tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81551068096918572012011-12-20T04:59:10.787-08:00spotlight on magical realismI♥blogsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-3264772012648492972009-10-21T21:10:00.000-07:002010-05-07T15:48:38.873-07:00

"Strangeness: Make the Familiar Unfamiliar" Writer's Rainbow [October 2009] I’m intrigued by oddities in culture and society. Cryptids, aliens, monstrosities. Anything that steers clear of the norm. Freaks of nature. Miracles. The inexplicable. Look up strangeness in a thesaurus. That says it all! If something is bizarre, curious, eccentric, idiosyncratic, marvelous, oddball, peculiar, quirky,

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-4653080612882248992009-09-10T08:54:00.001-07:002009-09-10T09:03:40.331-07:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I'm offering both an online AND a live local National Novel Writing Month clinic (Oct 18-Dec 6) for the 2009 NaNoWriMo challenge. Interested in taking on the challenge of penning 50k+ words in 30 days? You can do it... I've done it twice now and I'm a busy working mom. The lessons I've learned about my writing life (particularly in how to be

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-19465139996177991672009-08-31T15:46:00.001-07:002009-08-31T15:49:46.040-07:00

Rabbit's Hat (MRC 101B) is appropriate for writers who are somewhat familiar with literary magical realism or speculative fiction. That's an easy qualification; as long as you know what magical realism is, you can take this class.Instructor: Tamara Kaye Sellman, editor and publisher of Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism and director of Writer's Rainbow Literary Services, LLCLevel:

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-28009326191909565052009-07-23T21:57:00.000-07:002009-07-23T22:05:28.171-07:00

This class is appropriate for writers who are somewhat familiar with literary magical realism or speculative fiction.• MRC 101B: Rabbit’s Hat: (for magical realist writers) Sign up hereInstructor: Tamara Kaye Sellman, editor and publisher of Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism and director of Writer's Rainbow Literary Services, LLCLevel: intermediateDuration: Three sessions of generative

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-18396079389603141492009-07-15T08:10:00.000-07:002009-07-15T08:13:33.210-07:00

From Neil Ayres, editor of Serendipity, for VeggieBox:"For anyone out there who liked and is missing Serendipity, I'm resurrecting it, sort of. I want tweets of a magical realist nature addressed to me on Twitter (@neilayres) and I'll retweet the ones I like best. I'll also regularly include the very best in a post on this here blog, with a credit and short bio for the author. Poems and song

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-63791881949843545592009-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:002009-07-14T09:00:00.311-07:00

Whether you consider JG Ballard a magical realist depends a great deal on how you define MR. I know some writers who insist he's a magical realist, while others will say he's more of a social sci fi writer or a speculative fiction author.Regardless, much of the content of his work borrows from the bizarre inequities of the real world. Certainly, his view was dystopic but he wasn't, like Gabriel

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-48724548956174909402009-07-09T10:57:00.000-07:002009-07-09T10:57:00.702-07:00

Paul Harding in a recent interview for Bookslut:"The writers that first got me into writing were kind of the more fantastic writers. I hate the term magical realism, but ...Carlos Fuentes' Terra Nostra was the first novel I read where in the middle of it I said I'm going to be a writer. Cortazar, Borges,Calvino. Then all the writers they loved."It's so amusing how writers resist the notion that

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-58542034283039214812009-06-30T10:31:00.000-07:002009-06-30T10:46:42.428-07:00

Check out this new magical realist novel by Luso-American author Darrell Kastin:The Undiscovered Islandby Darrell KastinPublisher: Portuguese in the Americas SeriesISBN: 9781933227238Price: $25.00Pages: 411 From the website: "Alarmed by her father Sebastiao's unexplained disappearance, Julia Castro travels from California to the family's ancestral home in the Azores and finds the mid-Atlantic

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-37176889496847615282009-06-15T17:14:00.000-07:002009-06-15T17:18:15.300-07:00

Tamara Sellman, director of MRCentral, announces the third annual Magic Carpet Ride, an innovative one-on-one creative writing mentorship.The purpose of the Magic Carpet Ride mentorship is to assist a promising magical realist writer from anywhere in the world in the completion of a polished manuscript by the end of the session which can then be actively submitted to potential publishers. This

