Chapter 7

Hettie goes for “second stint” in Wyoming; thanks Helene for sending story by Ursula Le Guin that clears up a mystery for her. Helene puts stitches on an AIDS quilt. In her last letter from Laramie Hettie encloses brochure about NYU conference on Beat writers that has a panel of women for first time. Helene now freelance copyediting for New York publishers. Hettie’s stories are rejected by Viking and Scribner; she is having hard time writing poems, has turned sixty. They discuss ageism. They continue to write about getting older and proper terms to be used regarding older people. Helene working on “Black Monk” mask. Hettie goes to San Francisco for a conference about women Beat writers. Viking backs down on reprinting small paperback of memoir; Grove Press makes an offer. With Allen Ginsberg, and others, Hettie speaks in Minneapolis at Guthrie Theater for Whitney Museum’s “Beat Culture and the New America.”