Zack Rogow – Madam Mayo

Newsletter (Texas Books, Workshop Posts, Q & As, Zooms & Cyberflanerie)

This blog posts on Mondays. Fifth Mondays, when they happen to arrive, are for the newsletter. Herewith the latest posts covering Texas Books, workshop posts, Q & As, selected other posts and news, plus cyberflanerie.

TEXAS BOOKS
(Look for posts about Texas Books on the first Monday of the month throughout 2021).
The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger: My Online Working Library of Rare Books
March 1, 2021
From the Texas Bibliothek: The Sanderson Flood of 1965; Faded Rimrock Memories; Terrell County, Texas: Its Past, Its People
February 1, 2021
A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek
January 4, 2021
> View all Texas posts here.

WORKSHOP POSTS
(Look for these every second Monday of the month throughout 2021)
Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs
March 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Creative Process
February 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Craft of Creative Writing
January 11, 2021
Shake It Up with Emulation-Permutation Exercises
December 14, 2020
> View all workshop posts here.

Q & A with Tim Heyman about B. Traven in Literal Magazine

Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy of the German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

MORE Q & As ON THIS BLOG
(Look for these every fourth Monday of the month through 2021)
Q & A with Jan Cleere
on Military Wives in Arizona Territory: A History of Women Who Shaped the Frontier
March 22, 2021
Q & A with Solveig Eggerz
on Sigga of Reykjavik
February 22, 2021
Q & A with Christina Thompson
on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
January 25, 2021
Q & A with Álvaro Santana-Acuña
on Writing Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude
Was Written and Became a Global Classic
December 28, 2020
> View all Q & As here.

SELECTED OTHER POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
Melanie Kobayashi’s Champagne Kegger —
Plus From the Archives: Ruth Levy Guyer’s A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day
January 18, 2021
Top Books Read 2020
December 7, 2020
> View the Madam Mayo blog archive here.

OTHER NEWS
Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72

Ignacio Solares, one of Mexico’s most outstanding literary writers, appears in English translation by Yours Truly in the fabulous new issue #72 of Gargoyle. Edited by poet Richard Peabody, Gargoyle is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most enduring and prestigious literary magazines. Check it out! Solares’ short story is entitled “The Orders” (“Las instrucciones”). My thanks to Ignacio Solares for the honor, to Richard Peabody for accepting it and bringing it forth, and to Nita Congress for her eagle-eyed copyediting. (My previous translation of Solares’ work, the short story “Victoriano’s Deliriums,” appeared in The Lampeter Review #11.)

*The cover of Gargoyle #72, which includes my translation of a short story by Ignacio Solares, features spoken word poet Salena Godden.*

Earlier this month I gave a Zoom talk on my book Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual (as translated by Agustín Cadena, Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita) for the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México. If and when this talk becomes available as a recording I will be sure to post a notice in my newsletter. If the subject interests you, some of my other talks and interviews are here.

By the way, if you don’t subscribe to Madam Mayo blog but would like to receive my very occasionally emailed newsletter (via Mad Mimi, my email letter service) just send me an email at cmmayo (at) cmmayo.com and I’ll add you to my mailing list.

MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT
Ongoing! I’ve let the Marfa Mondays podcast sit for a while as I am working on the (related) book, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas. That said, I’m almost…almost… done with podcast #22, which is an unusually wide-ranging interview recorded in Sanderson, a remote town that also happens to be the cactus capital of Texas. Podcasts 1 – 21 are all available to listen for free online here.

COOL STUFF ON MY RADAR ( = CYBERFLANERIE = )
The brilliantly brilliant Edward Tufte is offering his course on video. I took his in-person workshop twice, that’s how big a fan I am. I wish everyone else would take it, too, for then our world could be a little less fruit-loopy.

My amigo the esteemed playwright and literary translator Geoff Hargreaves has a most promising new novel out from Floricanto Press, The Collector and the Blind Girl

Heidegger scholar and Typewriter Revolutionary Richard Polt offers his thoughts on typing a novel.

Poet Patricia Dubrava shares a beauty on her blog, Holding the Light: “Hearing the Canadas”

Cal Newport on “Beethoven and the Gifts of Silence.” Newport has a new podcast by the way, which is ultra-fabulous. Newport’s new book, A World Without Email, is a zinger of clarity. More about that anon.