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-65236354784552780802009-05-09T21:31:00.000-07:002009-05-09T21:38:10.696-07:00

(x-posted from LundBlog: Beautiful Letters)Five weeks ago, the members of the National Book Critics Circle were asked, "Which work in translation has had the biggest impact on your reading and writing?" This was a tough question for me, as I've read lots of translated works [much of it in a MR conext]. Would it be Borges? Or Bulgakov? Or Kafka? Calvino? Murakami? Zivkovic? I've of course read

Jason Erik Lundberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18159887257065611447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-10276987699877864382009-04-07T06:48:00.000-07:002009-04-07T06:54:54.270-07:00

"Not only is it not true [that I won't return to writing], but the only thing I do is write." —Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in a recent interview with a reporter from El Tiempo

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-52535676848577771422009-03-31T13:30:00.000-07:002009-03-31T15:00:24.427-07:00

Looking for a way to celebrate magical realism on a more regular basis? Why not honor an MR writer on their birthday? Read their book/s, plan an activity inspired by their work, or write a blog entry about them. Dress up in costume! Write a poem about them! Make cupcakes decorated by images from their books (for instance, baseballs on top of cupcakes to celebrate The Natural). Whatever you do,

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-43101954435903354472009-03-24T07:44:00.000-07:002009-03-24T08:03:05.934-07:00

Okay, I *must* get a copy of the latest Zoetrope: it's an all-Latino edition with some awesome contributors, such as Daniel Alarcon, Ines Bortagaray, Guillermo Del Toro, Daniel Olivas, Diego Trelles Paz, Carolina Sanin, Veronica Stigger.Don't expect a goldmine of magical realism here; instead, you may very well find influences from Gabo, but this collection means to show the broad strokes of

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-81477457287706435512009-03-15T06:20:00.000-07:002009-03-15T07:07:43.777-07:00

Dylan Horrocks of New Zealand is the creator of Hicksville, a graphic novel, although he uses the less pretentious subtitle, A Comic Book. This is not false modesty, as the work pays tribute to the under-appreciated genius of a previous generation of cartoonists - Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and others. It's a fun, restless, thoughtful adventure of stories within comics within lost

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-72980670214630603282009-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:002009-03-13T09:20:18.471-07:00

Metal Becomes Transparent Under High Pressure from PhysOrg.com: "An international team of scientists have discovered a transparent form of the element sodium (Na). The team... was able to demonstrate that sodium defies normal physical expectations by going transparent under pressure."Hmm, maybe Garcia Marquez's improbable Melquiades was on to something after all.-------------------from One

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-18783748582427437892009-03-06T03:39:00.000-08:002009-03-06T04:14:03.922-08:00

“He was a spy in his own world,” says a son of the late, great literary WASP, John Cheever. Spies keep secrets and live multiple lives. One of Cheever’s best kept secrets, according to Charles McGrath in a recent New York Times Magazine article, is that he “was not a traditional, naturalistic writer.” Instead, he was “a writer pressing against the very limits of realism itself. The stories are

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-83513883703811151352009-03-03T08:02:00.000-08:002009-03-03T08:21:41.789-08:00

Not to be missed if you're in the Oakland area in mid-March: Caribbean magical realist Opal Palmer Adisa will read from her latest book, I Name Me Name, as part of a book launch and youth performance.Date: 20 March 2009Time: 5:30p - 8:30p (performance begins at 6:45p)Location: The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Oakland, CA1616 Franklin Street (Between 16th & 17th Streets) Admission: $10

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-58942613355550388672009-02-28T20:49:00.000-08:002009-03-01T06:58:19.916-08:00

A profoundly magical event is the emergence of a hibernating beast from its den within the earth. Ancient, far-northern people celebrated this mystery mid-way between winter Solstice and spring Equinox when they looked to the sacred bear or the oracular snake for a prophecy about weather. In less harsh climates the fox, badger, and wolf were similarly questioned. Such a tradition meant serious

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-77575441199723893812009-01-31T08:13:00.000-08:002009-01-31T11:35:21.300-08:00

He was called Magic Madoff. He was the wizard of Wall Street, a hedge-fund alchemist who invented the elixir of consistent returns. For decades his cabal of clients earned a steady 10-12% a year, in good times and bad, as if suspended beyond the natural laws of economics. Magic Madoff never promised to make you rich. The pact he offered was to make you safe. But the real world is not a safe place

