Recently, I read a stunning and gorgeous novella called ALL THE WORDS, by Maria Frances Brandt. I cannot recommend this book more highly. Brandt’s characters reminded me of myself and of the people I care about, at our best and at our most yearning. These characters struggle, each in their own way, to articulate all the necessary words to each other and to themselves. And their struggle is rendered, in Brandt’s careful and caring hand, artistically and dramatically. In this lyrically lush and beautifully cadenced novella about a family’s love and loss, words are, paradoxically, precious and scarce. Sentences start but sputter out; mouths go mute; memories, both allusive and elusive, tease then disappear, only to reappear as fragmented textual ghosts, italicized and erupting throughout the course of this family’s journey—a journey from trauma to understanding, and, ultimately, to a kind of acceptance. Such a story arc is easy enough to describe, but painstakingly difficult to render dramatically and truthfully. But Brandt pulls it off with élan and intelligence and, best of all, the crafty instincts of a natural storyteller.

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I’m truly so fortunate to be charing and participating on these three incredible panels this week at the 2016 AWP Conference & Bookfair, in Los Angeles, California. #AWP16

Thanks to all my fellow panelists and to all my fellow AWP-goers! It’s already been such a blast. Come by and check out the panels.

TODAY! —Thursday, March 31, 2016, at 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM, in Gold Salon 4, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor: I’ll be a panelist of “The Art of the Literary Interview” with Tony Leuzzi, Tod Marshall, Allie Larkin, and Catherine LaSota. #AWP16

Tomorrow—Friday, April 1, 2016, at 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM, in Gold Salon 1, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor: I’ll be chairing panel “The Art of the Book Review” with Helen Schulman, Courtney Maum, Tony Leuzzi. #AWP16

Saturday, April 2nd, 2016, 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM, in Gold Salon 2, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor (S134.) I’ll be a panelist on “What I Did When What I Did Wasn’t Working: Teachers on Retooling Their Teaching. with Joseph Scapellato, Matt Bell, Catherine Dent, Jameelah Lang. (Description: When our in-class lessons and out-of-class assignments don’t give our students what we hoped they would—when our pedagogical performances flop unexpectedly—how do we rework what’s left? In this panel, five teachers of writing share specific instances of course failure and the attempts at redesign that followed. Examples of activities, assignments, and approaches promise to make this panel helpful for teachers of all experience levels.)