Allison Rietta, artist, designer, yoga teacher, sound healer, and founder of “Avreya” offers a new series of digital books on contemplative practice that each, I am honored to say, include a writing exercise by Yours Truly. (These writing exercises are from my “Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises” which you can access here.) Rietta’s digital books are so refreshingly lovely, and filled with wise and practical ideas for anyone seeking to improve the quality of their health and creative life. Here’s her introduction:

A series of five Contemplative Practice books based on the elements of nature: air, earth, fire, space and water. Each book is designed specifically to enhance that particular element and offers holistic, contemplative practices that include yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation, creative writing and visual art.

What’s in each book:
Warm up and yoga asana-s (postures)
Pranayama – a breath technique
Meditation practice
Creative writing prompt
Art journaling prompt
Practice pairings – Just as pairing food dishes with wine enhances the dining experience, this book offers pairings designed to complement each element such as, music, crystals, essential oils and mantras.

The books are designed to help yoga practitioners cultivate a personal home practice. The practices offered in these books may be done sequentially or separately.

Visit Allison Rietta here and find her new books here.

My new book is Meteor

My amigo poet, playwright, literary translator and writing reacher Zack Rogow was interviewed by Jeffrey Mishove for New Thinking Allowed on “Surrealism and Spontaneity”: A most informative and charming video.

Anne Elise Urrutia’s Pechakucha on her grandfather Dr. Aureliano Urrutia’s “Miraflores”—something very special in San Antonio, Texas history.

“Traven’s Triumph” by Timothy Heyman (Guest Blog)

Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB

Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993), “Moonlight Over the Chisos,”
and a Visit to Mexico City’s Antigua Academia de San Carlos

“Advice for Writers”: Spotlight on US Poet, Playwright and Translator Zack Rogow, and His Mega-Rich Resource of a Blog

This blog posts on Mondays. Second Mondays of the month I devote to my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing. Welcome!

> For the archive of workshop posts click here.

This past spring I attended the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference and bookfair, where I read from Meteor, my book of poetry, as part of the Gival Press 20th anniversary celebration. AWP is not for the FOMO-ly challenged. In the crowd of 15,000+ conference-goers I missed many events and many friends, among them the poet, playwright and translator Zack Rogow. And it didn’t seem at all right to have missed Rogow for, the last time I was at AWP, it was to participate on his panel with Mark Doty and Charles Johnson, “Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers’ Blogs,” one of the crunchiest conference panels ever. (You can read the transcript of my talk about blogs here.)

Should you try to attend AWP next spring 2020 in San Antonio? Of course only you know what’s right for you. But I can say this much: AWP can be overwhelming, an experience akin to a fun house ride and three times through the TSA line at the airport with liquids… while someone drones the William Carlos Williams white chickens poem… AWP can also prove Deader than Deadsville, if what you’re after is, say, an agent for your ready-for-Netflix thriller. The commercial publishing scene it ain’t.

On the bright side, however, Zack Rogow attends AWP. He is one of the most talented and generous poets and translators I know. Watch this brief documentary about his life and work and I think you’ll understand why I say this:

Rogow is also a teacher of creative writing, and for several years now he’s been blogging steadily with his “Advice for Writers.” It’s a terrific resource. I hope he’ll turn it into a book–the moment he does I’ll add it to the list of recommended books for my workshop.

Herewith a degustation of Rogow’s extra-crunchy posts:

Tips for the AWP Conference

Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop

How Not to Become a Literary Dropout

The Importance of Persistence for a Writer

Why Write Poetry?

Using Poetic Forms

And, my favorite:

The Limits of “Write What You Know”: Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey

# # # # #

One Simple Yet Powerful Practice in Reading as a Writer

Q & A: David A. Taylor,
on Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II

Recommended Books on Creative Process

Find out more about C.M. Mayo’s books, shorter works, podcasts, and more at www.cmmayo.com.

Catamaran Literary Reader and Tiferet: Two Very Fine Literary Journals

While it is a joy to be able to publish without gatekeepers– joy enough that I for one have been blogging every Monday and oftentimes more often since 2006– a curated presentation of poetry and prose, that is, the traditionally edited literary magazine on ye olde paper, has not disappeared, nor will it, and thank goodness.

