I taught my last official class in Detroit today. I had the kids do a bunch of exercises, one of them about their favorite superhero. I told them to write what their powers would be if they themselves were superheroes. “Who would your arch nemesis be?” I said. And one of the kids, without delay, shouted, “Michael Jackson!”
I’m gonna miss them.
I got a copy of Antoon’s I’jaam from City Lights in SF last week. It’s recommended from Etel Adnan, Saadi Youssef, and Chris Abani, and I can’t wait to read it. From the back cover: “An inventory of the General Security headquarters in central Baghdad reveals an obscure manuscript. Written by a young man in detention, the prose moves from prison life, to adolescent memories, to frightening hallucinations, and what emerges is a portrait of life in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.”
The reading rocked. People enjoyed the new story, and I loved hanging in California. Right now I have a bunch of books face down a few pages in: Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, Coetzee’s Disgrace, Salter’s A Sport and a Pastime, and Felicia Luna Lemus’s Like Son. Will I actually finish any of them? Who knows.
Still in CA, which is beautiful. Having fun, but wanted to drop in and help an anonymous googler who searched: “HOW DO YOU SPELL LOVE SUCKS IN ARABIC” and came to my blog. I can’t find a way to write in Arabic Script on the blog right now, but the way to say it is “El-’Hubb biy-muS.” Have fun!
