Gone to the Litblogs: Narrowcasting & More Notes Towards a Taxonomy

Dinner conversation this evening with my amiga K., a DC writer who works in a media organization, about blogging. K. says the successful ones are narrowcasting, i.e., aiming a highly specific blog at a highly specific audience. Indeed: in the litblog world, a good example would be Wendi Kaufman's The Happy Booker, which focuses on news in literary Washington DC and environs. Novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's Work in Progress focuses on, yes, work in progress. In the news world--- for example, for news on Iraq--- a blog I often check in on is Informed Comment, in which University of Michigan Professor of Middle Eastern History Juan Cole offers a daily summary of and commentary on the news in the Middle East. They may not be the end all of the All on this Subject, but between Juan Cole and Col Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis, I get a better sense of what's going on in Iraq than from reading, say, the Washington Post. For example, last week, when Turkish troops invaded Iraq, to get a sense of what this meant, I skipped the papers and went immediately to these two blogs because (1) both Juan Cole and Col Pat Lang are highly knowledgable about this subject and (2) their blogs often go into far more depth than scant newsprint can. (Though now and again, Col. Pat Lang dips into movie reviewing and showcasing excerpts of his civil war novel...) But back to the litblog world: for literary travel writing, another excellent example of narrowcasting would be World Hum. What of Madam Mayo? I'd put this blog in the category of a Individual Artist Blog. It's about my work and what interests me, as an artist. Some other blogs in said category: David Byrne (musician), Margaret Cho (comedian), Moorish Girl (writer Laila Lalami), Coffee with Ken (Kenneth Ackerman, the writer/ historian/ lawyer). Last thought: It occurs to me that few people over the age of 30 have heard the term "narrowcasting." K. said the under 30s in her office didn't recognize the phrase "Drink the Kool-Aid." Interesting juxtaposition. Possibly meaningless. More anon.

UPDATE: In Clusterfuck Nation--- a hybrid (as per my defintions) of Narrowcasting (comments on current events as related to his book The Long Emergency) and Individual Artist Blog--- Jim Kunstler writes, that this is "a society of envious slobs deluded into thinking that they could become the next Trump if only the Baby Jeezus would whack them over the head with a sock-full of silver dollars." That's pretty much the tone throughout. Post up, bingo, 193 comments.

Alberto Ruy Sanchez's New Essay, "The Nine Gifts That Morocco Gave Me"

I was in Morocco last year, where, after 20 years of living in Mexico, it was almost impossible to resist comparing everything to Mexico. Afterall, much of Mexican architecture and garden design has its roots in Moorish Spain. So I was delighted to find this beautiful and intriguing new essay (in English) on Mexican writer Alberto Ruy Sanchez's website: "The Nine Gifts That Morocco Gave Me." (I've long been a fan of his work--- his haunting "Vigil in Tehuantepec," translated by Harry Morales, appears in my anthology, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion.) His novel, Mogador, translated by Mark Shafer, is available from City Lights. More anon.

Washington Independent Writers Conference: Authors, Agents, Books & Blogs

Still in recovery after the Washington Independent Writers Conference last Saturday--- for which I chaired the panel on travel writing with Sara Mansfield Taber, who is about to lead creative writing workshops in southern France and Mendoza, Argentina, and L. Peat O'Neill, who, as I write these lines, is on board a plane for Shanghai....signed my books, pitched the almost-finished novel to literary agents, scarfed down canapes and did the meet 'n greet with more writers than you could shake a Mont Blanc pen at--- among them, David Taylor (The Divine Root), Monica Jacobe, founder of Capitol Hill's fabulous "A Space Inside" reading series, Elaina Loveland, whose books on "creative careers" I recommend to all my friends with highschool-age kids, James McGrath Morris, biographer and editor of the spectacularly successful new blog/ newsletter, "The Biographer's Craft", Ann McClellan, author of the perennial Washington area airport and museum best-seller The Cherry Blossom Festival, Mary Kay Zuravleff (The Bowl is Already Broken), Doreen Baingana (Tropical Fish), Linda Leer (Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature), John Curry, Cara Seitchek, Lisa Daniels, Beryl Lieff Benderly... Also chatted with several fellow litbloggers, among them, biographer Ken Ackerman ("Coffee With Ken"), novelist Leslie Pietrzyk ("Work in Progress"), and freelancer Kristen King ("Inkthinker"). Came home with a shoulder-sagging bag o' books--- all by conference participants: Francine Prose's Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles; Rosemary A. King's Border Confluences: Borderland Narratives from the Mexican War to the Present; Peter Miller's Author! Screenwriter!; and Library of Congress librarian Thomas Mann's The Oxford Guide to Library Research. Not for nothing did DC Mayor Adrian Fenty declare June 9th "Washington Independent Writers Day"! More anon.

