Literary Travel Writing

This Saturday I'll be teaching a one day workshop on Literary Travel Writing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda MD. I know that many of you, dear readers, are nowhere near this venue, but perhaps you will share my enthusiasm for some of the memoirs we'll be discussing, apropos of their use of various techniques from fiction and poetry.

For specificity:

Joan Didion's "Some Dreamers of he Golden Dream" Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Jon Swain's River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam and Cambodia



For imagery:

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Camel Like Only Camel" Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places

Rupert Isaacson, The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert



For dialogue:

Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana

Ian Frazier's Great Plains



For conjecture:

Nancy Marie Brown's The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman



For detail and listing:

M.F.K. Fisher's Long Ago in France



For use of detail, repetition, and listing-- and structure:

V.S. Naipaul's A Turn in the South


A longer list of recommended travel memoirs is here.
My own books and other publications are here.



About this workshop:

April 16, 2016 Bethesda MD
(Saturday, one day only)

The Writer's Center
10 am - 1 pm
Literary Travel Writing 
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.

>Register for this workshop on-line here.

>More detailed description of the workshop here. (Link goes to my article about literary travel writing for the Writer's Carousel)

>Questions about this workshop? Email me here.

The Pecan: A History of America's Native Nut by James McWilliams

Summer Travel Reading: 10 Faves

Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project

Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts

Your comments are always welcome.

Click here.

You just missed the newsletter. 

It goes out via Mailchimp every other month-ish.

I welcome you to subscribe.

Yvette Neisser-Moreno's DC-ALT Over at Intralingo Blog

Yvette gives the whole overview on her vision for DC-ALT, the DC Area Literary Translator's Network, and I say, viva! This is for anyone interested in translation, whether based in Washington DC or just visiting.

Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life by Natalie Dykstra

This is one of those rare novelesque biographies than can change the way one thinks about a whole country, a whole century, and certainly one city: Washington DC. Out of five stars I give six, lit up in flashing neon, to Natalie Dysktra's beautifully researched Clover Adams.

Definitely on my top 10 list for 2012.

P.S. View Clover Adams' photo album at the Massachusetts Historical Society website.

Literary Travel Writing Workshop on September 8th at the Writer's Center, Bethesda MD

Rainbow in Camp Denali, July 2012 (c) C.M. Mayo 2012

Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects. 

One day only, Sunday September 8 from 1 - 5 pm
The Writer's Center
4508 Walsh St
Bethesda MD (just outside Washington DC)
www.writer.org

About the instructor:
C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book of 2009. She is also the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles Through Baja California, the Other Mexico, a travel memoir of Mexico's Baja Califorinia peninsula; and Sky over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is the editor of a collection of Mexican literature in translation, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit www.cmmayo.com.


>> For more information about this workshop and to register on-line click here.

We'll be looking at a variety of techniques, mainy from fiction and poetry, but one of the most basic for beginning a draft is simply noticing specific detail that appeals to the senses. From my notes from a recent journey to Alaska (you'll see it's not brain surgery):

Denali, of course. Spatulated lavender.
Other sights: 
receding moose; levering hind legs
polkadots of Dall sheep on green
3 blues of Wonder Lake

Heard:
eeee  eeee eeee
gravel underfoot
freeway roar of distant river

Smelled:
wet moss
drying socks
hot chocolate

Tasted:
cloudberry (spit the pip!)
Hoof N Woof honey (flowers of a season ago)
cinnamon gummy bear 

Felt:
unfriendly bear pelt
chocolatey-suave beaver pelt
sinking into spongy tundra mosses

Bright on the ground:
monk's hood; mushroom caps, sparkle of water

In the sky:
eagle; rainbow; moon

New to remember:
charismatic megafauna
braided river
Michio Hoshino's photographs and mini-essays



+ + + +

For further surfing:

>From the Workshop: Literary Travel Writing by C.M. Mayo, Writer's Carousel, Spring 2009

>Listen to my most recent Marfa Mondays podcast, "We Have Seen the Lights"

>Read some excerpts from my memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. 

>Recommended travel memoirs.

> Questions about this workshop? Just ask!

Alexandra van de Kamp & Charles Jensen: Tonight at Café Muse (Washington DC)

I hear so many people complain about the "rat race" in Washington DC, and I always say, hon, just go to a poetry reading. I am not kidding.

