WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.355 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.355 --> 00:00:01.980 align:middle line:84% I don't know what kind of time we have. 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:03.283 align:middle line:90% Or it's-- 00:00:03.283 --> 00:00:05.750 align:middle line:90% Want to do questions? 00:00:05.750 --> 00:00:07.500 align:middle line:84% I'd be happy to if there's time, yeah. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:08.000 align:middle line:90% Yeah, sure. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:08.600 align:middle line:90% Absolutely. 00:00:08.600 --> 00:00:13.680 align:middle line:84% Of course, there are books on sale for him to sign. 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:16.350 align:middle line:84% One of your family members asked a question. 00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:17.580 align:middle line:90% The pressure's on. 00:00:17.580 --> 00:00:20.370 align:middle line:90% They know the scoop. 00:00:20.370 --> 00:00:22.476 align:middle line:84% We couldn't ask the right questions. 00:00:22.476 --> 00:00:25.668 align:middle line:90% 00:00:25.668 --> 00:00:27.270 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] would never forgive it. 00:00:27.270 --> 00:00:27.960 align:middle line:90% That's true. 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:28.770 align:middle line:90% That's true. 00:00:28.770 --> 00:00:30.750 align:middle line:90% When is the new book coming out? 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:32.820 align:middle line:90% It'll be out next spring. 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:90% 2013. 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.680 align:middle line:90% I have to finish it first. 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:40.590 align:middle line:84% And that's due June, so I'm a little nervous. 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:41.450 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:43.920 align:middle line:84% So you were going to be this pre-med student, 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:45.540 align:middle line:84% and then you decided to be a writer? 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:46.590 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:46.590 --> 00:00:47.880 align:middle line:90% I mean, what happened? 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:52.500 align:middle line:84% Well, organic chemistry was part of it. 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:55.320 align:middle line:84% But a lot of it was that I was taking these religion courses. 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:57.310 align:middle line:90% Back then they encouraged-- 00:00:57.310 --> 00:00:59.430 align:middle line:84% they may now encourage people who 00:00:59.430 --> 00:01:01.920 align:middle line:84% are pre-medicine to get humanities majors because they 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:03.600 align:middle line:84% thought it would look better, diverse, 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:05.980 align:middle line:84% you know, because of the ethical issues involved. 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:08.250 align:middle line:84% And so I chose a religion major largely 00:01:08.250 --> 00:01:10.500 align:middle line:84% because I took a couple of courses in which literature 00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:12.887 align:middle line:84% was featured prominently and the ethical dimensions 00:01:12.887 --> 00:01:13.470 align:middle line:90% of literature. 00:01:13.470 --> 00:01:17.340 align:middle line:84% And took a course called Quest for Human Destiny. 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:21.120 align:middle line:84% What a great-- what a great course. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:26.220 align:middle line:84% I mean-- and I just fell in love with the literature, 00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:27.840 align:middle line:84% and that professor was very dynamic. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:29.340 align:middle line:90% And took more courses. 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:31.020 align:middle line:84% Tolstoy played a big role in that. 00:01:31.020 --> 00:01:33.330 align:middle line:84% The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which is 00:01:33.330 --> 00:01:38.762 align:middle line:84% a short story that completely seduced me when I read it. 00:01:38.762 --> 00:01:40.470 align:middle line:84% So there was a lot of things that kind of 00:01:40.470 --> 00:01:43.590 align:middle line:84% combined that I just knew that's where I wanted to go. 00:01:43.590 --> 00:01:44.490 align:middle line:90% Also, I was working-- 00:01:44.490 --> 00:01:45.615 align:middle line:90% I write about this in here. 00:01:45.615 --> 00:01:48.690 align:middle line:84% I was working as a night nursing assistant 00:01:48.690 --> 00:01:52.260 align:middle line:84% in a hospital that included a lot of terminally ill children. 