Everything that Rises Must Converge

It's been one year since my Columbia commencement, five years since my Dartmouth commencement and ten years since I graduated from high school - what a privilege it was to be on the stage in the CEU commencement with colleagues on Thursday, and what a reversal of roles. My students were beaming, and I especially enjoyed that each and every one had the opportunity to shake hands with the founder of CEU, George Soros. It was a great tribute to the incredible diversity of CEU that every student's country was called as well as their name. It was a moment for reflection about how we relate identity and citizenship, however, as I was curious whether the basis for the country that could 'claim' each student was legal, practical, cultural or simply a matter of the students' preference.

I've been thinking about origins and mentors very much as I reflect on the academic year - especially since I received the news that my essay "A Figment of Your Imagination" will be published in the fall issue of the Bellevue Literary Review.

Ernest Hebert, who I described in my first blog post, was instrumental in encouraging me to work with ">Cynthia Huntington whose gracious scrutiny of every word of my undergraduate thesis has deeply influenced the way I conceptualize my writing and teaching - as a balancing act between form and content.

I remember, during a brief sojourn in San Francisco, when I met one of the Beat poets. I asked him if he had read her work and if he'd stock it in his shop. I haven't been back to California in the six years since then to see if her latest work is on the shelves, so I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite of her poems.

Enjoy, 'til I blog again.

The Radiant

PS The title of this post comes from Flannery O'Connor- it's the first book my godmother suggested to me after she had read my writing.