These pages

Flailing about at the desk of my mountainside studio--a smash of binders, piles of paper, books and other debris--I uncovered a "Leighton Studio, Michael Evamy [the architect]" guest book, first entry Mark Jarman, July '98. All the way up to Christine Wiesenthal, July 20-Aug.2, 2009.

I must say hello to Christine, an old classmate from U of A, early 90s or so. Now she runs the creative writing part of the English department up there. "So many friends and admired authors in these pages," she writes. Indeed. Next week Robert Kroetsch shows up. I was thinking last night that I'd like to introduce him to, say, the printmaker from Adelaide or the translator from Indiana as my elder but have to check about appropriate use of that term. Anyway, he's long been one of the giants for my own writing practice, all the way back to Nelson, in '82-'83, when I read a Kroetsch poem in Grain and, encouraged by Fred Wah, dropped Kroetsch a line, asking about the poem. He replied in a most cool way. Later I included an essay on Kroetsch in my MA thesis and in my (unfinished) PhD dissertation, around the time I shared a German class with Christine.