly that I might break down on the stage in front of everyone.
4. with Gary Snyder & Marian Krzyzowski; 5. with Andrea Barrett
My Reading The World partner Chad Post and his wife Chris surprised me by driving in from Rochester, New York, and Roy Schonfeld, Book Sales Rep of the Year, was there for the conference.
On Friday morning there was a panel, chaired by Linda Gregerson, on Literary Publishing, with Michael Wiegers, editor of Copper Canyon Press, Rebecca Wolff, editor of Fence, and Sven Birkerts, editor of AGNI magazine and author of The Gutenberg Elegies, among other books. I knew Sven when he was a bookseller in Ann Arbor back in the 1970s. “A publisher does essentially the same thing as a bookseller,” Sven told us, and Michael Wiegers spoke about “the stubborn persistence of a staff that willed Copper Canyon into existence.”
In the afternoon there was a session on Writing in the Schools, chaired by Marian Krzyzowski, whom I’ve known for almost a lifetime now. Jeff Kass, the incredibly energetic Creative Arts Director of the Neutral Zone, Terry Blackhawk, Founder of the InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit, and Michele Kotler, the Director of the Community-Word Project in New York, described their programs. The work these people are doing is simply heroic. The program ended with presentations by young poetry slam artists, including Angel Nafis, who I’m very proud to say is a staff member at Shaman Drum.
Geoff Eley chaired the last panel, From Page to Screen. Charles Baxter, a major novelist and wonderful human being I’ve known now for about 35 years, told a very funny story about his experiences with film producers and his novel The Feast of Love. Screenwriter Jim Burnstein gave us an inside view of how the Hollywood system really works, and author Laura Kasischke spoke positively about the films made from her novels Suspicious River and The Life Before Her Eyes. The later film, which stars Uma Thurman, will premiere at the Michigan Theater for the Ann Arbor Book Fair on May 16.
Geoff ended the session by announcing that he and I were going to write a screenplay together, which we’ve talked about doing for years now. I envision a Bertolucci’s The Conformist meets Terminator 2 kind of thing, with a soundtrack by Van Morrison, but I haven’t discussed this recently with Geoff.
There was a closing reception late that afternoon at the Michigan Union followed by a lovely dinner at the Ingalis House. My daughter Tasha and her partner Will Morgan represented my family. Aside from the conference participants and organizers, Gina Sanchez, Susan Pollay, Bruce Watkins, Tom Fricke, Chris Sterr, Meagen Kucaj, Stephen Smith, Steven Mullaney, Bob Hart, Pete Jaccarino, Chris Golus, Rev. Joe Summers, Allison Swan, Ray McDaniel, Karen Smyte, Eileen Pollack, Michael Schoenfeldt and Keith Nield were there.
6. with Tasha Pohrt & Will Morgan; 7. Nick Delbanco & Charles Baxter
It will take me a long time to unpack this experience. However, I do understand how lucky I am.
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It was great to see Gary Snyder again. He has been enormously important to me ever since I first came across his poems when I was in high school in the 1960s, and over lunch on Thursday I thanked him for the gift of his work.
Gary spoke about having lived through various cultural movements over the years—modernism,the beat era, the counterculture, and postmodernism. He told me he thought we might be emerging finally into a planetary culture, and he seemed optimistic. He talked about a forthcoming book, Learning from Native Wisdom by Gary Holthaus, that he felt expressed these ideas well. We also spoke about Robert Bringhurst’s The Tree of Meaning: Language, Mind and Ecology, a collection of astonishing essays that Counterpoint will publish soon.
Gary is 78 years old and claims he’s slowing down a bit, but it certainly isn’t apparent to me. He’s working on a new book about Mt Tampalis and he gave me a copy of Mountains and Rivers Without End, a two CD set he recorded with musicians Ludi Hinrichs and Daniel Flanigan during the Tokyo 2002 Summer Festival. It is a beautifully packaged import from Japan, and we’ll be stocking it soon at Shaman Drum Bookshop.
* * *
I remain radioactive from all the good vibes. Nine deep bows of gratitude to everyone involved in this event.
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Lest anyone worry that this has gone to my head, I assure you there are plenty of people around who are working vigilantly to prevent me from taking myself too seriously.
For the past few weeks large ads for the conference featuring a photograph of me staring dramatically off into space, the storefront in the background, have appeared frequently in the local press.
When I was at the Cineplex last Saturday, the ticket taker asked, “Why do you look so familiar? Didn’t I see your picture in the paper recently?”
“Oh, he’s famous,” my wife said sarcastically. I remained mute, tried to smile knowingly, and edged toward the popcorn line as quickly as possible.
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Much of Buddhist practice is directed toward changing or losing habits of mind that defend the self.
-text beneath a caption that asks What is going on?
Rubin Museum of Art, New York
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