Above, but some of the goofy expressions I apparently make while reading–captured here in Ed Sullivanesque black and white by NMSU MFA candidate Josh Bowen.  The theater was actually dark, though it doesn’t look it here.  I tried to snap a picture of the 150 literature fans gathered in one place–in the desert no less.  Of course that one didn’t come out; but at least there’s a picture of me taking a picture of them.  And the last two: a lovely one of MFA candidate Melanie Sweeney who did a riveting reading before me, and the two of us together.

Also got to trek in the desert, watch people waiting in a seemingly endless line to get into El Paso from Juárez, teach a master class with forty whipsmart students, drink with the MFAs and faculty (and former faculty), and eat a Mexican breakfast across from a the lavish office of a handless yet decidedly badass private investigator named J.J. Armes, pictured on a billboard in front with a pistol in his right hook.  Thanks, Rus Bradburd and Connie Voisine (and Itty Bitty), for conjuring all this, guest-housing me, and being the perfect hosts.

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