LIVELY WORDS

Literary readings. Unleashed. Fiction. Poetry. Nonfiction.
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Session 6

The amazing lawns of the Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, VT are outdone only by the quality of the writers who congregate there for twelve days each summer. I was lucky enough to visit for a few days this year and see many old friends and make a few new ones.

Rus Bradburd was there with his wife, the poet Connie Voisine, and their ridiculously cute daughter Alma. Rus graduated from the MFA program at NMSU a few years before me. One of the things one learns quickly while talking with him is that he is uber talented: he coached university-level basketball for many years, he plays fiddle really well, and he knows how to tell a story.

For this session, Rus plays a tune then reads the opening to his nonfiction book Paddy on the Hardwood: A Journey in Irish Hoops, a story that covers his two years spent coaching basketball in Ireland.

Session 8

We’ve got the beginnings of a pattern going here—we like to record sessions during holidays. First it was Steve Caldes on the 4th of July. Now it’s Megan Morrone on Thanksgiving.

It wouldn’t necessarily be accurate to say that having Megan read on camera was part of the terms for inviting her and her family over to our house for turkey and side dishes. But I managed to fit Lively Words into every conversation we had. “Bring drinks, dessert and something to read,” I would say.

Not long after dinner, we went to the backyard and recorded Session 8. Megan and I worked at a dot-com back in the day. Her career in TV, blogging and podcasting took off after that. And whereas I’m still writing about dot-com slackerhood, she has moved on to writing insightful, humorous stories about parenthood.