So, what an amazing way to kick off the first work week of 2011! My amiga, the splendid New York-based poet (and Spanish translator) Alexandra van de Kamp will be reading tonight at 7 pm at the renowned Café Muse poetry reading series in Washington DC. Her new book, The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (CW Books, 2010) will be available, of course. Also reading is Charles Jensen, another terrific poet.

P.S. Check out Alexandra's guest-blog post for this blog, Madam Mayo, "5 Inspiring World Museums"

Seriously, if you're into poetry, this is an event not to miss, and if you've never been to a poetry reading, why not make this one the first? It's welcoming crowd, and, aside from the poetry, the cookies are delicious!

Here's the full event info:

Dear Friend of Word Works,

In 2011, all Café Muse programs will honor poets our community held dear. The January program will honor Hilary Tham.

Please join us Monday, January 3, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
at the Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD
for the Cafe Muse Literary Series when poets,
Charles Jensen and Alexandra van de Kamp read
from their work and sign books.

Café Muse opens at 7 pm with classical guitar by Michael Davis. Our sponsor, the Village of Friendship Heights, will offer free refreshments. Adele Steiner, Hailey Leithauser and Laura Golberg host, and the evening will conclude with a brief open mic reading from audience members. The Center is a 5-minute walk from the Western Avenue exit of the Friendship Heights Metro. Call 301-656-2797 for directions.


CHARLES JENSEN was a finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for his book of poems The First Risk. He is the author of three additional chapbooks, including Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O'Hara Chapbook Award. His poems have appeared in New England Review, The Journal, Willow Springs, Yalobusha Review, and 32 Poems. A past recipient of a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.


ALEXANDRA VAN DE KAMP is the author of three chapbooks, and the full-length collection, The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (WordTech Press, 2010). She is one of the founding editors of Terra Incognita, an international literary/cultural journal in English and Spanish. Her work appears widely in Meridian, Greensboro Review, Poetry Northwest and other publications. She lives in Port Jervis, NY and teaches at Stony Brook University.

HILARY THAM (1946-2005) was an artist and author of nine books of poetry, including Counting: A Long Poem. Her second book, Bad Names for Women, won second prize in the Virginia Poetry Prizes (Judge: Gerald Stern) and third prize in the Paterson Prize for Poetry (judge: Diane Wakoski). She also wrote a memoir: Lane With No Name, Memoirs and Poems of a Malaysian-Chinese Girlhood and a set of interlinked short stories, Tin Mines & Concubines. A new project will make her books electronically available to libraries in 2011.

The Word Works is a nonprofit literary organization publishing contemporary poetry in artistic editions and sponsoring public programs for over 35 years. More info at http://wordworksbooks.org/

Dylan Landis @ Politics & Prose October 11

If you're anywhere near DC, be sure to attend Dylan Landis' book launch for Normal People Don't Live Like This at Politics & Prose this Sunday @ 1 pm. P.S. Check out her guest-blog post for Madam Mayo, "Five Magnetic Spaces."

More anon.

Coral Bracho and Forrest Gander in Washington DC

(Coral Bracho's beautiful poems appeared in past issues of Tameme.)

News from the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington DC:

BOOK PRESENTATION | Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 6pm – 8pm
A bilingual reading of Firefly Under the Tongue
by Mexican Poet Coral Bracho and translator Forrest Gander

Join us for a special reading of Coral Bracho’s brilliantly translated bilingual edition of poems Firefly Under the Tongue, published by New Directions in 2008.

One of Mexico’s foremost poets, Coral Bracho is the author of eight books of poetry and recipient of numerous accolades for her work. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Bomb, Conjunctions, The Nation, and Poetry International. Bracho’s work has altered the landscape of Mexican poetry with its prodigious originality. Firefly Under the Tongue is the first book in English by this influential Mexican poet containing poems from her many groundbreaking collections in Spanish.

A Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Brown University, Forrest Gander has published numerous books of poetry, novels, and translations. Gander's poems appear in many literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad, and have been translated into half a dozen languages. In describing Bracho’s work, Gander said “For me, the pleasures of her poems derive from their open-endedness, from their music, their delicious vocabulary and from the tensions between the insistently telic rhythm and dehiscent narrative”. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear the poems read in both Spanish and English, by Coral Bracho and Forrest Gander.

