If I Only Had an iPod and Thoughts on Litblogs and Guest-Blogging

Today over at Wendi Kaufman's Happy Booker is an especially fun "If I Only Had an iPod" guest-blog post-- this one by short story writer Ben Greenman. I've been talking about blogs with other writers this week--- I'm in Mexico City, drinking pots of coffee from Coyoacan to Colonia del Valle. Most writers I've talked to either know nothing about or disdain blogs. (Though I am to meet today with Martin Casillas de Alba, whose vibrant and widely read blog is Juego de espejos.) Well, yes, as one writer I talked to the other day said, most of those 70 million + blogs cluttering up cyberspace are unreadable. But there are a number of models for writers--- and Kaufman's Happy Booker is an excellent one. Kaufman, by the way, is accomplished freelancer and short story writer (she's had work in The New Yorker). Her blog's focus is Washington DC area events and writers, and she often--- as with the "If I Only Had an iPod" column--- invites other writers to guest-blog. (Apropos of last year's publication of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, my anthology of Mexican fiction and literary prose, I did a Mexican music column for her.) Another very different model for an author blog is novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's Work in Progress. Pietrzyk is also a well regarded writing teacher (at the Writers Center and elswhere). She too has been inviting others to guest-blog. Here at Madam Mayo, Beltway editor and poet Kim Roberts has guest-blogged--- most memorably about Book Expo America's stupendous swag. So here's Madam Mayo's resolution for May: more guest-bloggers.

UPDATE: Watch for upcoming columns "Gone to the Litblogs". I am fascinated by this emerging literary form. Here's one of my old posts on litblogs.

Leslie Pietrzyk's Fabulous New Litblog: Work in Progress

My amiga the novelist and short story writer Leslie Pietryzk--- she's the guilty party who got me into blogging last year--- now that I think about it, yikes, today is the one year anniversary of "Madam Mayo"--- has just started blogging! Her fabulous new blog is "Work in Progress" and today's post features Yours Truly, talking about literary translation and the new Tameme chapbook, Mexican writer Agustin Cadena's "Carne verde, piel negra," which I translated as "An Avocado from Michoacan." Leslie Pietrzyk is a writer I would love to see in more translations--- she's already in Dutch--- as her novels, Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day give a portrait of the US heartland that is rare find abroad. As for blogging, Leslie has been following the litblog scene long before I ever heard the term. Click here to read about her favorite litblogs. Leslie is not only at work on a third novel, but she teaches creative writing at various venues, including the Bethesda MD (near Washington DC) Writers Center so her take on "work in progress" is sure to be fascinating. More anon.