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-17118062199348639732008-12-12T07:50:00.000-08:002008-12-12T08:40:08.247-08:00

Toni Morrison leads in the Nov-Dec issue of Poets & Writers.Kevin Nance writes about Morrison’s publishing history, traces some of her major influences, and details the controversies sparked by her recent non-fiction work. His article includes a passage on her relationship with Marquez:‘Gabriel Garcia opened the world for me,’ Morrison recalls. ‘When I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, it was a

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-67806663055502806992008-12-03T18:29:00.000-08:002008-12-03T18:39:09.281-08:00

Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta will begin collaboration with author Salman Rushdie on a film version of the widely popular magical realist novel, Midnight's Children, according to a report from CanadianPress. They plan to co-write the screenplay in spring 2009 and begin production in 2010. Critic Kevin Maher for The National isn't certain that Rushdie's novel will be easily adaptable: "[H]ow they

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-42935877295556188482008-11-30T16:39:00.000-08:002008-11-30T16:43:33.762-08:00

An excellent article in the New York Times on the future of the book and on the agreement just completed between Google.com and the Authors Guild. Written by James Gleick, who is on the board of the Authors Guild.

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-7343556308811051562008-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:002008-11-11T11:20:03.614-08:00

Don't know who to credit for this terrific shot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his skivvies, in which he "prepares to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1982." I'm guessing it comes from literary critic Gerald Martin's new biography, Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life, in which Martin spent almost 20 years researching the Colombian author's life and interviewing over 300 people. From his

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-12339987686320486942008-10-09T09:18:00.000-07:002008-10-09T10:05:35.894-07:00

Let the scientists get hold of magic, and we could see some real Magical Realism. Listen to this interview with Gustav Kuhn, psychologist and practicing magician, on PRI’s radio show The World. He discusses an article he co-authored, “Towards a science of magic,” which appears in the September, 2008 issue of Trends in Cognitive Sciences.“At heart, magic is about producing a sense of wonder in the

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-53990623582900298322008-10-04T07:58:00.000-07:002008-10-04T08:09:11.263-07:00

Interfictions 2, anthology of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, is hunting work on the borders, genre bending, rule breaking, difficult to categorize fiction . The hunt rides, Oct 1st to Dec 2nd; surrender those stories now.

Maureen McQuerryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875437661944977609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-40153528795379114142008-09-30T03:57:00.000-07:002008-09-30T04:08:03.020-07:00

Somebody, please, write the great MR novel about Wall Street. I wish I could, but I don’t understand high finance.Here's an outline. I see a multi-generational saga. A ruthless, primal adventurer makes a messy, complicated fortune. He builds a spooky Long Island mansion for his family and a labyrinthine Wall Street skyscraper for his business. His beautiful, mad wife bears twins. The brilliant,

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-68082285011885596512008-09-24T02:36:00.000-07:002008-09-24T02:39:29.376-07:00

The time is fast approaching for me to hand over editorship of Serendipity to a new, brave and magic soul. Are there any takers out there? The magazine averages between 30k and 60k page impressions per month, is published on the fifteenth of each calendar month and has a handful of regular non-fiction contributors, as well as a reputation for quick responses to submission and the high quality if

Neil Ayresnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-66624882452141890192008-09-15T09:52:00.000-07:002008-09-15T10:07:19.943-07:00

I'm thrilled to learn that Brazilian author and magical realist Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis will be the focus of a celebration of his work a full century after he died (Sept 29, 1908).Machado de Assis, considered Brazl's most important novelist, served as a key predecessor to Cortazar and Borges. He authored the brilliant novel, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas in 1881 and was the founder

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-30892372786041442462008-09-14T08:09:00.000-07:002008-09-14T08:29:57.572-07:00

David Foster Wallace may or may not have written magical realism. He's one of those authors whose work is ever-so-hard-to-categorize, and with magical realism's own shifting definition of itself, it makes sense that works like Wallace's Infinite Jest (one of Time magazine's 100 Best English-language Novels) might find their way inside the sets and subsets that constitute the nomadic Venn diagram

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-88132203058163311752008-09-01T02:05:00.000-07:002008-09-01T03:04:45.151-07:00

