Joanna Wiebe

Tomorrow night is my friend Beverly’s Celebrating the Arts salon, when I am going to read from my book, Wild and Precious Life. There will be a microphone!  More than 25 people in the audience!

Finally today I decided which chapter to read: Chapter 11, which is entitled “Poem”, and which begins by quoting Adrienne Rich: “The moment of change is the only poem.”

Ah — I just had an idea. I’ll make cards with that quote on them and hand them out to everyone!

Chapter 11 is about my soul’s moment of bankruptcy.  In Chapter 11, I have a juicy, never-ending cold.  Chapter 11 is as a tough as Guatemala City Kentucky Fried Chicken. And it’s in the chapter — Guatemalan KFC, that is– nasty dark thighs with not enough of the salty, crispy bits with their special blend of herbs and spices that drives me mad with desire to poke around in the bottom of the tub to see if there isn’t just one more morsel of crunchy goodness clinging to the grease there. Hardly any of that stuff, just stringy brown over-fried meat with some kind of almost-burned cracker crumbs on it.

How do you do a literary reading, anyway?  Just stand up and start reading?  Should I stop and ask if anyone has any questions? How dramatic should I be?

I guess I’ll just wing it.