Maxine Hong Kingston was my first ever creative writing instructor, and she introduced me to the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Allen Ginsberg, and Merwin at the East-West Center Conference back in Spring Semester, 1979. Yes, I am ancient. Anyway, Maxine gave me a blurb for my poetry book BEFORE THE CITY, now available at lemonsharkpress.com. She talked about losing her dead father's glasses in the Berkeley Hills fire, glasses she would use to stare out at the world as if using his eyes. There were students from La Jolla High in the crowd and an entourage of Maxine's friends. I told Maxine I always had wanted to be a poet/writer after taking her class in '79 and that my father had always wished I'd never taken her class because he wanted me to be a lawyer. I'VE SAVED THE WORLD FROM ANOTHER LAWYER! Maxine said and boy did that crowd get a giggle.
Posted by Kirby at November 7, 2003 04:52 PM