Reading: The Sun, the Iowa Review, Farallon Review

I'm reading my copy of the Iowa Review, where my story "Dry and Yellow" appears and really like all of the writing in it. I'm not much of a critic, but I do find the essays intriguing. Eula Biss's "Time and Distance Overcome" has an interesting take. She (he?) writes about the history of telephone poles and then morphs into some history around the use of telephone poles for lynchings. The stuff you find out on Google! Definitely a disturbing and need-to-know topic. Patricia Hampl's "The Dark Art of Description" looks like a great essay to use with creative writing students. I am also reading a couple of stories from the Sun magazine--comments later because I don't have my copy in front of me. I feel remiss that I haven't ordered a subscription to the Iowa Review before this; it's a solidly good read. Sounds funny when I say that. Getting together a collection of stories centered around the place (IOWA!!!), but don't feel like going back for the all-school reunion. Don't want to spend the money for plane fare for one thing, but I would like to see my folks and the landscape. Oh well. If you are a student taking my class this summer at the writing salon, feel free to drop me a line about questions or concerns you have regarding the class. It starts in July.