Thanks once again to my friend Lewis Burke Frumkes for inviting me to appear at the Marymount Manhattan Writers Conference. This was my third and unfortunately final year at the event, because the school has decided after sixteen years to close the program because it needed the space. Too bad; the conferences were very stimulating, as were the courses that I taught there. Lucette Lagnado has a warm and lovely farewell to the program in the Wall Street Journal today. She quotes Cynthia Ozick, a friend of the program, rising to its defense: “Is it the intent of this philistine decision to declare to New York, an indispensable matrix of publishing, that the art of writing…..is a waste of Marymount Manhattan College’s time? Or of its President’s time?” Ozick asked. “What other conclusion can be drawn from so abrupt a withdrawal of a valuable program?” I hope those of us at today’s last Editors’ panel gave everybody their money’s worth. From left: Linda Sherbet, features editor of Veranda; the 
eminent Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, author of the delightful memoir Me and DiMaggio which I so enjoyed when I read it years back; Joanne Miller, formerly of Basic Books; Ed Brown, the president of Bedford Communications; me; and Dana Cowin, editor of Food and Wine. Good luck to Lewis, Bob, Karen and my other friends from the program; here’s hoping they find a place that allows them to keep on keeping on.
