Jamieson Ridenhour

I’m very pleased that Carol Ann Duffy has been chosen as the new Poet Laureate of Great Britain. She is the first female Poet Laureate in 341 years of the post’s existence, and she is , as you would expect, a poet of considerable power. Her collection The World’s Wife is fabulous, and I regularly teach from it in both Brit Lit courses and Intro to the Profession of English. She’s funny and witty and smart and poignant, and well deserves the accolade. She talks about it here.

This weekend was taken up with UMary’s graduation and the ND State Chess Championship, in which Ian won three out of six rounds. Not bad for an eight-year-old playing against adults and teenagers, if I do say so myself. I’m back in the office today, and have just turned my grades in, thus clearing the path for the planning and meetings that will take up most of May. I do hope to begin working more regularly on writing projects of various kinds this month, before really setting to during the summer. And Blind Mice will begin rehearsals for our summer shows soon. If you’re interested in those, you can check out the band’s website. I hope to have the dates finalized and posted there in the next week or so.

The weather has turned glorious. May is the best month to be in North Dakota, and it’s already begun.