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