This is a completely shameless plug for A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, recently published by Two Cranes Press, and co-edited by yours truly and Janet Chui. Janet also did all the layout, design, and artwork for the book, which was a considerable task.The book is an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real, with contributions from Jay Lake, Eric Schaller,

Jason Erik Lundberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18159887257065611447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-78497766826807810972008-08-28T21:58:00.001-07:002008-08-28T22:01:09.278-07:00

From Rhymes With Camera: I was never a fan of the Oscar Meyer weinermobile, but I just learned that ABC is sending out a pie mobile to help boost the season premier of that wonderful magical realist TV show, Pushing Daisies.Please please please come to Seattle! We have plenty of good coffee to serve with the pie they'll be dishing out of the Airstream trailer which they've painted to look like

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-86331654913089465002008-08-25T11:41:00.001-07:002008-08-25T11:45:06.580-07:00

My kids made this magazine cut-and-paste mashup yesterday (couldn't resist posting it). With a magical realist for a mother and a comic for a father, what can anyone expect from them but weirdness?

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-24933309050262584362008-08-21T17:05:00.000-07:002008-08-21T17:14:44.785-07:00

Yes, but you have to be prepared. Some people get it, some don't. Some love it so much they'll never be able to criticize your work fully (or fairly). Some hate it so much that even if you were Gabo himself you'd never stand a chance.MR writers, you've seen this killing floor before.Don't think I ever called out the wonderful article on workshopping magical realism in the May/Summer 2008 edition

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-2325567866465606152008-08-15T12:42:00.000-07:002008-08-15T12:43:05.222-07:00

I had a moment last week when I had to consider my words. Not like the words in my short stories, or the words in my novels, or the words on blogs and emails. I was speaking to a literary agent and I was doing a typical 30 second pitch to an unsuspecting agent. Nervously, I rambled off what probably sounded like this – “My novel is about… well kind of a mystery or mysterious magical realism, well

Ron Samulnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-216867937367060302008-08-05T04:54:00.000-07:002008-08-05T05:26:24.545-07:00

What is real magic?This question haunted me during my Midwestern childhood. It still does.My magical angst resurfaced this summer as I read The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. The three novels, originally published in the 1970s, are Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders, and they explore magic in a post-WWI, modern, secular landscape. Three characters are born in Deptford, a

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-85507224906704887572008-07-30T04:51:00.000-07:002008-07-30T08:16:14.550-07:00

Is it possible to live as a Magical Realist? To transcend Natural Law. To break out of the physical world, as it is bounded by the five senses. There are rare people who appear to stand with one foot in the universe we share so uneasily and the other foot in a parallel realm. The rest of us call such people heroes, geniuses, madmen, or perhaps just crackpots.Leo Crespi may have been in that

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-39325489022365479512008-07-29T07:41:00.000-07:002008-07-29T07:44:42.701-07:00

but the latest issue of Serendipity is not to be missed. The interview with Wendy Faris is particularly instructive as she talks about "Scheherazade's Children."

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-83797790092858652302008-07-28T13:08:00.000-07:002008-07-28T13:16:42.568-07:00

From Chinaview.comMADRID, July 24 (Xinhua) — "Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes were awarded the "Don Quijote de la Mancha" prize for their contribution to promoting Spanish language and culture, the Santillana Foundation and Spain's Castilla-La Mancha authorities announced Thursday." read morefrom the New York Daily News Latino sectionMEXICO CITY — "

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-21728947636710060342008-07-24T20:50:00.000-07:002008-07-24T21:03:50.263-07:00

Shameless self promotion:) Travelers' Market, the second book in the Wolfproof Trilogy, is now out and waiting at the bookstore nearest you or just a click away at Amazon. The perilous worlds of myth and middle school once again collide. Book launch activities at the Richland Bookworm July 26th 1pmBarnes and Noble Kennewick Aug 16th 2 pm

Maureen McQuerryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875437661944977609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-47300660469443135892008-07-10T05:57:00.000-07:002008-07-10T06:07:03.678-07:00

For those not in the know, Rhys Hughes is a very good writer indeed. He is mostly described as an absurdist, but his work veers between magical realism and fantasy. Some less than generous folk may lump him in with the New Weird. (Jeff Vandermeer is a big fan, as is Michael Moorcock.)He has written lots of books, and yet more stories, all of which are good. Yet he has little fame in the UK,

Neil Ayresnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-71752870536870317292008-06-26T01:19:00.000-07:002008-06-26T01:20:39.544-07:00

Salman Rushdie has been knighted.

