On Writing: Literary Urinal Encounters

I peed next to Andre Dubus III this weekend, an unscheduled celebrity encounter during the New Hampshire Writers Project’s annual “Writers Day.”

For the event, the NHWP hauls in a relatively big regional fish (Dubus of Haverhill, Mass., this year, Vermont mystery writer Archer Mayor last) and makes him or her the keynote speaker. Lesser known but still top-quality local writers are pulled in to fill the pool with panels and workshops. (I went to a great one on writing suspense with Hallie Ephron that I’m still thinking about.)

Dubus is likely best known for The House of Sand and Fog, an Oprah’s Choice book that I waded through in the early naughts. His latest book, the memoir “Townie,” is much better. Here he is, at Southern Vermont College, talking about writing in general and memoirs in particular. It’s worth a listen

By the way, Dubus is not my first celebrity urinal encounter. That honor goes to Rene Auberjonois, who was Father Mulcahy in the film version of MASH, Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid, not to mention Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.