Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
Josh, a poet and photographer, offered to take free portraits of his fellow Iowa Writers' Workshop graduates. He told them he wanted to do it so, when their books came out, he could be a part of them. That's the supportive environment my daughter Molly found when she came to Iowa City in 2023. She [...]
When my kids were little, any one of us could call out “family hug!” and the whole gang would come running from various rooms in the house to join in the big squeeze. Our youngest daughter’s graduation this weekend felt exactly like that. Molly invited us, “Family hug!” and we all came running from various [...]
Our family Kris Kringle exchange led to a magical moment for all of us and, especially, for two writers we love. Our daughter Molly, a current Iowa Writers Workshop student, presented her uncle Clay Lewis, a 1969 graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, with a bound copy of his MFA dissertation. The gift confirmed something [...]
The path of totality went through Cleveland yesterday afternoon as South Carolina completed a perfect season by beating Iowa 87-75 in a game that saw rising stars, the bigs bang and the happy ascension of women's basketball on a global stage. Even a genuinely outstanding performance by the deep-space-nine Gamecocks could not eclipse the accomplishments [...]
I hid behind a large bush near the front yard of the Dey House for longer than I care to admit. The house itself did not intimidate me. In fact, I might have walked right past had my daughter Molly not tasked me with a simple, intriguing, terrifying challenge. “There’s an author Q&A,” she said. [...]