Tuesday, October 13, 6pm – 8pm
LOCATION: BUSBOYS & POETS, Langston Room
2021 14th St. NW, Washington DC, 20009. (MAP)
Free and open to all.

More anon.

Time Shadows: City Life

From poet Kim Roberts, news of what looks like a very fine Washington DC event:

Monday, June 29, 6:30 pm "Time Shadows: City Life" reading in English, German, and Mandarin. Kim Roberts reads with Grace Cavalieri and Davi Walders, along with translators Lane Jennings, Heribert Uschtrin, and Karl Zhang. Part of an international project to place poems about urban life by eighteen authors from the US, Germany, China, Taiwan, and Austria on posters on display in Washington, DC. Free admission. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, Auditorium, 901 G St. NW, Gallery Place neighborhood, DC. (202) 289-1200, ext. 167. View the poster, which will be on display in the Gallery Place neighborhood throughout the month of August.
More anon.

Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington DC: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, May 12 @ 6:30 pm

I'll be reading, discussing and signing The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, my new novel based on the true story, this Tuesday at 6:30 pm at the Mexican Cultural Instutute of Washington DC. John Tutino, professor of History at Georgetown University, will offer introductory remarks. The event is free and open to the public. More information here.

This is the launch event for the novel, which opens with a chapter about Rosedale, the historic country estate in Washington D.C. founded by the prince's grandfather, General Uriah Forrest.

Grace Cavalieri's "The Poet and the Poem" from the Library of Congress: Francisco Aragon and C.M. Mayo

Now on-line: Grace Cavalieri's The Poet and the Poem, the radio show from the Library of Congress, interviews with and poetry by Francisco Aragon and Yours Truly. Click here to listen to the show.

Richard Peabody's Novel Writing Workshop

Madam Mayo recommends! Here's the news from Richard Peabody:

I'm dusting off my novel class for what may be the last hurrah. Peabody's Novel Class for Spring 2009. Critique Your Complete Novel, Not Just a Couple of Chapters:

Limited to 5 students. We meet every two weeks on Wednesday nights (except the last one) 7:30 until 10pm at my house in Arlington, Virginia. Four to five blocks from Virginia Square Metro station.

1. March 4
2. March 18
3. April 1
4. April 15
5. April 29
6. May 13
7. May 19

Cost is $500 to be paid before the first night. Due to people dropping the class at the last minute and forcing me to cancel the entire session I now require that $125 of this fee be non-refundable and paid before the class begins. Every participant turns in their complete novel and synopsis the first night along with 5 copies for everybody else and me. That way you get handwritten notes on everything from everybody. And you should feel free to recommend cuts, improvements, make suggestions, mark the manuscripts up at will. That's what this class is all about. By meeting every two weeks each participant should have plenty of time to complete their critiques. If you can't attend every meeting (which I demand save for unforeseeable illness or death in the family as it's a question of fairness and honor) please don't bother signing up.

Why do I teach this class? Because you can go to your favorite bookshop and lift any number of contemporary novels off the shelf and read a few chapters only to discover that they fall apart at chapter four. Why? I've found that most MFA programs only critique the first three chapters of your manuscript. Plus, I've learned from the hands-on experience of teaching this course that a complete reading and critique is absolutely the best way (dare I say only way) to go. What's the advantage of a small class like this one? There's nothing quite like having five people discuss your characters as though they were living people for 2 1/2 hours. What sorts of novels are eligible? Generally I handle serious literary fiction (both realism and experimental works), but the class has included YA , Sci-Fi, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, and Romance novels. If you are interested do please email me a chapter and a synopsis. I'm only considering completed novels in the 250-350 dbl. spaced page range. (That's one-sided, double spaced, 12pt. in Courier font.) Anything longer than that is pretty much wishful thinking right now due to grim market economics and politics. Most first novels are 300 dbl. spaced pages which equals 200pp. in book form. Simply a fact of the biz. Second novels are frequently a different story.

