Cupa Blog News

This just in:
--->Translator Toshiya Kamei signals Hilda Veznor's La Canasta, an excellent Spanish language blog on literary translation.
--->Yet another new blog-- and this also looks like a very good one: Critical Mass, the National Book Critics Circle blog, featuring publishing and criticism news and commentary, noteworthy reviews, tips, useful products, and anything else NBCC related.
--->Revived blog: Washington DC poet Bernadette Geyer's.
--->Noteworthy blog: Jeffrey Mishlove's blog is slower than treacle than on a cold day, but the content is pure candy for anyone into the human potential thing, which I am. Message to Dr Mishlove: I am so glad you are blogging, but please change to blogger.com or typepad.

DC Poet Jacklyn Potter

A great loss for the DC poetry scene: Jacklyn Potter recently passed away of a sudden heart attack. From her Washington Post 4/18/06 obituary:

"Jacklyn Wayne Potter, 62, a poet and teacher of English as a second language, died of a heart attack April 10 at Holy Cross Hospital. She lived in Silver Spring. Ms. Potter was born near Camp Lejeune, N.C., and grew up in Alexandria. As a child, she performed as a singer on radio, television and the stage. She was a graduate of the old Groveton High School and of George Washington University. She received a master's degree in creative writing from American University in the early 1980s.Ms. Potter was director of the Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series in Washington from 1984 until her death. She won a number of prizes for her poetry, which appeared in the Washington Review, the Hollins Critic and several anthologies, including "Whose Woods These Are," "Quiet Music" and "Weavings 2000: The Maryland Millennial Anthology."

When I first came to DC, Jacklyn selected my work for the Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Reading Series. She called me up and I think we must have talked-- literally-- for three hours. I remember her as thoughtful, vivacious and genuinely commmitted to poetry. Joaquin Miller was a DC poet of the 19th century. His cabin, which is in now in a grassy meadow within Rock Creek Park, originally stood in what is now Malcolm X Park. Read more about Jacklyn and the reading series at the WordWorks.

Revision: Take a Chainsaw to Those Little Darlings, Prune, Do No Harm, Be an Archeologist, Move the Furniture Onto the Front Lawn, Flip the Gender

Revision on my mind... as I am revising the revision of the revision (of the revision) of my novel... which has already undergone a few chainsaw massacres... more than Texas-sized... Australia-sized (I'm talking 250 pages)... I am also gearing up to give a special one day workshop on Revision at the Writers Center this May 14th... So I recently asked a few writer friends for their thoughts on revision. Novelists Mary Kay Zuravleff and Carolyn Parkhurst were both in my writing group; first-hand I've seen how good they are with revision. Check out their websites to see what they're up to-- both have wonderful new novels out. Dinty W. Moore is the author of many books, most recently The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. Dawn Marano is fine writer of creative nonfiction and, bless her heart, the editor of my memoir, Miraculous Air. Known to all in literary Washington DC but the brain dead, Richard Peabody is a poet, fiction writer, editor, publisher and writing teacher. Check out his website-- he's offering a novel writing workshop.

Here's what they had to say on revision:

MARY KAY ZURAVLEFF
"The prose on my pages doesn't match what I've envisioned for drafts and drafts. Near the end, I make a pass for each of the senses. There's the smell pass, the hearing pass, etc., as I try to vivify every sidelong glance. Then it's time to prune it back so readers don't choke on details!"

CAROLYN PARKHURST
"When facing revisions, I think it's useful for a writer to begin from the same starting point as a doctor: first, do no harm. Revision is a vital part of the writing process, but it's possible to revise all the life out of something if you're not careful. Never lose sight of what was artful and compelling about the piece in its purest state: when it existed only in your imagination."

DAWN MARANO
"Substantive revision—as opposed to line-editing, that is, moving commas around and such—begins when a writer returns to a draft of her work with the curiosity of, say, an archaeologist. Arrayed before her are the traces of a lost civilization—in this case, sentences and paragraphs instead of material artifacts—that are waiting for her to see them with the fresh and patient eye of possibility: ‘What larger meaning or context might this perplexing fragment of thought I left undeveloped be a part of? What is this clever demurral or summarization disguising or helping me avoid writing about? What story am I really trying to tell myself with this assemblage of words on the page?’"

DINTY W. MOORE
"Simply proofreading your second or third draft and fixing a few awkward sentences is similar to remodeling a room by dusting the end tables and rearranging the pillows on the sofa -- not much changes. The true act of revision comes when a writer is willing to move each piece of furniture out onto the front lawn, roll up the area rugs, take the pictures down from the wall, and then, on a case by case basis, decide what returns to the room, and where it will be situated. Sometimes a favorite table has to be left out on the curb for recycling, because it just doesn't fit anymore; maybe some new furniture is purchased (a new scene is written); perhaps the walls are painted a new color (voice or point-of-view shifts); or maybe all of the furniture is returned but in a different configuration -- what's important is that nothing goes back inside the metaphorical living room until and unless the writer makes the conscious choice that it belongs."

RICHARD PEABODY
"I think revision is about testing the boundaries of what's on the page, having no fear of pushing to the logical extreme. You need to jettison your baggage about plot, invest in your characters (and their voices), and trust your guts. When all else fails flip the gender."

Chez Robert Giron & Agustin Cadena's El vino y la hiel

Robert Giron (pictured left), poet, translator, teacher, and publisher of Gival Press, has just made the blogosphere a much more civilized place. Click here to visit his blog, Chez Robert Giron. This just in: Agustin Cadena, one of Mexico's finest literary writers and poets, is now blogging from Hungary! His Spanish language blog is El vino y la hiel, and he's just posted something very interesting about Salvador Elizondo. More about Agustin Cadena soon... I'll be back blogging on Monday May 1st.

