official

Today is the first day of class, but it still doesn't feel like it. We don't go until 3PM, and we've already gotten an email saying that class would be late due to trains (most of our professors commute in for the few days a week they have class with us.)


Class today is more like a business of writing class where the poetry and fiction folks all meet together. Each week focuses on a particular aspect of being a working writer such as agents, the literary debut, the economics of being a writer (a topic I'm already sadly too familiar with) writing and the psyche, metafictions... you get the idea. I'm excited that Don Paterson will be teaching some of these classes. Even though ultimately I chose the fiction section of the course, he's probably the reason I initially gravitated towards St. Andrews in the first place four years ago when I initially thought about coming over here. It took me a little longer than I thought (doesn't everything?) but that night in New York at the Grammercy Club when I told him after his reading that I'd see him in St. Andrews soon.


Another official type thing: I've been asked by the St. Andrews Partnership/Visit St. Andrews to blog for them! I'm "the New Yorker in St. Andrews" so I'll be blogging over there a few times a month about New York Writerly type things and this fair city. Check them (and me!) out at http://partnership.standrews.co.uk andwww.standrews.co.uk.


Gretchen and I (PS- I'm preparing a little "cast of characters" post so you'll know who I'm talking about when I mention the people I hang out with on a regular basis. Maybe I can even convince some of them to guest blog on here, since most of them are writers ;) went for an amazing hike yesterday afternoon. Next, we're going to follow the coastal path all the way to Anstruther and see how long it takes us.