Dog Rescue in Mexico City: Presencia Animal

Here are photos of the animals rescued and placed for adoption in May 2007 by Presencia Animal, a Mexico City dog and cat rescue organization. A potion of all sales of Picadou's audio CD go to benefit Presencia Animal.

Washington Writing Prize for Maximilian

Yesterday I won the Washington Writing Prize for Best Personal Essay for "From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion" from the December 2006 issue of the Massachusetts Review. It's about a journey to the Emperor of Mexico's castle in Trieste , Italy, what I think of as a nonfiction novela about a fairytale. Read the whole enchilada here. And more about the Emperor of Mexico here. More anon.

This Saturday's Washington Independent Writers Conference

This Saturday June 9th is the big bash of the Washington Independent Writers Conference in Washington DC, featuring Francine Prose, writers of all stripes, and literary agents galore. My own panel is on travel writing, with Sara Mansfield Taber, L. Peat O'Neil and Candida Mannozzi, yes, the Candida of the fabulous and unique international treasure trove that is Candida's World of Books. Click here for the details.

Gone to the Litblogs: Chekhov's Mistress on BEA Blog Panel

Madam Mayo remains ever fascinated by the emerging genre of the litblog. Check out Budd Parr's Chekhov's Mistress on the discussion at Book Expo America. Wish I could have been there. (Here's my post on the blog scene at last year's BEA.)

Gone to the Litblogs: Jim Benning on World Hum's Representative 5

Today's post is a "Gone to the Litblogs" column--- by ace travel writer and World Hum blogger Jim Benning.

"World Hum is an online travel magazine with a literary bent and a global perspective. As we put it on the site, “World Hum is dedicated to exploring travel in all its facets: how it changes us, how it changes the way we see the world, and finally, how travel itself is changing the world.” We publish stories, essays, interviews and book reviews, and we maintain a daily weblog. I co-founded the site six years ago with writer/editor Michael Yessis after complaining about the dearth of outlets for literary travel writing. We’d been maintaining the site as a labor of love while juggling day jobs until a few weeks ago. That changed when World Hum was acquired by the Travel Channel. We’re jazzed that we can now work on the site full-time.

C.M. asked me to recommend five posts. Here are five that I think are representative of what the site is all about.

1.) Unlocking Beirut by Catherine Watson
This is a lovely essay about travel and people and the passage of time. It’s the kind of travel writing that, sadly, you just can’t find in many publications these days.

2.) Top 30 Travel Books
This is our take on the top 30 literary travel books of all time, with writers explaining just what makes each book great. Titles range from Jan Morris’s Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere and Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad to Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar.

3.) How to Kiss Hello in France
Our “How To” section shows readers how to dive deep in a culture. This entry is a primer on how to properly greet someone with a kiss on the cheek in France--- a delightful custom that needlessly confounds many visitors.

4.) Invasion of the Kilt-Wearing, Buttocks-Baring Scots!
While we take travel seriously, we like to have fun, too. This is a recent news item from our weblog about a rather, uh, troubling trend in European travel.

5.) The Speed of Rancho Santa Inés by C.M. Mayo
You may have heard of the author. We were honored to publish this excerpt from Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. I’ve spent lots of time traveling in Baja California, and I’ve read a bit of writing about the place. I haven’t come across much that captures the magic of Baja as well as this piece does."

Well (blush) gracias Jim!
For the previous "Gone to the Litblogs" post, by DC poet Kim Roberts, click here.

Quarterly Conversation: C.M. Mayo on The Wide World of Mexican Fiction

Elizabeth Wadell has just posted an interview with Yours Truly about literary translation--- in particular, Tameme and Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion--- in the Summer 2007 issue of the "Quarterly Conversation". The issue also includes interviews with translators Natasha Wimmer and Chris Andrews.

Jeffrey Zachmann's Kinetic Sculptures

Here's something that ought to be on youtube.com: Jeffrey Zachmann's kinetic sculptures. I saw a selection of these (for similar, click here) at this past weekend's 57th Street Art Fair in Hyde Park, Chicago. His booth had the biggest crowd, by far.