With Ann McLaughlin, Washington DC

This was taken by my sister Alice after my reading from Miraculous Air at Candida's World of Books last week. Ann McLaughlin, author of the delightful The House on Q Street, among many other novels, and Yours Truly, overlooking Key Bridge.

This Father's Day: Launch Event for Miraculous Air at Washington DC's Candida's World of Books

This photo of a boojum is one of the many of Baja California that I'll be showing this Sunday at the reading / slide show / signing /Washington DC launch event for the paperback edition of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions). This Sunday June 17th at 5 p.m. at Washington DC's Candida's World of Books 14th & Q. Back blogging on Monday.

This Saturday's Washington Independent Writers Conference

This Saturday June 9th is the big bash of the Washington Independent Writers Conference in Washington DC, featuring Francine Prose, writers of all stripes, and literary agents galore. My own panel is on travel writing, with Sara Mansfield Taber, L. Peat O'Neil and Candida Mannozzi, yes, the Candida of the fabulous and unique international treasure trove that is Candida's World of Books. Click here for the details.

Miraculous Air: Pub Date May

The official publication date for the paperback edition of my travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions) is now May. It's already available, however. This June I'll be reading at Candida's World of Books here in Washington DC, and elsewhere. More anon.

Travel Writing Panel at the Washington Independent Writers Conference June 9th

I'm chairing the travel writing panel for the Washington Independent Writers (WIW) conference this June 9th. Here's the official blurb and the line-up:

Travel Writing: Article, Essay, Book

What and where are the markets for travel writing? Where and how do travel books sell? Can a travel article turn into an essay and, eventually, a book? Or, vice versa? Three distinguished travel writers and an innovative travel bookseller discuss their experiences and views.

Moderator: C.M. Mayo's books are Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press), Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her travel writing has won three Lowell Thomas Awards and the 2005 WIW Award for best essay.

Candida Mannozzi is the owner of Candida's World of Books, which opened in Washington DC in 2004. A native of Italy with dual Italian / US citizenship, she speaks six languages fluently, and has lived and worked in many different countries including the Czech Republic and Japan. She has a BA and and MA in language and literature from Swarthmore College and Yale Univ. respectively, as well as a graduate diploma in European Studies from Johns Hopkins University SAIS (School of Advanced International Studies).

L. Peat O'Neil, after 18 years in the Washington Post newsroom, O'Neil currently is learning Mandarin, teaching writing for UCLA and freelancing. Author of Travel Writing – See the World, Sell the Story (Writer's Digest Books 2005).

Sara Mansfield Taber was raised in Asia, Europe, and the United States as the daughter of a CIA agent. She is the author of two books of literary journalism: Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia (Henry Holt) and Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf (Beacon). She has also written a writing workbook for internationally global youth entitled, Of Many Lands: Journal of a Traveling Childhood (Foreign Service Youth Foundation). Her memoirs and essays have been published in national literary magazines and produced for Public Radio's All Things Considered. Her work appears, also, in the anthologies, Notes from a Traveling Childhood and Unrooted Childhoods.

For more about the WIW conference, click here.