i took maxine kingston's writing seminar. she was one of the most famous writers in the country at the time. i was 19 years old. what did i care? in a class of 14 students, i would come in and every day i would sit this far away from maxine kingston. and every day i would fall asleep. and at the end of the semester, she wrote me a note and she said, you seem to be very alien. you should make use of our universities excellent counseling services. and of course i didn't do that. i became a writer instead. did she encourage your writing, though, at some point she asked questions. oh, absolute i mean, i think as a as a writer and as a professor as a teacher, i'm so encouraged by looking back upon my failure as a student. and upon maxine's taking me seriously, even though i fell asleep in her class every day. what she told me in that letter was you need to ask questions. here it is. you come into my class, you don't ask anybody questions, you fall asleep. but to be a writer, you have to be awake. you have to be engaged. you have t

i took maxine kingston's writing seminar.she was one of the most famous writers in the country at the time. i was 19 years old. what did i care? in a class of 14 students, i would come in and every day i would sit this far away from maxine kingston. and every day i would fall asleep. and at the end of the semester, she wrote me a note and she said, you seem to be very alien. you should make use of our universities excellent counseling services. and of course i didn't do that. i became a writer instead. did she encourage your writing, though, at some point she asked questions. oh, absolute i mean, i think as a as a writer and as a professor as a teacher, i'm so encouraged by looking back upon my failure as a student. and upon maxine's taking me seriously, even though i fell asleep in her class every day. what she told me in that letter was you need to ask questions. here it is. you come into my class, you don't ask anybody questions, you fall asleep. but to be a writer, you have to be awake. you have to be engaged. you have to