Lorrie Moore

Does Lorrie Moore belong on Flower Farm? I don't know. Do I think she's precious? Yes, I do.

I saw her read last week and it made me giggly and giddy and I felt a little stupid. But I can't help it, I love her! I know at least 10 people who hate her. It's true. Once we had to read Self-Help in my class and a girl said something about how stupid everything sounded and how there was no point. That girl also wrote one of the worst stories I've ever read. Oh well. I'm not even really sure if Jillian would like Lorrie Moore, but I really really do.

Lorrie Moore's writing is super heartbreaking/funny/cute/smart/sadsadsad all at the same time. And if you haven't noticed yet I am really into things like that. When I was younger, I used to think that if I read "How to Be a Writer" and "How to Be an Other Woman" enough, I'd eventually be able to write my own really great short stories. Sadly, no matter how many times I read anything, I just kept coming up with the most horrible half short stories half prose poetry blobs. When I read Anagrams, I just fell more and more in love with all her characters and with Lorrie Moore. I just kept wishing I'd magically write a whole book one night and it would be at least okay. It didn't happen.

I was excited to see Lorrie Moore read at Bryn Mawr last week. I was also a little scared. It's kind of how last year Marilyn Hacker was one of the writers that taught my poetry class. She was the third one, so I had to wait 4 weeks before getting to have her. I spent those weeks eagerly reading all my favorite things and getting more and more scared that she'd be really intimidating and hate everyone. Then, she got to class and she was still the amazing Marilyn Hacker but was also super sweet and calm and I was pleasantly surprised. I even kept the whole 2 pages she wrote me about one of my poems. Anyway, this is kind of how I felt about Lorrie Moore. But from the moment that she got on stage, all I could think about was how precious she was and how much I like her. It was all okay. And even though she read from her latest book, which I haven't read, it still made me really happy.

I convinced my friend Melissa to go with me to the reading, and then I got really nervous that she might hate Lorrie Moore and then decide that we could no longer friends. Okay, not really, but almost. Fortunately, she really loved it and she mentioned how nice Lorrie Moore's voice is, saying something about how it was the kind of thing you wanted to hear before falling asleep. I'm gonna say that I think that's pretty true. And even though I hadn't shut up about Lorrie Moore and hadn't been able to let her borrow my books because they are all sitting in a flowered hat box in Chicago, she seemed happy to be there.

So, all in all, it was really great. And I should probably shut up about it now, because I'm sure this whole post is just me gushing and gushing.

Love, María