Sewanee Writers' Conference
I am not just living in the sticks.
I have found a place , that is both rural and cultural. I live near academia. The University of the South is at sleeve's length away. I have spent two evenings this past week and plan to do the same this evening, attending the readings of professional writers at the Sewanee Writer's Conference. Just 10 minutes from my porch, I can sit in a hall and enjoy the works of some fairly famous writers, reading from their own.
Tuesday, I heard from John Casey, Wednesday from Margot Livesey and Alice McDermott.
Tonight is is fiction from Randall Kenan. It's free. It's local. It's cultural and I am not sitting in front of the TV.
Best of all, I am not a writer. I have absolutely no ego involved in attending the lectures and readings of this conference. I am an absolute observer. I arrive early and easedrop. It's pretty easy to do, because the talk becomes open and loud as it fills the room. It quiets down as the speaker is introduced and ends with a lengthy applause when they are done. I've just been enriched and it was for free.
I get in my car drive and drive home, remembering some of the turn of phrases and the deeper meaning of it all.
I have found a place , that is both rural and cultural. I live near academia. The University of the South is at sleeve's length away. I have spent two evenings this past week and plan to do the same this evening, attending the readings of professional writers at the Sewanee Writer's Conference. Just 10 minutes from my porch, I can sit in a hall and enjoy the works of some fairly famous writers, reading from their own.
Tuesday, I heard from John Casey, Wednesday from Margot Livesey and Alice McDermott.
Tonight is is fiction from Randall Kenan. It's free. It's local. It's cultural and I am not sitting in front of the TV.
Best of all, I am not a writer. I have absolutely no ego involved in attending the lectures and readings of this conference. I am an absolute observer. I arrive early and easedrop. It's pretty easy to do, because the talk becomes open and loud as it fills the room. It quiets down as the speaker is introduced and ends with a lengthy applause when they are done. I've just been enriched and it was for free.
I get in my car drive and drive home, remembering some of the turn of phrases and the deeper meaning of it all.
posted by Mesha Provo at 1:24 PM
2 Comments:
I am glad someone can enjoy Sewanee. It is for those who want to be totally absorbed in nature.
Also glad you enjoyed the writers conference. I've heard that is is nice. Other than this, I don't have a lot of confidence in the university. They have good teachers and fairly high ideals, but they are dependent on rich alumni giving and therefore tend to bend all their rules. The students as a whole do not appreciate the education and most are there for the party. And they will party.
Suggest you try to avoid the campus on days with football games, the parent days, a week of party days in the spring and most weekends.
My daughter, fresh from a year on the mountain, suggests an investment in galloshes. She got a pair from Walmart last year and used them a lot during the year. It rains a lot.
Hope you get your furniture. Then would like to know the company so we can avoid them like the plague.
You are lucky to have that so close to you. We have a lot of colleges and universities around us, but I am usually not available whewn something like this is scheduled. Too bad.
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