Neil Ayresnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-32320841708526371252008-06-18T15:08:00.000-07:002008-06-18T15:10:08.565-07:00

Announcing the opening of the 2009 Magic Carpet Ride mentorship application period.This mentorship, an innovative one-on-one creative writing program, is the first of its kind to provide specialized instruction, direction, and motivation specifically for a writer of literary magical realism. The purpose of the Magic Carpet Ride mentorship is to assist a promising magical realist writer from

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-25067278229809449242008-06-14T03:31:00.000-07:002008-06-14T07:44:18.663-07:00

David Wiesner, author/illustrator, creates eerie, profound, funny, silly, border-crossing images for his many picture books.My all-time favorite is June 29, 1999 (published in 1992), perhaps because I want to be Holly Evans, girl-scientist, as she launches weather balloons that carry her seed growing experiments into the ionosphere. She hopes to study “the effects of extra-terrestrial conditions

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-12249167200069867622008-06-09T09:00:00.000-07:002008-06-09T09:01:51.113-07:00

I'm so sad to report that Midori Snyder and Terri Windling of the vast and wonder-filled Endicott Studio and Journal of Mythic Arts are retiring the website.Windling, in a farewell blog entry, recent wrote: "We're a small, volunteer organization, and we want to carve out time to move on to some new projects...as well as for our own creative work."I am awash in melancholy to hear this, though I'm

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-78820795643806904522008-05-30T03:08:00.000-07:002008-05-30T04:28:30.907-07:00

In 1976 Campus Crusade for Christ began a four year “I Found It!” campaign, where that cryptic slogan appeared on billboards, bumper stickers, and buttons. The mysterious phrase was an advertising gimmick to create buzz for CCC’s evangelical events. I still remember my puzzlement the first time I encountered “I Found It!” The message seemed oddly compelling.Other people must have felt the same

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-52613228436786570112008-05-17T03:00:00.000-07:002008-05-17T03:03:42.838-07:00

Issue 9 of Serendipity is now live and free, with stories from Hal Duncan, Rudyard Kipling and Brendan Connell and Forrest Aguirre, along with Book Reviews and essays from Tamara Kaye Sellman and Katy Wimhurst. It's all free for your delectation.

Neil Ayresnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-62055555505899722912008-05-16T11:13:00.002-07:002008-05-16T11:16:11.122-07:00

June 7 marks the semi-annual fundraiser, the Write-O-Rama, for Seattle's Richard Hugo House.Seattle-area MRists: Collect $45 or more in sponsorships and you can come on down to the House (a groovy eclectic place on Capitol Hill), chow for free, and choose from more than 30 different workshops taught at Seattle's Richard Hugo House.Open mics and wrap session included! It's a great chance to mix

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-67406486496050885662008-05-06T10:28:00.000-07:002008-05-06T10:38:45.633-07:00

I'm reading a gem of a book, The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt. Nikola Tesla, pigeons, and time machines float through 1940's New York. It's a story of love, and the inventive spirit based on some of the events of the life of Nikola Tesla. But there are many other wonderful characters as well: Lousia the chamber maid, her father and the mysterious Arthur. The tone is similar to

Maureen McQuerryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875437661944977609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-68097628634168212532008-05-05T08:13:00.001-07:002008-05-05T08:16:21.584-07:00

MR 101—Diagnosis: MRI need two more to fill this workshop. Please register by midnight May 7. Bring a friend! This popular workshop reviews participants' writings to determine what markers of MR they have employed and how to add or improve on them. Certain risks in writing MR and other formats of speculative writing also discussed. $60 fee includes lifetime membership to MRCentral.net!To register

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-26838114935267242232008-04-30T10:43:00.000-07:002008-04-30T11:10:50.682-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFrom Tamara Kaye Sellman, Director of MRCentral.net: I have slated two more Internet-based workshops for magical realist writers through mid-June 2008. These workshops are especially geared toward the international writer or the writer who cannot attend a regular live chat session because of a full schedule, but who still wants to learn and to interact with other students

