Michael Martone
Warren Wilson
1989
The three of us—Richard Russo, C.J. Hribal, and I—had rooms in the dorm next door to the main one. It was snowing, and we were walking in single file across the lawn through the snow. Someone called us the "Corn Boys" and it stuck. Rick was teaching in Illinois. C.J. was from Wisconsin. And even though I was living in Massachusetts, I wrote about Indiana. We must have looked Midwestern to our bemused colleagues. Rick always gave the last lecture at the residency, writing it during the week and in his talk responded to the other lectures and classes that had gone before. It was remarkable. The next time we were together, I gave them each a cheap tin pin in the shape of a corncob to wear on our winter coats.