Showing posts with label Michael K. Schuessler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael K. Schuessler. Show all posts

Celebrating Literary Friends: Leslie Pietrzyk, Michael K. Schuessler, Rose Mary Salum, Araceli Ardón

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My amiga and long-time fellow writing group member, Leslie Pietrzyk, has won the Drue Heinz award for short fiction, read all about it over on her blog, Work-in-Progress. Read also her powerful essay, must-reading for any and all aspiring writers, which she posted on her blog shortly before learning that she had won: "The Writing Life: What It Really Takes." 

Michael K. Schuessler, one of the writers writing on Mexico I most admire, has just brought out what is sure to be rollicking good read: Perdidos en la traducción: Cinco viajeros ilustres en México en el siglo XX. This one definitely needs to come out in English! A literal translation of the title would be Lost in Translation: Five Illustrious Travelers in 20th Century Mexico. Who are those travelers? Howard Hughes, William S. Burroughs, Marilyn Monroe, Edward James, and B. Traven. Here is a photo of me and my writing assistant, Uli Quetzalpugtl, celebrating with Michael at lunch in Mexico City day before yesterday. (What happened to my head? Uyy, seriously bad hair day.)


My writing assistant,
who never has bad hair days,
approves of this book.
And here is Michael showing me the spot where the Madero mansion stood. It was burned down by a mob in the Decena Trágica of 1913, as the little tile plaque explains.




P.S. Listen in to my podcast interview with Michael about his extraordinary biographies of Mexican novelist Elena Poniatowska and poet Pita Amor, and his surreal rescue of the memoir of "La Peregina," Alma Reed, international journalist and fiancée of Yucatan's radical governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto. 



More books by Mexico expert Michael K. Schuessler

Speaking of podcast interviews, I've been editing a wonderful one with Rose Mary Salum, editor of Literal. She's also a writer and the editor of the visionary anthology Delta de arenas, cuentos arabes, cuentos judíos. Stay tuned-- almost done! (Alas, what I needed was a Dead Kitten... that's the term for a muff around the microphone to filter out infelicitous noises. But ex post I am getting it all ironed out.)

Araceli Ardón has just brought out a gorgeous new book of paintings by Restituto Rodríguez, each paired with an original literary work-- including one by Yours Truly. More about this one in the next post-- and Ardón's gorgeous book on the Sierra Gorda.

Your COMMENTS are always welcome.










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Cyberflanerie: Harry Ransom, Michael K. Schuessler, Tina Larkin, Sophy Burnham, Clay Shirky & more

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Researchers and translators take note: The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas has just made available a magnificent collection, with data base, of Spanish Theater and "Comedias Sueltas." Read more in English or in Spanish.

My amigo Michael K. Schuessler has just published a gorgeous and important book with University of Arizona Press: Foundational Arts: Mural Painting and Missionary Theater in New Spain. From the catalog:
In Foundational Arts Michael K. Schuessler asserts that the literature of New Spain begins with missionary theater and its intimate relationship to mural painting. In particular, he examines the relationships between texts and visual images that emerged in Mexico at two Augustinian monasteries in Hidalgo, Mexico, during the century following the Spanish Conquest. The forced combination of the ideographical tradition of Nahuatl with Latin-based language alphabets led to a fascinating array of new cultural expressions.
Missionary theater was organized by ingenious friars with the intent to convert and catechize indigenous populations. Often performed in Nahuatl or other local languages, the actors combined Latin-based language texts with visual contexts that corresponded to indigenous ways of knowing: murals, architectural ornamentation, statuary, altars, and other modes of visual representation. By concentrating on the interrelationship between mural painting and missionary theater, Foundational Arts explores the artistic and ideological origins of Mexican plastic arts and literature. 

Listen in to my interview with Michael Schuessler about his previous books about Mexico and Mexican writers, for Conversations with Other Writers. 
Paper Crown from Art We Heart
www.artweheart.com

Love-love-love these paper crowns from Art We Heart. Must, must, must have.

Oh, she seems so happy: Artist Tina Larkin and Purple HarpMobile.

Sophy Burnham's 10 Rules of the Universe.

Clay Shirky rants about women. (Having just nudged a couple of girlfriends with their unnecessarily modest CVs, I'd say he's right on. Anyway, a very interesting perspective, well worth reading and pondering.) 

Big Data blog by Igor Carron with a snow-cool title: Nuit Blanche.

Georgia O'Keeffe's hands: a brief and very unusual podcast by hand analyst Janet Savage.

Homicide Watch for Washington DC: a much needed and well-done blog. (So many murders, so little press.) 

Speaking of DC, Wilson Quarterly has launched as a digital.

Greg Borzo interviews me for the University of Chicago Social Sciences Division newsletter, about my new book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution. 

COMMENTS always welcome.

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