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photo by Bill Hughes
I am quite honored to be hosting Jeremy Bruno and Fernando Quijano III on July 10 at Essential Sundays, a reading series made possible by PoetryInBaltimore.com. You can find details here and here.

I am excited. My relationships with Jeremy and Fernando have in common one thread--I've met both through their writing. Not, "hey, you're cool, I want to read you," but rather, "I've read you and I know you, we should be real people to each other." All sorts of beratements roll through my brain as I make this connection--this day and age, damn young folk, don't be a creep, yadda yadda--but then it occurs to me that I know hundreds and hundreds of authors solely through their writing. The fact I haven't met most of them in person is just a minor note in a long acquaintance. All those books on my shelf? Friends. All the authors of those books? Friends. All the poets and writers I've listened to from the back of a reading? Friends, maybe even chums. Regardless of my probable star-struck gibbering were I ever to meet, say, Lorrie Moore, I still know an intimate part of each writer, bits and rocks and gems I wouldn't know in a handshake-meeting. And suddenly, I feel rich with life, and I want to hug my books and blogs and Facebook notes. And if I ever meet A.A. Milne in the Hundred-Acre-Woods, he gets a big life-long-friend-squeeze. And, just as suddenly, I feel guilt for the awful romance novel I once burned with relish on my parents patio. I didn't like you, but...oops. Sorry.
 


Comments

Susan link
07/01/2011 09:30

Angela,

I DO remember Jeremy Bruno, but I had lost track of him and his work. I did not realize that he continued to write poetry. That's fabulous!!! He was one of those rare online students who used to stop by my office once in a while to talk (and oh, such interesting ideas...). Send him my regards. Sorry that I cannot make any of these summer readings, but you know, I tend to hide out in the summer so I can work on my own writing projects. I hope it's okay to say this publically, but I am SO PROUD of the community work you do to promote writers, and of the path you are on with your own writing and editing. hugs, Susan

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