Spring Update

Today marks the spring equinox, but it’s still snowing like mad up here in the North Country. Never have I spent so much time indoors as these past three months, though I’ve learned that the best way to deal with a long hard winter is to embrace it by cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, maple-tapping, and swilling hot toddies around the fireplace.IMG_1461

So 2013! It started with an investigative reporting trip to South Texas (subject of my next book about living in the borderlands) and then I returned to upstate New York to teach travel writing and an introductory creative nonfiction class at St. Lawrence University. I’ve also been hosting the Viebranz Salon Series, which entails throwing glitzy catered parties featuring local writers and musicians every couple of months at the Kohlberg House, and partaking in our Writer’s Series. In February, I had the honor of introducing one of my literary heroes, Rebecca Solnit (whose Field Guide to Getting Lost is an endless source of inspiration). In March, I had the great fortune of hearing Pam Houston of Cowboys Are My Weakness fame. (Book alert: her latest, Contents May Have Shifted, is just as brilliant.)

On April 4, I’ll be flying back home to Texas to join Manuel Luis Martinez, John Phillip Santos, and Carmen Tafolla on a panel called “Global Odyssey: From Texas to the World and Back” at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos, and will stick around through the weekend, both to be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters and to replenish my body and soul with badly needed sunshine, chips, and salsa. Then I’ll return to New York to give my farewell reading at St. Lawrence on April 25th. In May, I’ll be speaking at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, and at some point in June, I’ll be moving 800 miles south to become Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. If anyone knows of any housing leads thereabouts, please let me know! For the first time in two decades, I’ll be planting some roots.

Here’s hoping our paths cross along the way. Gracias, and enjoy the spring!