Category Archives: This & That
On Wordsworth
Rich Russell Jay Peterson Brit Lit II 1 Feb. 2018 [Reading Response #2: Wordsworth] As I re-read Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a Cloud,” I kept thinking of two concepts: ecotherapy and 9th Grade English. I remember having to recite … Continue reading
From an email to Fran, 12/13/17
Francis, we are in the last tight squeeze of the semester. One more day of classes for me and then exams next week. I was speaking to a student yesterday about this time of year. She was saying that she … Continue reading
“Oh, Brother. Thank god for you.”
––my sister texts. “Oh?” “Yes. [With everything…] Then I think, but Rich understands me, so I’m ok.” My sister had lost her key. But she found one: another one. “It is good you got a key. That seems significant somehow. … Continue reading
A Statement of Some Purpose
In looking for a file just now, I stumbled across this statement of purpose I wrote up for graduate school. I was accepted to Oxford and to University College London that year; and chose UCL; for the same reason that … Continue reading
And so, the Crash.
My hard drive crashed this week; or last week maybe. I have been without a computer since then; frantically checking e-mail and Facebook when/where I am able to (the zombie voices that just keep calling if not cut back; if … Continue reading
Creative Writing, Week 3
1. READ THIS >> “Trading Stories: Notes From an Apprenticeship” (Jhumpa Lahiri; The New Yorker, 13 June 2011). 1a. While you’re at The New Yorker site, let’s all READ THIS, TOO >> “Creative Writing” by Etgar Keret (The New Yorker, … Continue reading
Excerpts from a Friday Night Conversation on Miss Williams’ Porch.
Miss Williams! Mr. Russell! Your present, Mr. Russell! I love it! I love. This summer: terrariums and Cornell boxes, then! (And alleyways. And Whitman. And Wilde. But no more Bosies. Bosies are bad for business.) I brought you a few … Continue reading
The View Since Monday.
On Monday I had my final conference with Kathy Graber. The first thing she said to me when I entered her office was, “You have a real knack for creative nonfiction,” which was peculiar because I was taking her Poetry … Continue reading
Come what May.
I didn’t get enough sleep last night to contend with you, new May month. Em writes, “There’s something about the end of a semester, even as an instructor. That whole whiff of possibility thing.” That is what I am thinking … Continue reading
Thursday, 4/5
I have to drive 2-1/2 hours up the parkway to Bergen County for a noon-thirty meeting today; then back. Last June, my family went further than North Jersey –– drove all the way to Amherst, Mass. The second poem I … Continue reading
rarlington 