The View from Fort Collins

By R.B. Moreno

Slideshow: Pooch Plunge 2009

At summer's end in Fort Collins, Colo., the public pool in City Park closes for cleaning. Just before the shutdown, something a little strange happens.

College Composition: the Blog

By R.B. Moreno

In preparation for teaching two sections of first-year writing this fall, I've developed a new point of contact for students that will integrate Google's Calendar, News, and Docs, file-sharing site drop.io, and the Colorado State University Writing Studio. Look for an RSS feed of posts at College Composition elsewhere on this blog.

Made in China

Over the weekend "Made in China," a story by RBM about whether American groceries and garden supplies should contain human hair, won third prize among research and reporting-based essays at the 2009 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, Texas. The essay will appear in the 2010 volume of the conference's journal, Ten Spurs. Above: an organic weed mat, intended for potted plants, is sold online and woven entirely from Chinese hair.

Update -- The full list of winners at July's conference, and our benefactors:

The View from Grapevine

By R.B. Moreno



Day two of the 2009 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, Texas is underway. This being The Lone Star State, the grounds of the resort hosting the gathering lead to a warren of horse trails. There the jets bound for DFW seem to outnumber the dragonflies buzzing overhead.



Some attendees spent Friday in nearby Archer City, the hometown of author Larry McMurtry. Last night's opening address from Paul Theroux, another prolific writer and a former Peace Corps volunteer, finished with the line "leave home, tell the truth, you'll be all right."

Collaboration in the Writing Classroom

"Collaboration in the Writing Classroom: Can Pedagogy and Technology Get Along?" is now available via Google Docs. The slideshow is part of a teaching demonstration RBM delivered to The Denver Writing Project in June.

What Endured

Below you can view cover artwork designed by RBM for Writings from the 2009 Summer Institute, an anthology of The Denver Writing Project. The shoes depicted belong to RBM's extended family in Guatemala, circa 1960.

Check back here for the text of RBM's contribution to the anthology, "What Endured: Looking for Boyhood Lost at Sea."

A Meeting of Storytellers

In July RBM will attend the 2009 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, outside Dallas. Two of the conference's keynote addresses, by travel writer Paul Theroux and This American Life host Ira Glass, are open to the public. There's more information and a link to tickets online at the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism at the University of North Texas.

Check back in the coming weeks for a story RBM has submitted to the conference, about the ethics of manufacturing human hair, from Asia, into American retail products.