Faculty activity report due today, submitted. (There’s still the more detailed university one to do in a few weeks; this is the one for my department.) Mostly it’s a list, but they asked us to summarize at the bottom, so here’s my academic year-in-review, for your amusement.
The positive part, anyway — the less positive part is that I’ve been spending so much time and effort on book-length work, that I’ve written almost nothing short (fiction or essay). Working on it! It’s a balancing act…
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“I’m looking forward to the imminent publication of my breast cancer memoir, Tornado, and was pleased with the positive national reception for my new Sri Lankan cookbook, Vegan Serendib, with several upcoming library presentations scheduled. It was also lovely to have Perennial (an experimental poetry / fiction book) picked up by a new press for a second edition. Other highlights of the year included being invited to teach in Pakistan for a week at a new speculative fiction workshop, and being invited to present to the graduate writing program at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa.
I also served on my first search committee — an interesting experience! — and continued my ongoing service work: directing the SLF and DesiLit, serving on the boards of Plurality University (an international futurist organization), and serving on the OPRF high school elected board. The SLF’s digital humanities Portolan Project continues to grow, with several new free-to-the-public resources developed for studying literature and creative writing; I’m hopeful that this will prove a useful resource for teachers as well.”