Congratulations to the ever-effervescent Heather McHugh on being awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. McHugh, novelist Edwidge Danticat, and short story writer Deborah Eisenberg are all powerful representatives of the writing profession. Geniuses? Who knows.
The big question, of course, is how they’re going to spend their money. We already have the beginnings of an answer from McHugh, who upon finding out she’d been chosen bought “a pair of good walking shoes [and] a whole bag of used clothing at Value Village.”
Ordinarily I might bite the inside of my cheek, thinking how much I could use half a million bucks and how I could do such a better job of spending it. But I don’t have to go down that road, because in my wallet is the winning Powerball ticket for tomorrow’s drawing ($129 million). Take that, Heather!