The Lull Report for Wednesday, March 5 …

… courtesy of Dave Lull: Creative writing courses are a waste of time, says Hanif Kureishi —Telegraph.

Every good teacher is a creative writing teacher for a student who needs to write.

… Q&A: The Gateway Author: A Conversation with Novelist Sherman Alexie.

… Not easily: How can we forget the centenary of poet Berryman?

As I was leafing through the small book, a scrap of newspaper fell out, a cutting from The Times in 1972, a few weeks after Berryman took his own life. It was a poem written by Christopher Logue called A Prayer to Accompany John Berryman on His Way. I did not know such a poem existed. I read it slowly.

The last lines struck me as especially tender: “You kneel; and in your mind you whisper: Please,/ Sweet sleep, in whom all things find nourishment,/ Most kindly principal who bids us leave/ Our worries in our clothes, be good to me.”

…  For its own sake: Why Teach Grammar?

It may seem like a weak defense in a world that increasingly focuses on marketable skills, but it's maybe the best justification we have. Language is amazing; no other animal has the capacity for expression that we do. Language is so much more than a grab-bag of peeves and strictures to inflict on freshman writing students; it's a fundamental part of who we are as a species. Shouldn't we expect an educated person to know something about it?