Yes, indeed – and I am not off my rocker.

In my life the year really begins in September and not only for religious reasons.  This month started the Jewish new  year 5773. Le Shana Tova! And, of course, it was the beginning, as well, of the regular academic calendar.

For more than half a century, I’ve been enjoying my Septembers this way and this new term’s first papers are in my hot and greedy hands.  I know; of course I know all about clichés, but they are so handy!  Ah, an inadvertent pun, too! I’m in great shape for this task.

I teach Creative Writing, a workshop course at BMCC, a CUNY community college on Chambers Street. Any student who has taken the basic, English requirements may elect this course. All one has to do is write.  No tests! The students write prose.  They may attempt essays, short stories, screenplays, plays, novels, and they read their manuscripts aloud before the class for discussion and criticism then turn them in for grades.

And now I’ve got the first lot!

I’m just glancing happily at this batch. The assignment was autobiography – so we can get to know one another. Twenty-seven students but there will be late papers. Our classes are huge.

The titles intrigue me.

’Bout the Flappin’ Fish And the Girls I’ve Loved (on nights like this with the moon above)

“A Life on Six Pages” 

 “INHERITANCE”

Montana to New York    

When Death Walked Away

Reformation

I Was A Teenage Suburbanite

Montana to New York

From a Boy to a Man

New York is a Forest Infested With Wild Animals

When Death Walked Away

Music in Motion

The Making of Myself

Tipped Scales

A Taste of Me

Mind, Body and Blank 

I’ve got to get to work now, reading and appreciating and correcting.  I’ll take them in the order I listed them.

Some may be disasters and others brilliant; I’m looking forward to hours of reading this crowd! There will be many  surprises. It’s a good way to start the new year.