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:56.220 align:middle line:84% And I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain 00:01:56.220 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% the kind of distance that was necessary to be 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.990 align:middle line:90% a successful physician. 00:02:00.990 --> 00:02:04.290 align:middle line:84% So I instead decided to write about those experiences. 00:02:04.290 --> 00:02:05.890 align:middle line:90% That was my way into it. 00:02:05.890 --> 00:02:08.039 align:middle line:84% And luckily, I was at the University of Iowa. 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:09.600 align:middle line:90% Writing was in the air. 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:12.690 align:middle line:84% And no one asked questions like, what kind of job 00:02:12.690 --> 00:02:14.850 align:middle line:90% you're going to get, and-- 00:02:14.850 --> 00:02:17.410 align:middle line:90% because everyone was a writer. 00:02:17.410 --> 00:02:20.730 align:middle line:84% And so it was just a combination of accident and choice. 00:02:20.730 --> 00:02:23.160 align:middle line:90% But, yeah, that's what happened. 00:02:23.160 --> 00:02:25.140 align:middle line:84% My grandmother went to her grave, still 00:02:25.140 --> 00:02:27.060 align:middle line:84% thought that maybe I could go back. 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:30.120 align:middle line:90% There was still time. 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:33.120 align:middle line:84% I think my mom is still holding out hope for that. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:34.293 align:middle line:90% I'm only 45, you know? 00:02:34.293 --> 00:02:36.210 align:middle line:84% How long does it take to get a medical degree? 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:40.450 align:middle line:90% 00:02:40.450 --> 00:02:43.750 align:middle line:84% Why did you incorporate so much of nature into it? 00:02:43.750 --> 00:02:44.740 align:middle line:90% That was unexpected. 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:46.448 align:middle line:84% I always was interested in science, 00:02:46.448 --> 00:02:48.490 align:middle line:84% and I think that's what drew me into pre-medicine 00:02:48.490 --> 00:02:49.073 align:middle line:90% to begin with. 00:02:49.073 --> 00:02:51.340 align:middle line:84% I was just in love with the poetry of it-- 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:54.340 align:middle line:84% the way the body worked, the way the universe works. 00:02:54.340 --> 00:02:56.590 align:middle line:84% I love-- math was a bit of an issue for me, which 00:02:56.590 --> 00:03:00.140 align:middle line:84% was a problem, moving on to the more advanced classes. 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:03.460 align:middle line:84% So I was always kind of enthralled by that, 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:07.180 align:middle line:84% but did not think of myself as a nature writer until the floods 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:10.000 align:middle line:84% and I started writing about that transformative experience 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:11.920 align:middle line:84% and sharing it with friends at conferences. 00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:15.310 align:middle line:84% And suddenly that emerged as a passion. 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:17.630 align:middle line:90% It was completely unexpected. 00:03:17.630 --> 00:03:20.630 align:middle line:84% It really was the land itself that drew me 00:03:20.630 --> 00:03:22.830 align:middle line:90% to that kind of writing. 00:03:22.830 --> 00:03:24.870 align:middle line:84% So I haven't read this book [INAUDIBLE] 00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:27.240 align:middle line:84% about the prairie grassland [INAUDIBLE] 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:29.160 align:middle line:90% to see the desert grassland. 00:03:29.160 --> 00:03:30.690 align:middle line:90% Well, yes. 00:03:30.690 --> 00:03:32.490 align:middle line:90% I haven't done much here. 00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:34.860 align:middle line:84% Of course, I have a lot of family here. 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:39.780 align:middle line:84% And I think this place was my first experience of what 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:41.820 align:middle line:90% I consider to be wilderness. 