THANK YOU FOR YOUR HIGHLY READABLE LETTER. JD SALINGER EXPLAINS

Priced reasonably at $54,000: http://www.momentsintime.com/J%20D%20Salinger.htm

A PROPOS OF NOTHING: TRES COOL

Pina Bausch, “The Man I Love” (Gershwin):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rK6TJyGAHw

SLS-KENYA-’09 PHOTOS

Lots of SLS-Kenya-’09 photos on the SLS Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=4897147139. More coming, we understand.

The colors are brighter there. The sun hotter. Earth redder. Voices louder. Smells more pungent. Life lived at higher temperature, though slower (“pole-pole”) and with less of a sense of cosmic importance attached to the simple fact of its passage. Life lived in parallel, as it were, with the one we view as the basic text of our own daily existence. The time of your life back where you belong seems to stand still while you’re there: the place is that far outside the primary context of your being… An illusion, to be sure, but a nice one.

A PROPOS OF NOTHING: BRITISH PHONE ETIQUETTE

Them British cell-phone ads is cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA-kKYh2dyM&feature=player_embedded

DAVID STROMBERG, “RUSSIM”

Recently uploaded webcast of a very interesting, detailed and nuanced talk on the Russian Culture and Immigration in Israel, “Russim,” given this past fall, at the Library of Congress, by the genuinely talented, highly intelligent and immensely energetic writer, journalist, editor and publisher, three-time former SLS participant (Russia, Kenya), David Stromberg:  http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4796.

We like David — a lot. We expect to be hearing from and writing more, much more about him in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

KASIA’S “FOX”

Read Kasia Juno Van Schaik’s prize-winning (and more importantly, genuinely fresh and strong) story, “Fox,” from last year’s Quebec writing competition. It’s just out in the latest issue of Maisonneuve magazine: http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2009/dec/13/fox/.

Kasia, who went to Vilnius with the SLS program last summer and, in recent past, took two year-long writing workshops with yours truly at Concordia University, has been winning quite a few prizes and awards lately. She’s really begun to hit her stride, broke the visibility barrier, took off like the proverbial rocket, passed through that invisible membrane which… well, whatever; feel free to come up with your own mixed metaphor. This couldn’t happen to a nicer, sweeter, more upbeat and unassuming person. Writers, as we all know, in general, are a sweet, modest, unassuming lot, but even against that backdrop of unrelentining beatitude, Kasia surely stands out, smiling and strumming her guitar. Did we mention she plays the guitar at a high level of professionalim and sings beautifully, too? We’re sad she’s left us for the soulless wilds of Toronto.