From Turkmenistan to America: How I Found Langston Hughes
Author: Langston Hughes
It was summer in Turkmenistan and the temperature was well over 100 degrees. A breeze blew desert dust into the room through the classroom's open windows. The two dozen or so men and women seated at the room's child-sized desks picked at plates of cookies and grapes as they listened to the boy recite a poem.
"Vaht khappens to a dream deferred?" he began with a thick Russian accent. "Does it dry up like a raisin in zee sun?"
Posted on Mon, Nov 17, 2008
A Protester in China: The Life of Lu Xun
Author: Lu Xun
Despite the nouveau rich careening madly around town in their upscale imported cars and SUVs, Shaoxing, China still retains much of its slow, gentle character. The women, especially, are known for their beauty and gentleness. The people are congenial. It is a good place to live and write.
Posted on Sun, Nov 09, 2008
A 'Moral Pub' Crawl Through James Joyce's Dublin
Author: James Joyce
The sun casts shadows on the marble bar, its sheen worn dull by 120 years of greasy palms and frothy brew. Denudation through inebriation. A glass tips. Beer collects in pools on the bar - the snotgreen sea. Read that somewhere. Can't think about James Joyce without the old stream o' consciousness.
Posted on Sun, Oct 12, 2008
Champagne & Sheep: A Poetic Tour of Wales
Author: Dylan Thomas
Yet, it is a place where, it is said, the people have music in their blood - and poetry in their soul. Author Jan Morris, who has adopted Wales as her home, says being a poet is a characteristic Welsh condition. "The company of poets is the nobility of this nation," Morris has written.
Posted on Thu, Oct 02, 2008
Curious George: From Nazi Germany to Bucolic New Hampshire
Author: Hans & Margret Reys
Few readers realize that had it not been for the indefatigable will of his creators, Curious George would have never existed.. The Reys, both German Jews, escaped Paris at the eleventh hour - hours before the Nazis occupied the city. And they did so by pedaling away on bicycles that Hans had cobbled together out of spare parts. The couple rode for three straight days, and eventually made their way to the Spanish border, where they sold the bikes to pay for train fare to Lisbon. From there they crossed the Atlantic and ultimately arrived in New York City with six children's book manuscripts still in their bags.
Posted on Wed, Sep 24, 2008
J.M. Coetzee's Warring Cape Town
Author: J.M. Coetzee
Perched on the tip of the African Continent, sandwiched between the crash of the Indian Ocean and the roll of the Atlantic, Cape Town exists in a tango of its past, present and future. Often described as capturing the free-spirit attitude of San Francisco circa the 1950s, at first glance Cape Town may seem bohemian and reckless. But at the turn of a corner its apartheid history and resulting current racial and economic struggles continue to be felt.
Posted on Mon, Sep 15, 2008
Going Green: The Artists Inn Residence in Washington, D.C.
Upon entering this circa 1900, spliced town home on Dupont Circle, the "public haunts" of pavement and traffic dissipate, replaced with flowing water, oils on canvas, murals, antiques, and a 1925 Steinway baby grand. It is a 21st century salon, christened in 2007 as the Artists Inn Residence Bed and Breakfast, a multi-disciplinary study in by-gone eras, a tribute to nature and artistic greatness. This, mon ami, is the perfect writer get-away.
Posted on Thu, Aug 14, 2008
Marfa, Texas: Artist Enclave & Hollywood Oasis
Author: Donald Judd
Pencils ready- a pop quiz: John Steinbeck is to Salinas, California as Donald Judd is to __________. The correct answer, since the majority of us will need the help, is Marfa, Texas. More than likely, the question now is, who the heck is Donald Judd and where in the world is Marfa, Texas?
Posted on Sat, Aug 02, 2008
Hotel Chelsea: The World's Most Infamous Writer's Retreat
Whatever the modus operandi, the bare essentials remain the same: a writer needs a space, some tools, a conducive atmosphere, and some time to complete their task. Since 1905, a whole host of writers have found that elusive space and atmosphere at the Chelsea Hotel, deep in the heart of downtown New York City.
Posted on Thu, Jul 31, 2008
Sprezzatura in Cinque Terre: The 5 Villages of Effortless Beauty
Author: Eugenio Montale
The Italians have an expression for art that the English language has still not found an equivalent for: sprezzatura. Sprezzatura is the ability of an artist to make his work seem effortless. It is the soft yet precise curves of The David or the color contrasts of a Monet; its enough to make me think even I am capable of creating such brilliance. Essentially, it is the physical manifestation of talent. Cinque Terre on the Italian coast seems to have an abundance of it.
Posted on Wed, Jul 23, 2008
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