Post to the Host
Host Garrison Keillor answers your questions about life, love, writing, authors, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion.
Fragile, In Other Words
January 12, 2009 | 4 Comments

Post to the Host:
Any plans to teach your comedy composition course at the University of Minnesota again?
Chris J.
Minneapolis
--
No plans to teach again, Chris. I taught some courses and it was high times being around funny twenty-year-olds, but it's hard work, too hard for me, and it eats up a man's self-esteem. Teaching is a religious calling and you do your best and then you walk away feeling utterly inadequate and it's hard on an older person such as myself. And I'm becoming an eccentric recluse who sits in a dim room with three cats and knits scarves and listens to gypsy music and weeps and smokes cigarillos and sips absinthe. Fragile, in other words. But thanks for asking.
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Complete Post to the Host Archive
Nan Koenig | January 18, 2009 11:11 AM
Mr. Keillor;
Perhaps changing your life up a bit would help tremendously. Have you considered knitting a sweater instead?
Toasting you with my own shot of Absinthe and working on some red socks for a friend,
Nan Koenig
p.s. Our son, Aslan Garrison Peter Koenig, was five Friday. He keeps telling people he's "Aslan Peter Koenig the only one." Sorry about that.
p.s.s. I am now half-way finished with my non-fiction degree from the University of Memphis. Thanks for the advice after the show in Tuepelo as to writing non-fiction first and fiction will take care of itself. Worthwhile and true advice that really really helped.
Emmanuel | January 19, 2009 11:30 PM
Too bad to hear. I'm currently enrolled at the U of M and I had a friend, Alex Brown, who took your class and spoke of you in high regard. I guess I will just have to do some self-directed learning and analyze radio broadcasts.
Ross | January 22, 2009 2:41 PM
Are there any books on the subject that you would recommend? I am currently working on my masters in creative fiction in the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers program. Any help or advice or urges to come and speak would be greatly appreciated.
Will Sipsey | January 25, 2009 4:16 PM
Life is too short to smoke cheap cigars. A nice Punch Double Corona would go well with absinthe.