Pacific University’s MFA in Writing has nearly reached the midpoint of our 8-day residency in Seaside, Oregon. Wonderful craft lectures so far by writers Pam Houston, Kwame Dawes, Frank Gaspar, Porter Shreve, Debra Gwartney, David Long, Laura Hendrie, Judy Blunt, Marvin Bell, Valerie Laken, and Carolyn Coman. My own contribution was a talk called “The Courage to Sound Like Ourselves,” featuring the writings of Joan Didion, Marilynne Robinson, Zadie Smith, Cheryl Strayed, Leslie Jamison, Zora Neale Hurston, Rebecca Skloot, and Francine Prose.

All this and so much more to go.