Hello and happy summer! It may not technically be summer, but spiritually, it is. As of last week, I completed a semester-long teaching fellowship up at Bennington College in Vermont. (Teaching occasionally drove me insane but also I loved it so much, which is bad news given that in a year there will be roughly three jobs left teaching creative writing at the college level.) I spent a lot more time on campus than I had originally planned: the drive was so long, and Vermont is so wonderful; I figured I should take advantage of my quiet little house and my dining hall pass. This week I’ll head back to Bennington to finish up my MFA, which mostly means giving a reading, submitting my thesis to the library, laying in the grass, and walking across the stage at graduation. I ordered Fever Tree margarita mix—excited to learn whether or not it’s gross. For the sake of record-keeping, I wanted to put together a brief summary of the last four months of my life in Vermont.
Favorite New Bird: Red-Winged Blackbird
Favorite Dining Hall Dessert: TIE: Matcha Sugar Cookies & Salted Maple Pie
Favorite Dining Hall Preparation of Roasted Chicken Thighs: Peri Peri with white + green sauce
Number of Times I Cooked at Bennington: THREE, and one time I added way too much edamame to a box of Annie’s and somehow it turned out really, really gross.
Pounds of Honey Consumed: Seven
The Cost of a Pint of Van Leeuwen at the Bennington Wal-Mart: $5
Best Book I Read for School: People Who Led to My Plays, Adrienne Kennedy
Best Book I Read Not for School: Nova Scotia House, Charlie Porter
Poem Memorized: “One Art,” by Elizabeth Bishop
Number of Hikes Done: zero :(((((((
Most Useful Post It Tacked To The Homasote Wall1 In My Office: BE LESS FAIR
Favorite Student: [REDACTED!!!! HAHA SIKE]
Number of Granny Squares Crocheted: 52
Favorite Granny Square Crocheted While In Vermont: idk maybe this one?
Number of Times Scrivener Shut Down for No Reason While I Was Deleting Something Banal: ~145
Thesis Page Count: 111
Most Resonant Rule from Sister Corita Kent’s Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules: THE ONLY RULE IS WORK. IF YOU WORK IT WILL LEAD TO SOMETHING. IT’S THE PEOPLE WHO DO ALL OF THE WORK ALL THE TIME WHO EVENTUALLY CATCH ONTO THINGS.
Phrases and Words I Overused In My Thesis:
“Dark Wood”
“Glittered”
“Glimmered”
Favorite Performance-Enhancing Drug Used While Finishing My Thesis: Celsius packets, Tropical Vibe Starfruit Pineapple Edition. These are more cost-effective than cans, though you do miss the fizz. And if you mix them into a glass of water, it looks like PISS:
Total Books Read: 18
Books Not Finished (Estimate): 12
Books I Want to Read This Summer After Grad School Is Over:
How to Be Gay, David M. Halperin
Austerlitz, W. G. Sebald
My Dead Book, Nate Lippens
Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land, Rachel Cockerell
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard
Stag Dance, Torrey Peters
The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever, Prudence Pfeiffer
The Sullivainians, Alexander Stille
Here’s a Drawing I Made With My Foot For My Art Homework:
Different Types of Spiders Seen in My Faculty Housing: At least nine
Favorite Sign Found on the Dining Hall Bulletin Board:
Favorite New Toy: JVC GR-SXM260U Compact VHS C Super VHS Video Camera
Tarot Card That Has Been Haunting Me: The fool :)
Cutest Picture of Me in the Snow:
xoxoxo!
One of my great domestic dreams is to have a large studio with one big homasote wall. I first learned about this when I was at 100W Corsicana, where one of the big studios was covered in it; my mother has a homasote wall in her home studio now, and whenever I’m down there, I love to run my hands along its nubby face, and stick my nose up against all her new prints.
Need a salted maple pie recipe stat though would also settle for just a little slice😩
I think you will loooove Martyr! (!)
Thanks for the inspiration to memorize this poem!