Guest-Blog Wednesday: 5 + 1 Guest-Blog Posts for a European Tour

If you've been following this blog you know I blog more often about Mexico than any place else. But horizons do expand and more than occasionally, in part, and with heart-felt thanks, to my guest-bloggers. This week's guest-blog post, by Berlinica's Dr Eva C. Schweitzer about the Berlin Wall, ran earlier than usual because last Saturday was the 50th (ayyy) anniversary of the building of the wall. So herewith a shout-out to her fascinating guest-blog post, as well as to a five others about Europe:

Novelist Roberta Rich on 5 + 1 Top Books to Inform a 16th century Historical Thriller (The Midwife of Venice)

Translator and writer Kyle Semmel 5 Links "Out of Denmark"

Poet and translator Alexandra van de Kamp 5 Inspiring World Museums

Novelist Dianne Ascroft 5 Novels Featuring Children in WWII

Poet and translator Moira Egan 5 Fun Things to Do Next Time You're in Italy

More anon.


(Photo courtesy of DuBoix at MorgueFile.com)

Guest-blogger Karen Benke: 5 Writers on What It Takes to be a Creative Writer

This "guest-blogger Wednesday" it is a very special delight to host poet, Poet in the Schools, and writing guide Karen Benke (who, by the way, sends out one of best newsletters I've seen-- click here to sign up). Years ago, on my book tour for Sky Over El Nido in 1996, we met at a Barnes & Noble in California. She had that "vibe"-- somehow, I just knew she'd do fabulous and creative things, and she has. The author of a poetry collection, Sister (Conflu:X Press, 2004), Benke is also editor of a hot-off-the-presses book for kids, Rip the Page! Adventures of Creative Writing (Shambhala, 2010), which she describes as "an everything-you-need guide to spark new poems and un-stick old stories, including adventurous and zany prompts to leap from; dares and double-dares to help you mash up truths and lies into outrageous paragraphs; and letters of encouragement written directly to you from famous authors, including: Annie Barrows, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lemony Snicket, C.M. Mayo, Elizabeth Singer Hunt, Moira Egan, Gary Soto, Lucille Clifton, Avi, Betsy Franco, Carol Edgarian, Karen Cushman, Patricia Polacco, Prartho Sereno, Lewis Buzbee, and C.B. Follett." (Hey, y'all, did you catch that Yours Truly is listed there, shoulder-to-shoulder, with Lemony Snicket? Lemony Snickett!! Seriously, Lemony is the bomb.)

Over to you, Karen.

Five Writers Offer Advice to Kids on What it Takes to be a Creative Writer

Last year, I decided it was finally time to write the book I wished I’d had on my nightstand when I was in fourth grade. So I created Rip the Page!, a guide to offer the 8 to 12 year old set inspiration and encouragement. Since I didn’t want all the you-can-do-it cheers to come from me—- as a 44 year-young writer, I needed encouragement too—- I contacted some of my favorite poets and authors who speak kid.

Here are the tips from 5 of the writers who so generously took time away from their own projects to contribute to mine.

1. Carol Edgarian, author of Rise the Euphrates (Random House, 1994) and the forthcoming Three Stages of Amazement (Scribner, 2011) is a gifted and generous teacher of literary fiction and non-fiction. She, along with her husband, Tom Jenks, are cofounders and editors of Narrative Magazine, which publishes stories, poems, cartoons, and art aimed at readers young and old. Carol flat-out tells kids that there’s a lot of advice in the world, so she isn’t going to bother with all that. Just practice story telling on the page and out loud, and then watch for the engagement of your listener. This can often be the best practice. She considers kids some of the best storytellers she knows, calling them “deadly good,” since they know how “to take the audience by the hand and never let go.”

2. I fell in love with Avi one rainy afternoon at my local library. My then seven year-old son and I curled up for hours and entered his series set in Dimwood Forest. Ereth’s Birthday, (Harper Collins, 2000) about a grouchy and tough-talking porcupine is our favorite. Among Avi’s advice to kids who want to write are some definite Don’ts: “Don’t be satisfied with answers others give you.” “Don’t assume that because everyone believes something, it is right or wrong,” (to which my son now frequently and annoyingly uses to his advantage). Avi strongly suggests that kids understand why they believe things, write what they honestly feel, then “learn from the criticism that will always come your way.”

3. Prartho Sereno is a muse, painter, storyteller, and poet who encourages kids—big and small—to be the kings and queens of their poems. She believes there is great power to be found living among questions and inside of mysteries and shares with kids that she “loves the pictures words paint inside us,” and is “amazed that sounds from her mouth, throat, and lungs can send a story to you.” One evening, sitting in her kitchen, she started to imagine the stories the utensils drying in the dish rack and resting in their drawers would tell if they could talk. And this is how she ended up writing and illustrating Causing A Stir: The Secret Lives and Loves of Kitchen Utensils (Mansarovar Press, 2007).

4. Moira Egan lives a discus throw from the Coliseum in Rome, Italy and is a master of the sonnet. Though 8-12 year olds can be taught to write a sonnet, Egan just reminds them that “every single person on the face of the earth is different.” She quickly asserts to kids that, “You are YOU, and there has never been a you like you before. So write YOU. Let the world see you. Let the world see the world the way you see the world, and you’ll never run into the idea that you don’t have anything new or interesting to say.” Amen.

5. Two months before poet, Lucille Clifton, (author of Blessing the Boats, New and Collected Poems, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2000) passed away, she answered my e-mail request for a note of advice. If I’d known she was so ill at the time, I never would have bothered her. But Ms. Clifton said nothing about being ill and simply wished me good luck with my project. Tell the children: “Ignore the answers, follow the questions, they will take you where you need to go.”