00:03:41.820 --> 00:03:44.310 align:middle line:84% I absolutely fell in love with the Sonoran Desert 00:03:44.310 --> 00:03:46.770 align:middle line:84% when I first visited it, when I went down to Green Valley 00:03:46.770 --> 00:03:49.710 align:middle line:84% to visit my grandparents down there, and up to Tucson 00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:53.670 align:middle line:90% to visit my grandmother here. 00:03:53.670 --> 00:03:55.932 align:middle line:84% Loved the-- I never been around a place 00:03:55.932 --> 00:03:58.140 align:middle line:84% like that, where you could get lost, where there were 00:03:58.140 --> 00:04:00.120 align:middle line:84% mountains on the horizon, where these amazingly 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:05.532 align:middle line:84% exotic plants, and animals, and coyotes howling. 00:04:05.532 --> 00:04:06.490 align:middle line:90% I fell in love with it. 00:04:06.490 --> 00:04:07.260 align:middle line:90% I really did. 00:04:07.260 --> 00:04:08.430 align:middle line:90% And love Tucson. 00:04:08.430 --> 00:04:11.100 align:middle line:84% Going out to Gary's house and the adobe 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:13.980 align:middle line:84% houses that seem to come right out of the Earth itself. 00:04:13.980 --> 00:04:18.300 align:middle line:84% It was a different kind of living than I-- different kind 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.350 align:middle line:84% of connection to the natural environment than I was used to. 00:04:22.350 --> 00:04:25.170 align:middle line:84% So it's always been a part of the way I-- 00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:28.410 align:middle line:84% I think it helped me move towards a love of that. 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:31.290 align:middle line:84% And the goal to try to restore some of it 00:04:31.290 --> 00:04:35.380 align:middle line:84% to the Midwest, that's what that book is about. 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:36.820 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:36.820 --> 00:04:38.230 align:middle line:90% It's a conversion story. 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:40.280 align:middle line:90% It's the way I look at it. 00:04:40.280 --> 00:04:41.718 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:41.718 --> 00:04:45.550 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:04:45.550 --> 00:04:47.860 align:middle line:84% You know, I've written bad poetry. 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:48.360 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:50.610 align:middle line:84% But that actually was my way into creative nonfiction. 00:04:50.610 --> 00:04:53.430 align:middle line:84% I took a poetry class at Iowa with Paul Diehl. 00:04:53.430 --> 00:04:56.957 align:middle line:84% Steve and I were talking about a really beloved teacher 00:04:56.957 --> 00:04:59.040 align:middle line:84% at the University of Iowa that had a course called 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:00.480 align:middle line:90% Lyric Structures. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.850 align:middle line:84% Not really-- it wasn't Quest for Human Destiny, 00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:05.410 align:middle line:84% that title, but somehow I ended up in that course. 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:11.990 align:middle line:84% And my relationship to language had always been one of fear. 00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:16.260 align:middle line:84% I'm terrified of public speaking since I was a kid, 00:05:16.260 --> 00:05:20.710 align:middle line:90% and I was terrible at grammar. 00:05:20.710 --> 00:05:23.380 align:middle line:84% I got my first composition paper back in college 00:05:23.380 --> 00:05:27.520 align:middle line:84% and it was a D. He said, A for good ideas, 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:32.260 align:middle line:84% but "grammatically illiterate" was the comment that I got. 00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:34.900 align:middle line:84% So I bought books and had to re-educate myself. 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:37.720 align:middle line:90% 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.720 align:middle line:84% But poetry showed me what language can do, 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:42.610 align:middle line:90% this other possibility. 00:05:42.610 --> 00:05:45.670 align:middle line:84% The way it can be manipulated to express 00:05:45.670 --> 00:05:48.580 align:middle line:84% not some grammatical rule, but the rules of the heart. 