THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 20
Off to attend the Caine Prize Workshop in Kenya this weekend. It is the utmost, foremost, uppermost, highestmost, pleasure (let's try that with an imitation of the francais accent) to be attending this workshop. We will be working our minds, conversing with our writing souls, lost in blissful writing spirit trance. Writing to the writer is like- a year's worth of Fatty's Chocolate Chip Cookies to the Gourmand. First loves to first loves and things like that. So you know this will be like, (I have been stuck on this comma for a coupla minutes- guess that means there is no analogy for this lol). Learning time. Working time. Growing time.
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2010
The Caine Workshop has been instructional and luminous in quite a number of ways- a deeper eye into that state of 'being a writer'. Writing seems mostly a learn-as-you-go craft, with few and varied opportunities for instruction in between (and I guess depending on where you are), and hence opportunities such as this are of much value. We are in Laikipia Conservancy in Kenya, at Oli Ari Nyiro, a beautiful site overlooking the Rift Valley. It has been a luxurious opportunity, to be here, in the company of other writers (like-minded souls), working on our craft. It gives one a sense of compactness- writing can have a very fluid, abstract sense sometimes. It has been intense and refreshingly so, one gets a sense of just how much writing one can achieve in ten days. And I must say the Kenyan landscape here is breathtaking. You get a distilled sense of yourself in its beauty. It has a calming effect, away from the chaos of city life- I now understand the fascination with Africa's grasslands. There is a spiritual presence here.