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-44386676035934132552008-04-28T07:42:00.000-07:002008-04-28T09:51:24.645-07:00

What is our endless fascination with monsters, and in particular, monsters who battle each other? I considered it the material of horror, fantasy, and allegory, until I saw this AP photo in a 2005 BBC news article. Now there's real life Magical Realism -- a fight to the death between two liminal monsters. The image shows the back legs and tail of an alligator (the living revenant of prehistoric

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-61803705534442011902008-04-23T21:41:00.000-07:002008-04-23T22:00:37.464-07:00

There are some wonderful sites for magical realist poetry and one of my very favorites is Goblin Fruit. I have to admit that I'm easy to influence with good graphics and I love the art on this site! I'm also partial to sites that have published my work:) Each issue divides the poems into sections--this issue, The Book of Breath and The Book of Thirst. So feast on the art and delectable

Maureen McQuerryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07875437661944977609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-50589089407576529482008-04-21T07:38:00.000-07:002008-04-21T07:43:26.402-07:00

In the current issue of the AWP Writer's Chronicle, something I usual get to weeks after I get it, has an article by Scott Elliott title Warranted Magic: Writing & Discussing Magical Realism. Not available online yet, but I am sure it will be once it is archived.

Ron Samulnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-31959229519640850582008-04-18T09:05:00.000-07:002008-04-18T09:30:29.497-07:00

Toni Morrison recently joined a coterie of writers to honor the 50-year anniversary of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.Yay, Pushing Daisies is coming back next fall. The best magical realist TV to date! [click on Pushing Daisies in the left column to view previous episodes]Sometimes I like to point to painting and sculpture for people who are trying to wrap their minds around magical realism.

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-87488542579448687222008-04-17T22:53:00.000-07:002008-04-17T22:58:37.900-07:00

My review of Best American Fantasy (edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, with series editor Matthew Cheney) has just been published at The Internet Review of Science Fiction. The anthology contains many MR and cross-genre types of stories that BBoM readers may be interested in.The review, and the rest of the new issue of IRoSF, is available to read for free, but may involve subscription registration

Jason Erik Lundberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18159887257065611447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-51527451104833366262008-04-13T20:04:00.000-07:002008-04-14T01:36:13.645-07:00

In writing the preface for the forthcoming Field Guide to Surreal Botany (co-edited with Janet Chui, and published by Two Cranes Press), I started thinking about Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler. Specifically thinking about the very beginning of the book, a charming introduction that welcomes the reader into the story in a very metafictional way:You are about to begin reading

Jason Erik Lundberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18159887257065611447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-70763209727397323542008-04-11T13:45:00.000-07:002008-04-11T13:46:42.890-07:00

The Independent today has an interview with Salman Rushdie, talking mainly about the writing of his new book, The Enchantress of Florence.

Neil Ayresnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-73474976980024526062008-03-31T03:47:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:34:42.452-07:00

“There were once two little girls who saw, or believed they saw, a thing in a forest.” Thus begins A.S. Byatt’s fairy tale. Read this story at bedtime, then try to sleep!Little Black Book of Stories collects five of A.S. Byatt’s complex, riveting fictions. Each one is marvelous in its own way, and two of the tales are masterful examples of Magical Realism.“The Thing in the Forest” uses the trope

Mary Overtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060808461226793014noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-58574787987337297202008-03-27T14:53:00.000-07:002008-03-27T15:54:18.161-07:00

…because MAGICAL REALISM IS so YESTERDAY, TODAY, and TOMORROW…---------------------------------Lit-errata• "UCLA professor unearths, resurrects long-lost antebellum novel."—UCLA newsroom UCLA English professor Christopher Looby on the book, Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself, by author Robert Montgomery Bird: "[The book] feels more like an example of magical realism or postmodernism than antebellum

I♥blogsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8155106809691857201.post-9141437857898292122008-03-27T14:42:00.000-07:002008-03-27T14:50:59.886-07:00

SOME DEFINITIVE QUESTIONSIf there’s a magical realism can there be a magical surrealism? And what would be the difference?Why “magical” rather than, say, “fantastic” ( in the old fashioned sense)?Is not so-called REALISM the real magical realism since it is so utterly UNREAL? Look at all it leaves out.Is surrealism surrealism solely by virtue of its association with Freud? Is magical realism

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