As a proud English major or even just as one of literature’s self-proclaimed lovers I am embarrassed to admit that I had no idea who Naeem Murr was or the extent of his popularity & esteem until a fellow student whispered with an enamored eagerness, “That’s him!” on the first day of workshop. Having pictured the instructor to be a woman when I registered for the class you can imagine my mild shock and confusion when I replied, “Him? Our instructor you mean?” to which the classmate gave me a dumbfounded look that made me immediately busy myself with my iPod – apparently I was out of the loop.

My ignorance continued for the first two weeks or so until, in search of an event to blog about, I stumbled across his name as a headliner for a reading at the Co-op. The last time I was at the Co-op for such an event I had stood in line for four hours to shake Wally Lamb’s hand (does this at all redeem me?) & practically skipped into the night with my copy of his newest book Wishin’ and Hopin’ to which he had signed, “Mandi, my best of luck to a fellow writer” (Wally’s reference to me as a colleague, as an equal to which I was sure I was not, had inflamed a very small and rare hope that caused me to smile with affection every time I looked at the book).

So, realizing that Naeem’s appearance had to be significant I resolved to attend the event. I was curious, after all, what my instructor on the “craft of fiction” himself wrote about.  And it became clear through our discussions in class that this was a man of wisdom. I mean, not just anyone says things like, “Writers are, really, very shy actors” or “Fear is at the heart of all that which constricts human beings.” But of course, according to a very acute observation of a fellow student, anyone who speaks with such a mysterious intonation & captivating accent sounds prophetic, regardless of what was actually said. Indeed it seemed “deep” when he said short stories are like “bird brains or lizard brains which are quite amazing actually.” I was shocked-even more than when I discovered he was indeed a man-that he did not impress his professional life upon his students. He did not take twenty minutes to tell us about his appearance on Oprah or plug for his latest book by using its title as a frequently used personal expression. I inwardly laughed at myself when I recalled my attempt to find out what kind of professor he was on the notorious Ratemyprofessor.com where students rate professors by difficulty as well as their “hotness.”

All in all, the event was typical. Penelope Pelizzon, the director of Creative Writing, gave a grand introduction noting all of his awards & praised his prose. I sat wondering what it was like to have someone talk about your professional biography as if you aren’t sitting in the front row, as if you were some king whose presence is being announced in a hall. You must get used to it I suppose because Naeem took the podium comfortably, like a shy actor, and read a quick excerpt from his novel The Perfect Man which he followed with a witty satire on the dynamic relationship between a fiction writer & a poet. “Poetry was my first love,” he said. Perhaps, in a way, that poet in the story, who poured over an ancient dictionary making metaphors for each of the words, was a part of himself, hence the piece’s title: My Poet. The inside jokes were endless, and the audience, through collective chuckling, seemed to connect through a shared understanding of the struggles, triumphs & trivialities of writing.