January 14 2025
Dear All,
Time flies when you’re having fun! And the annual Key West Literary Seminar, that took place this last weekend, is always fun. I’ve dipped in and out of it this year, catching some great readings and discussions and a couple of good parties. The topic this year was “Family”. Everyone has a family, one way or another, and almost every memoir or novel has family somewhere in its DNA, often discussed directly. As Tolstoy wrote at the beginning of ‘Anna Karenina’, “All happy families are alike…” before going on to describe the uniqueness and complexity of Anna’s brother’s family. We may love or like or dislike or even hate our families, we may not speak to each other at all, or we may miss each other so much it feels like heartbreak when we part. So ‘Family’ was a rich seam to mine. I particularly enjoyed Andre Dubus III with Dani Shapiro and Brando Skyhorse in a conversation about memoir - how much we can tell, how not to hurt people with our revelations, how to claim our right to tell our own story.
I’ve also noticed how pleased we all were to see each other in our writing/reading family, this last weekend. There’s something special these days about get-togethers in person – is it post-Covid still, or related to our feelings of dread about US politics and what may happen next? Or in reaction to the distancing effects of Artificial Intelligence, (an oxymoron in my view)? I’ve noticed a certain intensified joie-de-vivre, a deliberateness about communicating, joining in, showing up. A re-commitment to community, a refusal to be separated into factions? Friends of ours are giving a party on the evening of January 20th (when DT takes office) with ‘comfort food’ requested for a potluck supper. The TV will not be turned on.
Another couple of friends, from Asheville, are putting together a fund-raiser with food and music, to raise money for the people in Asheville whose homes were destroyed. In California, and across the country, money is pouring in to the Los Angeles districts that went up in flames last week. I hope that this mood will prevail, that the generosity will continue, the helping of neighbors and friends become a norm. We need each other, not robots, not remote control. We need, and want, to live in community.
A reminder here, too, that the little community we’re setting up for 10 days in late June at the retreat center, Flores del Camino, is open for registration, and limited to 8-10 people – so if you can make it to northern Spain in June to write new poems or prose in a beautiful quiet place, before taking an optional 4-day walk on the Camino, do apply.
Go well, and get together!
Affectionately, Ros
Click on image below for more information about the June 2025 retreat.
