On Feb. 12, I gave talks in 2 courses on non-fiction writing and manuscrupt development at Portland State University, whose teaching press, Ooligan, is the publisher of my memoir A Family, Maybe.
In one talk in particular, an earlier editor of my book, Kelly Morrison, and I went over the details of collaborating on manuscript edting and development of AFM, what we kept, what we changed, and what we chose to let go of. (Talk about 400 changes and revisions in just one draft!) In both courses, the questions PSU students asked were deep and stimulating, and made me think about my book in some new ways.
In addition, I took part in Ooligan’s executive committee meeting, led by the press publisher Robyn Crummer. At this meeting, itself part of a publishing course, publishing gradstudents (about 40 of them) reported on different book projects that are working on. It gave me a great glimpse of the inner workings of a trade press.
During this intensive, 3-course campus visit, I learned a lot about teaching publishing, the knowledge I’ll be taking back to my college.
PS. Isn’t that a great mural painted on the wall of a PSU garage?
Lane Igoudin | Author, Professor, Dad 
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