I am happy to report that a pair of very fine independent literary magazines has landed in my mailbox: Catamaran Literary Reader and Tiferet. I am also honored to report that the Fall 2016 issue of the former includes my translation of Mexican writer Rose Mary Salum’s short story “The Time,” and the Fall 2016 issue of the latter, an excerpt from my book, a work of creative nonfiction about a translation: Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual.

As an ex-literary magazine editor myself (Tameme), I have a big heart full of appreciation for such magazines. And when they are as unique, and as beautifully edited and exceptionally well-designed as these two, I want to get up on the top of the roof and toot a tuba– or something!

CATAMARAN LITERARY READER

Founding editor Catherine Segurson describes Catamaran as “pages full of color, inviting images, and engrossing stories, poems and essays—all from curious and inventive minds.”

Indeed: standouts in this issue include a poem and an essay by Richard Blanco, and the several paintings by Bo Bartlett, whose “Via Mal Contenti” graces the cover. More about artist Bo Bartlett in this brief video:

Catamaran makes a special effort to include literary translation in every issue. N.B.: Catamaran’s contributing editors include essayist and translator Thomas Christensen and poet, teacher, and noted translator Zack Rogow.

ABOUT ROSE MARY SALUM,
Mexican Poet and Writer

Mexican writer and poet Rose Mary Salum is the editor of Literal, and editor of the anthology Delta de las arenas: Cuentos árabes, cuentos judíos. Her collection of linked short stories set in the Midde East, which includes “The Time,” is El agua que mece el silencio. My translation, in-progress, is entitled The Water That Rocks the Silence. If you read Spanish, check out her interview in El Páis.

>> See my previous post about her work in Origins.

>> See also my in-depth interview with Salum in Conversations with Other Writers.)

TIFERET

Tiferet is published by novelist and poet Donna Baier-Stein. I echo poet Molly Peacock’s praise:

“Thank you for this journal which combines spiritual issues, imaginative issues, esthetic issues. All of those, I think, need to be in the mix for the richly lived life, the richly observed life.”

This Fall 2016 issue opens with a splendid essay by poet Mark Doty, “Luckier / Rowdyish, Carlacue, Wormfence and Foosfoos.” Just for that yonder-galaxy-beyond-the-Cineplex-title: Another thank you!

ABOUT FRANCISCO I. MADERO,
Leader of Mexico’s 1910 Revolution; President of Mexico, 1911-1913

My piece in Tiferet about Madero’s 1911 Spiritist Manual did not include any of my translation, but you can read some of that here. Caveat: If you are unfamiliar with metaphysics you might find Madero’s Spiritist Manual… oh, I guess I would say… wiggy-zoomy.

In which case, I invite you to read my book about that book, my own wiggy-zoomy attempt to give it some cultural-historical-political context, which is available from amazon and other major sellers, and the website offers several lengthy excerpts, as well as extentive Q & A, a podcast of my talk for the University of California San Diego US Mexican Studies Center, the Centennial Lecture for University of Texas El Paso, and several other talks and interviews here. (My personal fave is Greg Kaminsky’s Occult of Personality.)

P.S. & P.S.S.

P.S. For those of you, dear readers, looking to publish in literary magazines, everything I have to say about the oftentimes crazy-making lottery-like ritual is here. If you are audacious enough to start your own journal, I say, go for it! Please! (But bring a case of apirin and a few wheelbarrows of dough. The green kind.) I have more to say about literary magazines, past, mine, and future, here. And for an interview with an editor who managed to establish an unusual level of financial viability, be sure to check out my podcast interview with Dallas Baxter, founder of Cenizo Journal.

P.S.S. If you’re wondering what’s up with Marfa Mondays, stay tuned, the long overdue podcast 21 is still in-progress. Listen in to the other 20 podcasts posted to date here.

Transcript of C.M. Mayo’s remarks for the panel
“Translating the Other Side”
American Literary Translators Association conference,
Tucson, Arizona, October 30, 2015

Find out more about
C.M. Mayo’s books, articles, podcasts, and more.