After my Keynote Presentation at a Meeting of the International Reading Association on Guam

 

 

 

It was a homecoming of the finest sort. A writer returns to the distant island of Guam where he lived and sailed and explored for eleven years. He has written a book about that island and other islands that is striking a chord with the wonderful people of that tropical paradise and now he is there to teach kids about the wonders of writing. He wants to share his wonder at it all: the sea, the sky, the mysteries of the ancient navigators and the magic of weaving daydreams into words.

 

 I spoke before an audience of a hundred people at  meeting of the International Reading Association and now I'm the "visiting author," traveling around to middle schools and high schools connecting with kids about writing, about their  culture, their heritage, the sky, and the sea. The reception has been in the true Guam tradition: food and warm smiles. There truly is a different karma here among the Pacific islanders than in the hubbub and hurly-burly of the East Coast of the U.S. where I now call home.