00:05:48.580 --> 00:05:52.510 align:middle line:84% And that was completely revelatory to me. 00:05:52.510 --> 00:05:54.790 align:middle line:84% And Paul Diehl is the one that introduced me to that. 00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:58.190 align:middle line:84% And from there, I moved into creative nonfiction. 00:05:58.190 --> 00:05:59.987 align:middle line:84% So I think the two are very closely linked. 00:05:59.987 --> 00:06:01.570 align:middle line:84% I think creative nonfiction and poetry 00:06:01.570 --> 00:06:04.930 align:middle line:84% are closer than they are to fiction because 00:06:04.930 --> 00:06:07.420 align:middle line:84% of that close attention to imagery, 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:09.010 align:middle line:84% and detail, and the music of language. 00:06:09.010 --> 00:06:11.923 align:middle line:90% 00:06:11.923 --> 00:06:13.590 align:middle line:84% Not that that isn't possible in fiction. 00:06:13.590 --> 00:06:14.798 align:middle line:90% I'm going to make that clear. 00:06:14.798 --> 00:06:19.880 align:middle line:90% 00:06:19.880 --> 00:06:26.150 align:middle line:84% I don't have much of a link to Iowa [INAUDIBLE] 00:06:26.150 --> 00:06:34.840 align:middle line:84% but from a distance, it [INAUDIBLE] 00:06:34.840 --> 00:06:38.030 align:middle line:84% Iowa has a reputation in the literature 00:06:38.030 --> 00:06:45.046 align:middle line:84% of being a center for writing and fiction in various forms. 00:06:45.046 --> 00:06:49.210 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] literature. 00:06:49.210 --> 00:06:52.880 align:middle line:84% It also has a reputation from different sources 00:06:52.880 --> 00:06:58.710 align:middle line:84% as being a political hotbed, particularly in the Middle 00:06:58.710 --> 00:06:59.270 align:middle line:90% East. 00:06:59.270 --> 00:07:00.720 align:middle line:90% Are you aware of that? 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:01.550 align:middle line:90% Particularly what? 00:07:01.550 --> 00:07:02.180 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry. 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:02.930 align:middle line:90% The Middle East. 00:07:02.930 --> 00:07:03.470 align:middle line:90% Uh-huh. 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:05.570 align:middle line:84% It's a political hotbed for that? 00:07:05.570 --> 00:07:06.140 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:07:06.140 --> 00:07:09.860 align:middle line:84% At least-- well, as I say, from what I read. 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:14.540 align:middle line:84% But I'm not from In Iowa, so I don't have the boots 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:15.740 align:middle line:90% on the ground experience. 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:22.930 align:middle line:84% But I know that a periodical that I subscribe to 00:07:22.930 --> 00:07:25.570 align:middle line:84% titled The Washington Report of the Middle 00:07:25.570 --> 00:07:28.940 align:middle line:84% East, which really concentrates itself 00:07:28.940 --> 00:07:31.820 align:middle line:90% on Israel and Palestine-- 00:07:31.820 --> 00:07:35.690 align:middle line:84% which we read all the time about in the newspapers, 00:07:35.690 --> 00:07:39.330 align:middle line:84% but the point of view is quite different 00:07:39.330 --> 00:07:41.600 align:middle line:90% than in The Washington Report. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:48.220 align:middle line:84% And many-- one of the sections of the magazine each month is 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:48.860 align:middle line:90% regional-- 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:51.625 align:middle line:84% New York City, San Francisco, and so forth. 00:07:51.625 --> 00:07:54.940 align:middle line:90% But Iowa appears very often. 00:07:54.940 --> 00:07:57.730 align:middle line:84% So apparently that's something new to you. 00:07:57.730 --> 00:07:59.810 align:middle line:90% It is new to me. 00:07:59.810 --> 00:08:02.270 align:middle line:90% I had no clue. 00:08:02.270 --> 00:08:05.680 align:middle line:84% Of course, it's aside from the purpose here. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.830 align:middle line:84% But it's the Iowa link, and I was curious 00:08:08.830 --> 00:08:11.080 align:middle line:90% if you are aware of the-- 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:15.610 align:middle line:84% well, why don't we [INAUDIBLE] just as the writing 00:08:15.610 --> 00:08:17.590 align:middle line:90% and the literature part of it. 00:08:17.590 --> 00:08:20.470 align:middle line:84% How important or influential do you 00:08:20.470 --> 00:08:23.380 align:middle line:90% feel it is in American writing? 