Answers to questions from an elementary school student in Tempe, Arizona:

Thank you very much for your letter.  I am happy to answer your questions.

I like being an author very much.  I have always known that I would write, no matter what kind of job I got.  Writing was just inside me.  To get paid for a job you would do anyway is a double joy.

I have been writing since second grade, although in second grade it was called "daydreaming."  Writing, in the beginning, has very little to do with putting a pencil to the page; it has more to do with simply thinking about things in new ways.  Of course, that sometimes leads to trouble!  But it also leads to good things.  I started publishing my writing when I was still in college at the University of Arizona.

I have written and published
hundreds of separate poems and stories.  I have published seven books of poems and  short stories.  My work has also been translated into many other languages, including Spanish, Italian, and Russian.  I have also published many essays.

I am a Professor in the English Department at Arizona State University.  I teach courses in creative writing and literature.  I especially like to teach courses in  creative writing and Latin American literature. 


I have been writing since second grade.

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