Alumni from Peabody's 22 years of university, Writer's Center, and private classes with filmed screenplays, books in print (or forthcoming) include: Mark Baechtel, Doreen Baingana, Toby Barlow, Maggie Bartley, Jodi Bloom, Sean Brijbasi, Peter Brown, Robert Cullen, Priscilla Cummings, Katherine Davis, Lucinda Ebersole, Sandy Florian, Cara Haycak, Dave Housley, Catherine Kimrey, Rachel King, Adam Kulakow, Nathan Leslie, Redge Mahaffey, Charlotte Manning, James Mathews, Meena Nayak, Matthew Olshan, William Orem, Mary Over ton, Saideh Pakravan, Carolyn Parkhurst, Sally Pfoutz, Nani Power, Carey Roberts, Lisa Schamess, Brenda Seabrooke, Julia Slavin, David Taylor, Lisa M. Tillman, Sharlie West, and Yolanda Young.

My address is 3819 North 13th Street, Arlington, VA 22201. My house is 2 blocks from Quincy Park and the Central Library on Quincy Street. We are 3 doors from Washington-Lee High School where Quincy crosses 13th Street. My phone number is (703) 525-9296. My cell is (703) 380-4893

Richard Peabody wears many literary hats. He is editor of Gargoyle Magazine (founded in 1976), has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited or co-edited nineteen anthologies including: Mondo Barbie, Mondo Elvis, Mondo Marilyn, Mondo James Dean, Coming to Terms: A Literary Response to Abortion, Conversations with Gore Vidal, A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation, Grace and Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women, Alice Redux: New Stories of Alice, Lewis, and Wonderland, Sex & Chocolate: Tasty Morsels for Mind and Body, Enhanced Gravity: More Fiction by Washington Area Women, Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix, Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women, and Stress City: A Big Book of Fiction by Fifty DC Guys. Gravity Dancers, a fourth volume of fiction by Washington area women writers, is forthcoming in May 2009. Peabody teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program and the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland.. You can find out more at www.wikipedia.com and/or www.gargoylemagazine.com

Mexico Institute's Mexico Blog, The Mexico Portal

The Mexico Institute at Washington DC's Woodrow Wilson Center has launched a blog-- an outstanding resource for anyone interested in Mexico. The Mexico Portal.

Buenas Noticias for North America

Haga clic aqui.

The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry and the Architecture of Washington, DC

View the paintings here. More anon.

Bit-o-Lit

Madam Mayo hearts Washington DC's Bit-o-Lit. Grab your free copy on your way into the metro. Would someone please do this in Mexico City? (Or did I miss it?) More anon.

Fall Fiction Workshops near Washington DC & Mexico City

Flash Fiction: October 5th at the Writers Center, Bethesda MD.
Techniques of Fiction: October 18th via Dancing Chiva, Mexico City.
--->Read more here.

Novelist Leslie Pietrzyk to Read at Riverby Books on Capitol Hill

When it comes to Capitol Hill, fuggeddabout all those Congress Critters and the dog's breakfast they've made out of things. Think positive! Think Pietrzyk! Tomorrow evening my amiga, novelist Leslie Pietrzyk, will be reading in the venerable A Space Inside Reading series curated by Monica Jacobe at Riverby Books on Washington DC's Capitol Hill. Click here for the relevant info. More anon.

Finding Art, Making Art

Now, not in the future. A few artists who inspire me, not only for the quality of their work, but its range and sense of joy:
--->Christine Boyka Kluge--- who has a new blog post up, by the way;
--->David Rothenberg--- whose reading / whale & clarinet concert I caught last night at DC's Olssen's Bookstore;
--->Alvaro Santiago--- Mexican artist whose orange and gray art-box sits on my desk (must get a photo). If you're anywhere near DC, check out his "I Rent Myself to Dream" at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
More anon.

Split This Rock in DC

Coming March 20-23 to Washington DC the Poets Against the War "Split This Rock" Festival. Check out: Why? Who? Featured Poets; Schedule and Program; Blog This Rock.

Forthcoming in Potomac Review

Just got some very nice news from editor Julie Wakeman-Linn, that an excerpt from the first chapter of my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, a couple of scenes set in "the social whirl" of circa 1850s Washington DC, will run in the next issue of Potomac Review. So what's the news with the novel? I thought I'd finished it, but no... it needs another chapter. So, back to work. Who's the guy in the picture? That is Sam Houston (voici le wiki), and, up from Texas, he makes a cameo appearance... More anon.