I have an exciting week coming up. Monday night, I will drive to the airport to catch a midnight plane to NY. I'll get into JFK around 8:30am, go to the annual Poets & Writers Banquet that evening, and fly home the next night (I'll get in around midnight, so I'll be gone pretty much exactly 48 hours). I'm very excited about this--I am going to be a "literary table host", and when I saw the list of the other hosts, I just about plotzed--all sorts of Pulitzer Prize winners and literary idols. It is amazing to see my name next to theirs; I can barely believe that I get to do this kind of thing in my life. The banquet is going to honor Barbara Kingsolver (yay! We're going to have a little Bellwether convo), Quincy Troupe, and Sidney Offit. I just hope I'll be able to sleep on the plane. I would hate to be a zombie at the banquet.

Next Saturday (3/5), I am going to teach a class, Writing Your Passions, at the annual Women Creating Peace Collective's Interational Women's Day Conference. This year, it's going to be held at a holistic center in Beaumont. It should be amazing--there will also be drumming and art and storytelling and all sorts of fabulous workshops and gatherings. I'll post the details soon...

Sunday, 3/6, I will be reading from The Book of Dead Birds at the Riverside Film Festival--1pm, University Village theaters. I mentioned the Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea documentary below; I'm thrilled to be able to collaborate with these talented filmmakers. Come if you can!