A Trio of Mexican Writers: Araceli Ardon, Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, and Monica Lavin

Araceli Ardon's "It Is Nothing of Mine" and Monica Lavin's "Day and Night", both wonderful short stories translated by Yours Truly, have been posted for your reading pleasure on the National Public Radio website, along with Geoff Hargreave's splendid translation of Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo's masterpiece, "The Green Bottle."The National Public Radio website also has the audio of my interview about Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion and the art of literary translation. Araceli Ardon's story is set in Queretaro, the colonial city where she is Director of the Museo de Arte. Monica Lavin, whose story is set in Acapatzingo, near Cuernavaca, is one of Mexico's best-known and prolific literary writers. Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, a widely-lauded novelist, lives in Monterrey, where he is a professor at the ITESM.

Madam Mayo's Felicitous Synchronicity

So, this pops up in my e-mail box:

"Madam, Have You Ever Really Been Happy?"
by Meg Noble Peterson
Wednesday, April 5 at 6:30 pm at Candida's World of Books. Meg Noble Peterson, approaching 60 and recently divorced, set out to circle the globe with nothing more than a backpack. She rode on dilapidated buses through Egypt and Zimbabwe, squeezed into trains in India, viewed a sunrise from the summit of Mt. Moses in Sinai and a cremation on the banks of the Ganges. Event is free and open to the public. 1541 14th Street, NW Washington DC tel. (202) 667-4811

P.S. I will be presenting Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, at Candida's World of Books on June 15th.

Under the Direction of Rodolfo Morales

Exploring Colonial Mexico is a superb resource for anyone interested in Mexican history, art and architecture. This just in from publisher Richard Perry: "For our April page we feature the colorful folk baroque church of Santa Ana Zegache, recently restored and repainted under the direction of Rodolfo Morales, the late, great Oaxacan artist."

Deborah Ager Champions The Epistle of Our Age

Blogging has tempted me for over a year now, and always I have resisted. Blogging seemed to me a dangerous use of my writing time-- and, with so may blogs out there, as one poet said to me, dripping with disdain for the whole of the blogosphere, who can possibly be reading them? Well, a year gone by, I have been reading blogs-- and I often revisit the good ones. For example, poet Deborah Ager's "32 Poems," the blog named after the fine poetry journal she edits. In one recent post, she answers the question, Is Writing A Blog Despicable? Just one of the many nudges I got to start this one. Gracias, Deborah.

Madam Mayo Questions Daniel Olivas

Daniel Olivas is a writer and blogger @ La Bloga, another blog that inspired me to do my own. So, I asked him:

What are the top three items on your reading pile?
#1 Spilling the Beans in Chicanolandia: Conversations with Writers and Artists by Frederick Luis Aldama
#2 Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta (Advance Reader's Copy).
#3 Triumph of Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art by Gary D. Keller and Amy Phillips.

What are you reading right now (and would you recommend it)?
I'm about a third through an ARC of Lyn Miller-Lachman's debut novel, Dirt Cheap (Curbstone Press, June 2006). I highly recommend it. It's billed as a eco-thriller but it's so much more. The characters are well-drawn and it's difficult to put down. Ms. Miller-Lachman is editor of the Multicultural Review as well as editor of the anthology, Once Upon a Cuento.

For news, what do you read?
The Los Angeles Times; Time Magazine; Jewish Journal; Daily Journal (legal newspaper for my day job); Tu Ciudad magazine.

Is blogging addictive?
If you think that Oreos are addictive, yes.

What do you know about blogging now that you didn't when you started La Bloga?
The ripple affect is amazing! Not only do our posts get picked by other blogs, but folks write to us with news and comments (I share blogging duties on La Bloga with four other literature lovers, thank God!).

Uh oh.

Madam Mayo's Little Dog Name Poem (To the Tin Whistle & Gamelan)

Tater, Tot, Louie, Boomer, Bridget, Bijou, Elpis, Roxy, Leader, Lucy, Lola, Coco, Chloe, and of course--- drum-rolllll--- Picadou.

This here is Gordo.

Madam Mayo Contemplates the Wall at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Near Tijuana

Wall building in the news. This is my photo taken at the western edge of the U.S.- Mexico border. Copyright C.M. Mayo and all that. Note how the metal wall slices into the waves like a knife. Read more about the border and Tijuana: A Touch of Evil

Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion

Here is the lovely cover (cover painting by Mexican artist Elena Climent). This is not a guidebook, but a collection of Mexican fiction and literary prose--- including Carlos Fuentes, Angeles Mastretta, Laura Esquivel, Rosario Castellanos, Carlos Monsivais, Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, Ilan Stavans, and many more. I'm the editor and I translated several of the pieces, but there are many other translators who contributed beautiful work for this volume, among them, Geoff Hargreaves, Daniel Shapiro, Mark Schafer, Amy Schildhouse Greenberg, Harry Morales, and many others. Click here to read more.

A Book That Has Rung the Gong for Madam Mayo

Joshua Leed's Sonic Alchemy: Conversations With Leading Sound Practitioners. It's all music, after all--- down to the vibrations of the atoms. His website is www.sound-remedies.com Right now I'm listening to the CD "Music for Motivation" with the Arcangelos Chamber Ensemble. The idea is, the so-many beats per minute give you some serious pep. I think this works well for work on the Internet-- but not so much for creative writing. I'll be posting more about sound and creativity in the coming weeks.

Madam Mayo Directs You to ALTALK

This is my post on ALTALK--- National Public Radio Saturday April 1st: John Ydstie interviewed me for National Public Radio about Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. The interview will be edited, so I don't yet know what will and will not make it on, but we did talk quite a bit about literary translation. It is scheduled to air on Saturday April 1st, and will also be posted on http://www.npr.org/