I'm a writer of mostly fiction. My most recent novel is "inspired by" (in TV docudrama parlance) a 19th century French psychiatric case study. I'm involved in the strange alchemy of teaching fiction writing. Grateful for the job and often puzzled by it. Other things I'm doing with my life: looking for opportunities to travel, being frequently humbled, doing the best I can.A handful of books I've loved recently: Patti Smith's Just Kids, Ali Smith's Artful, Teju Cole's Open City, Ian Hacking's Mad Travelers, Robert Walser's The Walk, Lawrence Weschler's Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, Paul Yoon's Snow Hunters, Deszo Kosztolanyi's Skylark, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and Baldwin's essays. In the interest of mentioning this undersung writer whenever I can: Barbara Comyns (Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, for the title alone).A handful of movies I've loved recently-ish: Take Shelter, Weekend, Fat City, Mean Streets, Five Easy Pieces, Spirit of the Beehive, The Tall Guy, Humpday, Sans Soleil, Le Joli Mai, Cleo from 5 to 7, The Past, A Separation, Cave of Dreams, Bill Morrison's The Great Flood, Pina, Dallas Buyers Club, Magic Mike, the recent documentary about Big Star.I've gone down the rabbit hole of a few TV series: Mad Men, Portlandia, The Wire, The Sopranos, Nikita (her outfits, her kicking of ass), Skins (the UK version). Currently: Looking, Girls, and True Detective. Also, the occasional odd PBS documentary (there was a great one not long ago about radioactive wolves in Chernobyl).I like a lot of different kinds of music. I'm not very organized in my listening but music gives me great pleasure and has brought me great peace. A random list: Spanky Wilson, Syd Straw, The Roches, Harry Nilsson, Prince, Betty Lavette, Television, Gil Scott-Heron, The Band, Bonnie Prince Billy, Janelle Monae, Stevie Wonder, Dory Previn, Candi Staton, Lupe Fiasco, Bob Dylan, Bill Calahan, Nina Simone, Rilo Kiley, The Kills, Lydia Loveless. And Tin Hat Trio, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Brahms sonatas for piano and cello, Bach's Goldberg Variations, Schubert's string quartets. I like to see live music, though I don't go as often as I'd like. Recently, saw the Vijay Iyer Trio, Elvis Costello, and--in a remote half-filled auditorium in Maryland--the amazing Mavis Staples.I love to spend time in museums. The last few exhibits I really liked were a retrospective of the photographer Eleanor Antin, a show of the work of Robert Duncan, Jess, and other artists in their San Francisco circle, the Mia Feuer exhibit, "An Unkindness," at the Corcoran. I'd love to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology again but it's kind of far away.