Last summer, the first summer without R.and trying to keep my balance, I had a brilliant idea. I would start a literary salon. I’d invite writer friends/students who lived near me to come over one night a month to hang out, bring wine and snacks, and have about half of them read whatever they were working on. So I sent out some emails and people came and we drank wine and talked and ate, and ten people read for 5 minutes, got a lot of applause and laughter (but no workshopping), and then we kept doing it and more and more people came, and some with their dogs. This worked very nicely cause I had a big house at the time with lots of room.

When I moved into a much smaller place (much smaller) I thought well, why not see how it goes. So I invited everybody on the list (which had grown quite a bit) and about twenty-five people showed up. Though space was tight it was very cozy and friendly and once again the lit salon was great fun. I tell you about this because I hope some of you will copy the idea. Writers need community, we need to read our work in public and listen to our friends read their work and hang out together and talk about books. We all work in such isolation not to mention doubt and fear, and we need each other.

I think the key to the lit salon working is that only five minutes are allowed for each reading (and it’s timed) – with no workshopping or immediate comments. And it helps to have friends whose work you love!