Maria works at the largest psychiatric hospital in Bulgaria, where she writes and directs plays with the patients.  They have become her troupe of actors, these men and women. I don’t know what they did to get in here, she tells me. I don’t know if they murdered someone or they do drugs…all [...]

What can I say to a brilliant 23 year-old with two published books?  I can say you still have a lot to learn.  I can say that because you owe it to yourself, and the world, to nuture your talent.  Fine, Alex.  Go become a lawyer.  But if you ever stop writing I will personally [...]

She is shy and quiet.  I am not.  Later, when I feel I know her more, she will tell me she stood apart because her English is not very good.  But it is part of her charm, this quiet mystery.  And when, at the final dinner, it is announced she has won the top Bulgarian [...]

I tell her she is a sprite.  A wood nymph, a fairy. We sit in the back at a reading and take pictures of my denimn knee and the back of necks and the wood grains in the floor.  I tell Alexandra she is an urchin.
What is an urchin? she says. I don’t [...]

You were very dramatic during your speech, he tells me after the final reading.  Overly dramatic.  Like you thought it was the Academy Awards.  But that’s okay, because I could tell you really felt it.
How? I ask him.
Because your knees were shaking.
Wicked.  Hilarious.  Unpretentious.  He looks as though he has a secret plan, always, [...]