Vonnegut memories

My favorite encounter with Kurt Vonnegut has nothing to do with his books. He came to town a couple years back and gave a talk over at Severance Hall about absolutely nothing in particular. He told stories. He riffed. He was hilarious and inspiring. He filled fifteen minutes talking about the joy of buying an envelope and taking a story to the post office to mail it out. Ever since, for my own lit-mag submissions, I've been a post office junkie..

Charles J. Shields, author of Mockingbird, an unauthorized biography of Harper Lee, has recently begun work on a biography of Vonnegut. With Vonnegut's blessing. The story is up at the new and improved MaudNewton.com (the only blog I've seen that can switch from a two-column to a three-column layout while retaining such a beautiful spareness, as is seen so rarely on the net).