[Maryann Corbett]

Just in: some YouTube videos of the Mezzo Cammin Fifth Anniversary readings.

[Michael Cantor]

You carefully removed your shoes and socks, David. And your handsome bowtie, pearl-buttoned vest, suspenders and cummerbund (did you locate them all later?) were nowhere to be seen. The shirt came off after you were in the pool.

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett

Just in: some YouTube videos of the Mezzo Cammin Fifth Anniversary readings.

I'm looking forward to going through these. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Annabelle Moseley and her husband Mark Staudinger (who I believe shot and produced these videos) are doing some brilliant work, and deserve our support - for their journal, their reading series, and their multimedia ventures. Wonderful stuff...

Now, if we could only get *all* the panels to be taped!

Thanks,

Bill

[Andrew Sofer]

One of the high points of the Conference for me was the appearance of so many hip-hop performers/poets as guests (great idea, Kim). As a Shakespearean by trade, Tyehimba Jess' "syncopated sonnets" (interlocking duets that can be read separately or together; also forwards and backwards, as well as diagonally) blew my mind. As did Toni Blackman's Freestyling improv in rhymed couplets--in which, among other things, she riffed off folks in the audience's nametags.

Michael C, Catherine C, and Brett: it was an honor to be on the First Books Panel with you. And a great pleasure to meet Alex and so many other wonderful Sphereans, as well as to reconnect with old friends.

Andrew

[David Rosenthal]

Cally,

Thanks for the thought. I deeply appreciate it, though I am not much of wine drinker, and any process by which wine starts at my toes and ends uop coming out my ears sounds fairly uncomfortable.

But seriously, even if I could swing a scholarship for the conference, the cost of the plane ride is prohibitive for me. Plus the conference always coincides with my school's most important annual event, which isn't an impossible problems to deal with, but it adds to the difficulty of making the conference possible for me.

Someday...

David R.

[Maryann Corbett]

For those of us who couldn't go, more spillover of conference joy and enthusiasm at Marly Youmans's blog, which is a good thing to know about in its own right.

[Julie Kane]

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus about what a fabulous conference it was. Even though this was my fifth time attending, I got to meet a bunch of Spherians for the first time (including Alex P, Catherine C, Allen T, Peter C, Gregory D, and Andrew S, of those posting or mentioned so far in this thread) as well as to greet many friends from previous years. Alex, my memory is actually rather foggy, but thankfully I had saved my Able Muse emails from 11 years ago--or your "pantyhose" instructions could have been lost to literary history forever!

I don't want to echo what has been said about many of the highlights of the programming, but I did want to mention that the readings by new faculty members Allison Joseph and Rafael Campo were wonderful, and that Amit Majmudar's Donald Justice Prize reading from HEAVEN AND EARTH was a knock-out. I also purchased his brand new novel, PARTITIONS, which gets my crystal ball prediction for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in fiction (you read it here first!) Someone mentioned Tyehimba Jess's interlocking sonnets that could be read in many different directions, but I don't think it was mentioned that they were on the subject of a pair of 19th-century conjoined twins, nor that Marilyn Nelson also read from a rondeau redouble sequence (note the fittingness of the form, in each case!) on the subject of the same conjoined pair--a stunning performance by both poets, though it was lightly attended on account of being the last panel of the last day.

Drat, I hate that I missed the raucous pool party--though I did make the dance party on the last night, where a number of Spherians (who shall remain anonymous) and some of the young staff members literally danced up a storm (we needed the rain to cool off from the week's heat wave). Hope to see even more of y'all next year!

[Charlotte Innes]

Hey, guys, hope to be at WC too next year! It's been two years, and have missed you all.

[Jennifer Reeser]

It was such a thrill to meet so many, and re-acquaint myself with a few. Being on the faculty this year made it more difficult, especially since I was "accepting" new consultations even unto the last minute -- but to be sure, I enjoyed what little time I had with some of you, immeasurably.

Marvelous finally to meet Alex, who is the sort of man you want to gravitate towards every single time you see him. And I got a terrific picture of the two of us together, to boot. But you can't see it. It will be our little secret...