Short story writer Amy Hempel is on Tulane’s campus this week as the Zale-Kimmerling Writer in Residence, and today she came to my class to chat with my students and answer questions ranging from the writerly (How do I keep my own voice and also write for an audience?) to the mundane (Where have you eaten so far?). When asked what it takes to be a writer, she said she doesn’t really think it’s about talent–it’s about obsession and nerve. You’ve got to be obsessed with something, she said. I informed her that I am, indeed, obsessed with something–bikes. She asked if that was me last night, speeding down St. Charles while she was out walking her dog (she is obsessed with dogs). Yes, yes it was. When asked about writing short fiction versus novels, she told us that she’s not really a plot person. She’s more interested in those moments where there’s a shift in perception, or a shift in power. I kept that in mind as I rode my bike from campus, to lunch, to the gym, to the coffee shoppe for a meeting (about bikes, of course), and then back to campus for her reading. We chatted a bit in front of this remarkable display of lemonade, and I thanked her for that really nice way of framing the small moments, the ones I try to glimpse everyday. She said the great thing about those tiny shifts is that we can all see them, and they happen all the time. Yep, exactly. I’m watching mine from my bike, every single day, and we’re all capable of paying attention, from wherever we’re looking. I write this blog largely to catalogue those moments for myself, which is why this is a blog and not a novel or a collection of short stories. This is mostly just for me, but thank you, thank you for reading. This is a terribly blurry picture of Amy Hempel with Newcomb College Institute’s blinking director, Sally Kenney (who has a laugh that’ll shift your perception, for sure!), but frankly I was too busy looking around to snap a good photo. She’ll be here all week–we’re lucky to have her, and she’s lucky to get a little bit of New Orleans.