Every summer for the past 8 years I have attended the Summer Writer’s Institute as a Masters student studying with Mary Gordon, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Gaitskill, Philip Lopate, and Nicholas Delbanco.  Last summer I became a writer-in-residence at the program.  Which means I get to live in the grown-up faculty dorms and I read student manuscripts.  This is one of my favorite experiences every year.  I fantasize about the next summer starting at the end of the current summer’s residency. 

University of California, San Diego Extension

La Jolla, CA 

I teach the novel writing courses at UCSD Extension.  The students come in to the classroom with a huge story in their head that they want to put down on paper.  The hardest part of my job is to show them how to take that unwieldy thing called “idea” and piece it out effectively.  The best part of my job is that I get to hear about 20 new stories every quarter. 

Private Workshops

San Diego, CA 

I hold private workshops in my home.  I keep the group small, no more than 12 members of solid writers with serious goals of publication.  We aren’t completely serious though.  We have the occasion pizza party.  Once we held a seance.  Writing group for ghosts?  But isn’t that what our characters are?