Tonight I participated in a reading – I was anthologized in the book Wheels on Ice. This was in town. I didn’t think that many people would show up because it was held on a Thursday night, and also because it was to begin at 7:15 p.m. Additionally, it cost $20.00 to attend, this was with a desert buffet.

I was surprised to see that there were 30 people in attendance. Holy crap I thought.

Alys reading

Our neighbor Judy came; Pete gave her a ride there. I spent the afternoon packing up books for the downstairs move and packing up books to send to Utqiagvik.

I prepared for this reading by thinking things through. It helped that it was an ideas day. I decided to talk about hardship, first using Make Way for Ducklings as an example. As an aside, I want to write about this book. I was going to read from Wheels on Ice and talk about how specific writers dealt with hardship but decided instead to read from my own essay. Then, as I lugged the manure sled up the hill, I decided to just talk things through. There were, to quote a title by author Grace Paley, many Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.

Embedded in my talk was some about my relationship with Frank, my teacher. This complemented what Dave Musgrave, another speaker had to say.

I sat down thinking that my insights were well-received. I got lots of positive feedback. More importantly, I realized that I’d come full circle. I’d had this wonderful teacher/mentor relationship that ended abruptly after I got my MFA degree. I then watched as he put together a few anthologies with writings by other authors. Often, I wondered, how come he didn’t include me?

Then, thirty years later, I got an email from him saying that he wanted to include me in this one. I worked hard on my essay, and it was well received. It was about the book project, in that hardship came about in my insisting on overloading my bicycle trailer with books. Frank was my audience from the onset to the finish.

If people’s spirits remain, then Frank was with us all tonight. If people’s spirits don’t remain, well then, Frank wasn’t with us tonight. But no matter. What matters is that Frank finally gave me the literary nod, that is after so many years.

And so, what am I going to do now? I am going to continue to work on Shelf Life (working title) and will include a version of what I’ve written in this dispatch. I am also going to write a query letter that I will send to the editor of the Alaska Humanities Forum, one in which I suggest that I write about the Bright Lights Book Project, in the context of my upcoming trip to Utqiagvik. Mid-morning. I spoke with Pamella Sampson who is the principal at the Kiita Learning Center in Utqiagvik. I’m sending the school more books and going up there in May.

Lots to do. But this is the work I’ve been wanting to do for some time.

I just have to take it one day at a time or I will be overwhelmed.

Next: 13. 1/13/23: Son of Daylight