Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A Conversation with Mexican Writer Rose Mary Salum About Making Connections with Literature and Art

Listen in anytime to this fascinating podcast interview, part of my Conversations with Other Writers occasional series, with Mexican writer and editor  Rose Mary Salum, on founding Literal Magazine and Literal Publishing, and editing of the visionary anthology Delta de las arenas: cuentos árabes, cuentos judíos, a collection of Arab and Jewish stories from Latin America. Recorded in Mexico City, November 2013 and posted just last week. (Approximately 40 minutes.) Learn more about Rose Mary Salum's work at www.literalmagazine.com



So far the series features conversations with:

Sergio Troncoso on writing his latest novel, From This Wicked Patch of Dust; Chicano literature; the US-Mexico border; on writing for New York; reading; blogging; and 9/11. 

Michael K. Schuessler on Mexico's incomparable poet Guadalupe (Pita) Amor; her neice, Mexico's acclaimed novelist and journalist Elena Poniatowska; the baroque literary prodigy Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; and the great friend of Mexico, the adventurous and passionate journalist Alma Reed, whose autobiography—a work vital to early 20th century Yucatecan history— Schuessler rescued from an abandoned closet. 

Edward Swift on his memoir My Grandfather's Finger and recent novel, The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint, plus his Orphic journey to Texas's Big Thicket, Marguerite Young, Proust, Greenwich Village, and the wonders of Mexico's little-known Sierra Gorda. 

Sara Mansfield Taber, author of Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter, on her father's work in Asia, including his daring rescue of over a thousand Vietnamese after the fall of Vietnam to the Vietcong, and his disenchantment with the agency while working in Germany; Taber's childhood in Taiwan, highschool years in Washington DC during the Vietnam War; her previous books, including Bread of Three Rivers and Dusk on the Campo; other travel writers, reading as a writer; writing practice, and teaching writing.

Solveig Eggerz on her poetic novel Seal Woman, her unusual background (from Iceland to England to Germany to Alexandria, Virginia), Iceland's book culture, fairytales, and advice for writers.

>> Read more about the Conversations with Other Writers occasional podcast series.

I call it an "occasional series" because, well, it's very occasional. Over the past couple of years I have not posted any other conversations because I was writing Metaphsyical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution (now out in paperback, ebook, and also in Spanish), and I am once again focussing on the Marfa Mondays Podcasts (16 so far of a projected 24). But I so love to do these interviews with my fellow writers, and I hope you will relish and learn from them as much as I have. Gracias, dear Rose Mary. Thank you, all.