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for those friends and interested folks, here are a couple of pics of our daughter sophie. sigh. she's getting so big!

hallo!

well, i've completed the ten-week creative writing session at the central mental hospital, and it seemed to go well. the evaluations were positive. the same core group showed up each week. we created an anthology of interesting work. smiles and even laughs lit up the place during the writing pretty much every week. i hope to go back. my return will be based on whether the funding is there.

in ireland, we're in a major recession. the irish writers' centre, where i am teaching, has just gotten a 100% funding cut by the arts council, for example. so i won't be teaching there after this term, as they likely won't exist. as they say here, i'm gutted. very sad about that. not just for myself, but for the writing community, which is buoyed by the centre.

john, husband, and i have started a creative writing school, wordworks (www.wordworks.cc) and i'm not giving up entirely. but the situation--two parents with MFAs in a small city in the midst of a serious economic downturn and not a MFA job or even adjunct job in sight--is ultimately a bit dire and has me 're-skilling'--meaning taking on a second career. i'm gearing up to use my undergraduate degree in psychology to take further study and become a cognitive behavioural therapist, which is remarkably tied in with language use. i'm keen to do it. while also bummed not to be teaching writing for a living.

haven't been to a poetry reading in yonks, since e. boland last year which was utterly wonderful sigh. babu has had me tied close to home. maybe could these days though. she's a lot more independent and the paternal side of things a lot more able for it.