Bruno Estañol

Here is a writer who will transform your understanding of Mexico. Eduardo Jiménez's translation of Bruno Estañol's short story "Fata Morgana" appears in my anthology, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. Would that all good Mexican writers had a translator as fine, as hardworking, and as dedicated as Eduardo Jiménez. And would that all translators could work with such languidly elegant and original writing as that of Bruno Estañol. Fortunately for us English language readers, Bruno Estañol: The Collected Fiction, translated from the Spanish and with a preface by Eduardo Jiménez, has just been published by Floricanto Press. Here's the jacket text:

The narratives collected in this volume are mainly set in the State of Tabasco, during the turbulent time period running from the Mexican Revolution to the late 1950’s. In one sense we’re dealing with a dreamy, genteel, picturesque — though somewhat atavistic — world, in which the paddlewheel steamboat remains the preferred means of long-distance transportation, in which the townswomen wear ruffled organdy or tulle dresses while daintily promenading, parasols in hand, around the town square; where couples, young and old, dance on Sunday afternoons to the elegant melodies of pasodobles, danzones, tangos or boleros; and where the finest merchandise, ranging from the mundane to the exotic, arrives daily to the various commercial ports along the Tabascan coast, having been shipped there from the metropolises of New Orleans and Havana. On the other hand, it may also be a horrific, hostile and harsh world, where fierce tropical storms arise without warning, claiming the lives and fortunes of unsuspecting townspeople; where the jungle and the wild creatures within it habitually menace the fragile and vulnerable human civilizations erected in their midst; where frontier-style administration of law and order continuously makes a mockery of justice; and where the more talented and gifted individuals often find themselves molested or marginalized, trapped in a life of boredom, monotony, indolence and ennui. Occasionally, the author takes us to places outside the realm of tropical Mexico, staging some of his stories in New England, Germany, England, India, Palestine and Paris; yet he always remains faithful to his penchant for exposing both the beautiful and the sinister sides of humanity, while concurrently manifesting a keen sense of humor. Estañol’s skeptical, ironical and slightly philosophical brand of humor resonates with the work of such fellow Latin American writers as Juan José Arreola, Jorge Luis Borges, and Ernesto Sábato.

Tonight! Poetry of Foreign Places

I'm giving a poetry reading. Here's the announcement:

In conjunction with the Poesis series, please join us on Thursday, 27 April 2006 from 7 – 9 pm at Greenberry's Coffee in Arlington, Va. for the Part 1 reading of Poetry of Foreign Places (real or imagined). An open mic will follow the reading. Featured in this reading are: Karren Alenier, Claudia Gary-Annis, Simki Ghebremichael, David Gewanter, Mary Ann Larkin, Anne Harding Woodworth, C.M. Mayo, and Katherine Young. Greenberry's Coffee, 1737 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Va. Tel. 703 465 7823 Between Rosslyn and Courthouse Metros)

News From Juan Villoro

From Mexico City, where he seems to be scribbling at 299 kilometers a minute, Juan Villoro writes that he's published a new book, Safari accidental. It's a collection of his essays, including profiles of Mick Jagger, Yoko Ono, the Zapatistas, Salman Rushdie, Bono, Martin Amis, and places including Berlín, Tijuana, Havanna, and Disney World. At this very moment he is launching two more books: Funerales preventivos (political fables with cartoons by Rogelio Naranjo) and Dios es redondo, about his passion for soccer. Plus, every Friday he has a column in the editorial pages of Mexico City's main newspaper, Reforma. By the way, it's my translation of his hilarious punk-rocker story that appears in Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. "One-Way Street" is the title, after the punk rock band, but originally the story appeared as "1975" (same title as the Spanish) in Tameme. The first issue of Tameme also features his work-- "Stop the Labyrinth!" (translated by Amy Schildhouse Greenberg), an excerpt from Palmeras de la brisa rapida, his lyrical memoir of Yucatan. You can read a bit more about him, and his essay "Escape from Disney World" (translated by T.G. Huntington) on Words without Borders. Madam Mayo's verdict: Juan Villoro is not only one of Mexico's most prolific writers, but one of its most perceptive, lyrical, and humorous. Translators, please take note.



Back to blogging on April 27th.

Sound Body, Sound Mind: Music for Healing with Andrew Weil, MD

What a wonderful CD this is-- Dr Andrew Weil's meditation and collection of music based on themes from Mozart, Mahler, Brahms, and Bach, combined with healing sound frequencies. Joshua Leeds, author of Sonic Alchemy: Conversations with Leading Sound Practioners, is one of the producers, and Anna Wise, one of the world's leading authorities on neurofeedback and training for high-performance and meditative states, designed the healing frequencies. I'll be posting more about her work in the coming weeks.

Because I Don't Have Wings

Wendi Kaufman, author of an article in the new Washingtonian about who's reading what in Washington, asked me what book had I read recently that I would recommend? My whole-hearted answer was Because I Don't Have Wings. It's about Mexican immigrants, and it's brilliant, original, and astonishingly intimate. (By the way, Garrison is not only a terrific writer, he's also a terrific literary translator. His translation of Michoacano writer Raul Mejia's "Banquets" appears in Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion.)

The Daily 5 Minute Writing Exercise Goes to McDonald's

Ever since October 1st I have been posting a daily 5 minute writing exercise on my website, www.cmmayo.com It began as a nudge for my writing workshop students, and also for myself. Why five minutes? Read all about it here. Today's exercise (4/22), an especially fun one, is courtesy of novelist Leslie Pietrzyk. Thanks Leslie!