Photo from Aerphant. A tidbit from my Author’s Guild Bulletin caught my eye: “Comfy: Where do you do your writing? For a book of photographs, The Writer’s Desk, by Jill Krementz and published in 1996, John Updike wrote the introduction. “He was interested that some writers seem to avoid a desk entirely. Updike wrote, ‘Walker…
Rod McLaren, a native Canadian whose formal title in Ghana is Nana Akwasi Amoako Agyeman, Edubiase Nkosuohene. Which means he is a Development Chief of Edubiase. He owns the African Rainbow Resort in Busua Beach where I’ll be staying 2 weeks when I visit Ghana for the month of December. I connected to him through…
Between August 4th to August 26th, Riehlife travels to Southern Africa—South Africa and Botswana. I’ve decided not to take too many gadgets, so I’ll be leaving my laptop and cellphone at home. I’ll be in erratic computer contact, so I cannot say if I’ll be able to update Riehlife while I’m gone or not. Maybe…
Portable Village is a phrase that came to me in 2002 when I gave a talk at the Writers Center in San Rafael, California, on “Celebrating an African Experience.” Friends from New Mexico, Lake County, and all around came to support me in this event which combined readings, a slide-talk,good food, and a ceremony in…
Eight inches of snow fell in St. Louis over the weekend, chasing this Northern California girl inside to catch up on her stack of reading. Hey, my snow boots are in the closet of my upstairs room at my father’s house and I don’t even own an ice-scraper for the car yet…but, I can turn…
“Basho & the Crickets” is Riehlife’s poem of the day written by Stephen Kuusisto–Professor, Author, Speaker, Poet, Blogger, and Disability Advocate. With his guide dog Nira, he roams the world giving readings and workshops–when he’s not teaching at the Iowa Writing Workshop. Here’s how the poem and Stephen came in my life, and then bobbed…
Last July I received both the ultimate compliment and the ultimate joy. A very fine poet, Stephen Kuusisto wrote a poem especially for Riehlife. His email that day was the jewel in my inbox. Strangely the day I received his email, I was in Northern California in an internet cafe…back in my old stomping grounds…