Hi Eric,
The line-up for fiction looks just fine with me: Scofield for the sprint
course, Giles (if she can come) and Butler. I wonder, though, how you feel
about having a meeting of all of us next year in the spring to discuss the
various possibilities of visiting writers. Does anyone else think this a
good idea? Or does the idea of yet another meeting seem a burden?
Kay

At 10:42 AM 5/18/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello out there,
>
>        I'd like especially to hear from the poets regarding next year, so
we can
>get everything lined up.
>
>        1)  Has someone officially invited Carolyn Kizer for the Sprint
Course?  I
>think it would be great.  She read this year at AWP, and it was an
>outstanding reading.  Perhaps, if she was really willing to stay on for two
>weeks, we could use a bit extra from the Cooke fund to supplement what
>would be available from the Sprint Course revenues, if necessary.  One fact
>to note, is that the university will only provide five nights of free
>housing, I believe.  If we wanted to get her more free days than that, it
>will involve some scrambling, and still might be do-able.  So some funding
>would have to be reserved for housing.
>
>        2)  Are all those poets really coming?  Constanzo, Drury and Kramer?
>
>        3)  What about the Margery Cooke fund?  It's built up quite a bit,
>sufficient to have someone truly first rate for next year.  But if we are
>to invite someone of that caliber, it needs to happen this spring, I think.
> Or, if Kizer is coming, is the thought to hold off yet another year?????
>Which would enable us to have big name poets in both 2000-2001, and
>2001-2002, while still reserving say $500, if necessary to pay for housing.
> It also might be possible to increase numbers in the Sprint Course--Debbie
>Kennedy from Fiction for example, to get revenues up, given the luminosity
>of Kizer's name.
>
>        4)  I understand that Annie wants to invite Salach and Stallings, and
>David only wants to invite Stallings.  What about Jim and Keith?  My own
>feeling it that if all those others are coming, that either Salach or
>Stallings is enough.  Budgetary constraints will limit us to 3 or 4 fiction
>writers.  I should think that 6 or 7 poets or 8 poets is enough.
>
>        5)  On the fiction side, at Constance's urging, I have invited
novelist
>Sandra Scofield to teach the Sprint Course next spring.  Scofield has
>published 6 or 7 books, and been nominated for a National Book Aware,
>although I must admit I haven't read a word of it. She is very flexible on
>dates; I have tentatively invited her for the week after spring break, but
>she can come anytime during the spring, as she doesn't teach.  Let's
>coordinate this with poetry.
>
>        6)  Keith Banner will read in September.  I have also put out
prelimary
>feelers to Molly Giles, the short story writer, whose first novel will be
>published next spring.  Giles, who taught for many years at San Francisco
>State, (Amy Tan her best known student), has just taken a Full Professor
>job at U. of Arkansas.
>
>        7)  I have pledged $500 to try to help bring Octavia Butler to
campus.
>Cheryly Johnson is running with that ball.  The big problem is that Butler,
>who has a big money gig at UC only has Friday available for Miami.  I don't
>know if Cheryl is going to be able to arrange it or not.  She made a pretty
>large dollar promise to Butler's UC sponsor ($2000, I think, for a pick-up
>gig.) Whether or not she'll be able to raise the additional $1500 from
>other sources, I don't know.
>
>         Let me know what your think.
>
>
>        Eric
>
>
>