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:25.390 align:middle line:90% Huge. 00:08:25.390 --> 00:08:28.960 align:middle line:84% I mean, it was the first MFA, first degree program 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:30.700 align:middle line:90% in creative nonfiction-- 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:34.659 align:middle line:84% or in creative writing, which brought writers 00:08:34.659 --> 00:08:36.130 align:middle line:90% into the Academy. 00:08:36.130 --> 00:08:39.460 align:middle line:84% Before, they were out in the streets, starving. 00:08:39.460 --> 00:08:40.048 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:08:40.048 --> 00:08:41.590 align:middle line:84% And they could actually draw a salary 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:46.300 align:middle line:84% and get healthcare and things like that, which is-- 00:08:46.300 --> 00:08:49.328 align:middle line:84% that was a huge, huge shift and it continues to be influential. 00:08:49.328 --> 00:08:51.370 align:middle line:84% It was just named one of the international cities 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:52.210 align:middle line:90% of literature. 00:08:52.210 --> 00:08:56.000 align:middle line:84% I can't remember the official term of that. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:56.500 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:58.210 align:middle line:90% Very, very proud of that. 00:08:58.210 --> 00:09:00.490 align:middle line:84% And some people talk about it as if it 00:09:00.490 --> 00:09:03.430 align:middle line:84% does that in spite of its location, 00:09:03.430 --> 00:09:04.960 align:middle line:84% or despite its location, in Iowa. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.880 align:middle line:90% I think it's because of it. 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:08.030 align:middle line:90% I really do. 00:09:08.030 --> 00:09:09.490 align:middle line:84% It's a place where people can go, 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:12.700 align:middle line:84% they're free to explore their creative interests 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:14.350 align:middle line:90% in a place that's nurturing. 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:19.630 align:middle line:84% It's small enough, again, where you feel that. 00:09:19.630 --> 00:09:21.910 align:middle line:84% It's a tangible presence in the city. 00:09:21.910 --> 00:09:23.080 align:middle line:90% Literature matters. 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:23.830 align:middle line:90% Books matter. 00:09:23.830 --> 00:09:24.550 align:middle line:90% Writing matters. 00:09:24.550 --> 00:09:26.980 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:27.910 align:middle line:90% Oh yeah. 00:09:27.910 --> 00:09:29.593 align:middle line:84% I mean, again, I didn't appreciate it 00:09:29.593 --> 00:09:30.760 align:middle line:90% when I was an undergraduate. 00:09:30.760 --> 00:09:32.740 align:middle line:84% We had Nobel Prize winners coming through, 00:09:32.740 --> 00:09:35.620 align:middle line:84% and it was just an embarrassment of riches. 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:38.200 align:middle line:84% And now I look back and regret on all the things I missed out 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:39.550 align:middle line:90% on and didn't-- 00:09:39.550 --> 00:09:40.570 align:middle line:90% but it was every week. 00:09:40.570 --> 00:09:43.310 align:middle line:84% Every week there was some amazing writer coming through. 00:09:43.310 --> 00:09:45.940 align:middle line:84% And I think that just kind of sunk in. 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:47.470 align:middle line:84% It just wasn't on the radar for me 00:09:47.470 --> 00:09:49.870 align:middle line:84% professionally until I was in Iowa City, which 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:52.210 align:middle line:90% is unapologetically literary. 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:53.290 align:middle line:90% And that's nice. 00:09:53.290 --> 00:09:55.540 align:middle line:84% It's a little unexploited, but maybe that's 00:09:55.540 --> 00:09:57.430 align:middle line:84% because you don't want to exploit it. 00:09:57.430 --> 00:09:58.660 align:middle line:90% Well, no, it's in here. 00:09:58.660 --> 00:09:59.500 align:middle line:90% I write about it. 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:00.940 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I do. 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:02.530 align:middle line:90% We should call it a night. 00:10:02.530 --> 00:10:05.230 align:middle line:84% John's going to be here to sell books and sign books. 00:10:05.230 --> 00:10:06.850 align:middle line:90% And thank you very much. 00:10:06.850 --> 00:10:08.110 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:10.860 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:19.000 align:middle line:90%