Kirby's Wright's Weblog: What KURT VONNEGUT said and promised

March 26, 2004

What KURT VONNEGUT said and promised

M: Have you had any interesting jobs over the years?

KW: Well, here’s a short list: Coral raker, stone wall builder at a fishpond, painter, gardener, Waikiki construction worker, writer and researcher for the Center for Auto Safety in DC, editor for Ralph Nader’s speeches, creative writing instructor at Palo Alto Adult School and the Art Institute of California, writing advisor at National University, freelance online writer, content writer for Santa.com, development director for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Oh, and I had a brief stint at UCSD getting paid to pick up writers/poets at the airport and drive them to their lodgings and later to campus—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Ginsberg, Jerome Rothenberg, Carolyn Forche, etc. They actually gave me $500 in cash as pocket money to help entertain guests! I kissed Carolyn Forche under the talking tree in the UCSD forest, she is a good kisser. Vonnegut told me to keep the pocket money and he treated me to lunch at La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla. He said I reminded him of John Irving, and he wrote the following in my copy of BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: “To Kirby Wright, who will make it as a writer. I know these things.”