--- Karen Benke

Madam Mayo comments: This is superb advice, and not just for kids. Every poet and every writer, of any age, would benefit from reading and trying the exercises in this book. So what do Lemony Snicket and Yours Truly advise? Go read the book, my dears!

P.S. Check out Karen Benke's guest-blog for Huffington Post.

---> For the archive of Madam Mayo guest-blog posts, click here.

Gargoyle 55

K, the (as yet) unanswered e-mail has gone from Mount Everest to Popocatepetl to... um, Ixtazihuatl. Still quite a hill. But I just had to take a break from it all to mention the outstanding new issue of Gargoyle. Love the cover! Andy Rumball's "Aoife Mannix".) Just a few of the contributors: Sherman Alexie, Kate Braverman (one of my favorite short story writers), Moira Egan, J.D. Smith, and --- drum roll--- Lyn Lifshin. Lucinda Ebersole and Richard Peabody, you rock. Nita Congress, you too. More anon.

Guest-Blogger Moira Egan's Five Fun Things to Do Next Time You're in Italy

Buongiorno! It's time for the Wednesday guest-blogger and this week it's the very gifted poet, translator, writing teacher, and now resident of Rome, Moira Egan. I met Moira at the Writers Center, where she read from her sublime collection, Cleave. Since then we've crossed paths, or almost crossed paths, here and there and most recently at the Associated Writing Programs mega-pow-wow in New York City, not to mention a multitude of times in cyberspace, where, by the way, I learned about her latest publication, with Damiano Abeni, a translation into the Italian of the work of John Ashbery. It's a delight and an honor to have Moira guest-blogging today. Be sure to check out her blog, or rather, Blague, and her special poetry page. She'll be teaching in the Summer Literary Seminar in Vasto, Italy this May. Over to you, Moira!

Five Fun Things to Do Next Time You’re in Italy

#1. Go to L’Agnata, the Sardegnan agriturismo run by the widow of Fabrizio De André (1940-1999) one of Italy’s best-loved, intelligent and politically engaged singer-songwriters. Don’t eat much for breakfast before you go, because you’ll be feasting on a multi-course meal that includes some of the best salami and prosciutto you’ll ever taste, local versions of pasta, the amazing porcheddu (from an entire roast pork), fresh fresh salad, and more. Desserts include wicked flaky pastries drizzled with the Sardegnan specialty, bitter Corbezzolo honey.

#2. From one island to another: drink some Donnafugata wine. They run an eco-minded and sustainable vineyard, and their wines are not only tasty but many have literary names as well. Join Mark Strand, for example, as a fan of their Tancredi. And you just can’t go wrong, and might end up telling some good stories, with a glass or two of their Sherazade.

#3. Visit Beata Ludovica, the less-visited Bernini sculpture of a holy someone in ecstasy. You can find her in San Francesco a Ripa, a lovely Franciscan church in Trastevere, a neighborhood that’s definitely worth an afternoon’s wander. The main church in Trastevere is Santa Maria in Trastevere (also worth a long visit) whose emphasis on the story of Mary gives the area a respectfully feminine aura. Speculations that Bernini’s portrait of do-gooder Ludovica Albertoni might actually be Saint Anne, the mother of Mary, getting the good news that she was going to bear the Immaculate Vessel that would then bear Christ, don’t seem so out of line.

#4. Visit Caravaggio’s Madonna di Loreto (whom I fondly call the Madonna of the Dirty Feet), another slightly less-visited masterpiece. The last time I was in Sant’Agostino, I had the chapel all to myself for quite a while, a lovely feeling, but then a large field trip of young Spanish priests-in-training came in. So I wandered over to see Raphael’s Isaiah and a lovely Madonna and Child with St. Anne (there she is again!) by Andrea Sansovino, and, after the priests left, I went back to say my farewells to the Madonna, her chubby Baby, and their dusty pilgrims. Not surprisingly, the pictures on the web just don’t do this painting justice. You’ll have to make the pilgrimage yourself.

#5. Read John Ashbery in English and Italian. What happens when you marry a translator? You roll up your sleeves and pitch right in. Damiano had been working on this substantial translation of Ashbery for years, but I came along just in time to field such questions as “Do you think this sentence means this, or this, or this?” to which the answer was, invariably, “Yes.” Ah Ashbery, such fun and such frustration. But we’re very happy to say that the book is being well received. And it looks even better in person!

So, Madam Mayo, grazie mille per avermi invitato come "guest blogger" questa settimana!

---Moira Egan

--->For the archive of Madam Mayo guest-blog posts, click here.

The Wednesday Guest-blog Flew the Coop or, Top 5 Chicken Cams

Oh well! Check out the Madam Mayo guest-blog archive to read previous Wednesday guest-blog posts by yoga, writing & literary agent-blog expert Lindsay Reed Maines, poets Grace Cavalieri, Sandra Beasley and Cathleen Calbert, novelists Eric Martin and Leslie Pietrzyk, King of the Baja buffs Graham Mackintosh, writer and filmmaker David Taylor, poet and artist Christine Boyka Kluge and many more. Next week: poet and web 2.0 diva Deborah Ager, and after that, Moira Egan, Stephanie Elizondo-Griest, Zack Rogow, Tim Wendel and, no kidding, Pickles the pug. More anon.

P.S. Apropos of my burgeoning interest in chickens (really), herewith 5 links:

--->The Flying Skunk Farm chicken cam (featuring Gumby).
--->Hencam (in the UK)
--->Chickencam.tv
--->Thelma and Louise in Belgium
--->Huehnercam. Double Deutsche cam!