Friends, Our live class this month features Hawa Allan, an honorary member of the Elite Writing Academy. @Hawa Allan is a journalist and author, and in my view, a spectacular writer. We met in the early 2000s, in London, when I hired Hawa as a reporter on a trade publication I was editing at the time. I knew, even back then, that she was a true wordsmith. After returning home to New York, Hawa went on to write for literary magazines, which also published some of her remarkable short stories. One of them, called "Life of the Mind," is attached here. I urge you all to study and imbibe it before the class. It's an excellent example of elegant and evocative prose, the subject we're going to delve into. I read it a long time back, before it was published, and often recall how well-written it was. Pay attention to how Hawa draws you into her characters' worlds; how she weaves an elegant narrative; how she creates suspense; and how she fires up the reader's imagination, and stirs their emotions, with stimulating and poetic language. Keep your eyes peeled for the date. I certainly can't wait! Shani