pleasantly surprised
2007-02-22, 8:14 p.m.

Hmmm. Huh.

Iiiiinteresting.

So this just arrived in my email inbox:

"Dear Creative Writing Student: YOU HAVE JUST BEEN NOMINATED BY ONE OF YOUR TEACHERS for a major scholarship offered by The New York State Summer Writers Institute."

I assume that I've been nominated by my Creative Writing professor, since he's the only one of my teachers who has ever read anything of mine.

I was pretty confused at first, but then I figured out what it was: a whole bunch of super-intensive creative writing workshops, taught by some AMAZING and really famous contemporary writers, held during the summer at Skidmore College.

"The Institute, now in its twenty-first year, extends from July 2nd to July 27th, 2007. It ... offers two- and four-week workshops taught by the following people:

FICTION: Marilynne Robinson, Alan Gurganus, Mary Gordon, Rick Moody, Lee Abbott [[HOLY MOLYYYYY]], Nicholas Delbanco, Alix Ohlin, Kathryn Harrison, Elizabeth Benedict, Julia Slavin, Amy Hempel [[AAGGGHGHHH]]

POETRY: Frank Bidart, Carolyn Forche [[FO' REEELZ???]], Henri Cole

...

Visiting Writers: Joyce Carol Oates [[AHHHHHHKELLYCLARKSON]], Robert Pinsky, Michael Ondaatje, Richard Ford, Charles Simic, Russell Banks, Caryl Phillips, Jamaica Kincaid, Ann Beattie, Richard Howard, Katha Pollitt, Francine Prose, Robert Stone, William Kennedy, Victoria Redel, Gish Jen."

FUREEEEAKING OUTTT.

I have like, a thousand questions to ask my professor, but the thing is due on March 9 and I need 15-25 pages of "my best" fiction??? I've only barely written 25 pages of finished fiction, PERIOD. I would really like to do this (because, um, hello, CAROLYN FORCHE TEACHES ME TO WRITE POETRY? OKAY!!!), but I doubt I can without the scholarship. So I'm thinking I'll apply for the scholarship and see what happens from there. I guess I'll just give them every page of fiction I've ever written, or maybe I'll throw some poetry in there too, if that's allowed. Um. We'll see how it pans out.

I'm also pretty excited that my teacher thought to nominate me for this. I don't think it's so much that I'm the best young writer he's encountered, but rather that he really likes the fact that I am a minority and thinks he's contributing to the community of Asian writers by supporting me in becoming successful. Either way, I'm glad to know about the program. I'm quite intrigued.

I'm watching True Life: I'm Stepping and the girl is SO FEISTYYY I wish I were a feisty Latina whyyyy.

Oh, and I'm back home for the first time in 2 weeks--I have a lot of work to do and a bunch of things to take care of, so it's going to be a hectic weekend. But um, right now I'm just waiting for the new episode of CSI. And then I have to change the water in Blouis the Fishum's bowl. So. Thaaat's the plan for the evening. Tomorrow I have to

• get my eyeglasses fixed
• run some errands at Target and Staples
• do a TON of work, including writing a paper for Bible As Lit and reading like 587392048 pages for History
• get church music together
• buy my Mommy a birthday present

I also want to:

• upload all the pictures I've taken in the past month to my computer
• sync up my mp3 player with my computer
• hang out with the senior-sophs

I'm pretty sure I'm only going to get the things on the second list done. Heh. Heh.

Okay it's CSI tiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

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