MRNews: The Week in Review

Take a free MR class from Tamara Kaye Sellman at the Write-O-Rama!

2008-05-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

June 7 marks the semi-annual fundraiser 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 with area writers, sample the literary finery at the House, and generate some terrific new writing.

My class will happen during the morning shift of hour-long workshops:

ALCHEMY 101
The magical realist method for turning lead into gold (and back
again)
One of the key markers of magical realism is the peaceful coexistence of
the magical with the mundane. Using insights from magical realism, we'll create
fictive situations, both ordinary and extraordinary, then rewrite them as their
opposites. This workshop's all about stretching our own writerly perceptions.
Great for writers of all forms.

I would love to see you there, so if you do come, please introduce yourself if you get the chance. I'll be there at the door signing in participants and helping throughout the day as well.

It's a really fun event and all the money collected goes to a really important literary cause. Come for a couple of hours or stay for the day: your choice. Registration begins at 9:30; classes start at 10am sharp!
More info

RE: Big Blog of Marvel

2008-05-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

While this blog has completed its cycle, you can still read all about magical realism at the new blog, Big Blog of Marvel. Come one, come all, and if you'd like to contribute as well, just contact me at magicalrealismmaven (at) hotmail (dot) com.

MRNews Update

2007-09-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

From Tamara Kaye Sellman, director, MRCentral.net:

Thanks for your support of this news feature associated with Margin, MRCentral and magical realism literary news in general. I've enjoyed putting this regular newsblog together over the years, but now must bid it adieu as my schedule and focus have shifted to other related pursuits. Any future news interests I am interested in developing will be done through the private, members-only portal, MRCentral.net. If you are not yet a member, but wish to become one, simply visit the site's front page and click on "join" for further instructions.

Members of MRCentral and past contributors to Margin are encouraged to contact me directly with their own MR-related news (book releases, short work publications, awards, workshop and education news, etc.) at magicalrealismmaven [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Also, if you are already an active member of MRCentral, you can certainly post your news directly to the yahoo! group message site and thereby skip the middleman (me).

Thanks again and don't forget to keep it [magically] real!
Fondly, TKS

RE: NEW MAGICAL REALISM MENTORSHIP

2007-06-08T13:27:00.001-07:00

PRESS RELEASE, June 8, 2007 (for immediate release, please forward to interested parties)
Tamara Sellman, director of MRCentral, announces the first annual Magic Carpet Ride, an innovative one-on-one creative writing mentorship.

This competitive opportunity 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 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.

Qualification This mentorship, valued at $1500, will be awarded annually, and on a competitive basis, to a single applicant who is able to demonstrate: • a deep commitment to completing their work in progress • strong writing skills • a desire to learn and to succeed • a good understanding of the magical realist nature of their manuscript
Applications for the 2008 mentorship session are now available.

Postmark deadline for receipt of all application materials for the 2008 mentorship session is October 31, 2007. Email deadline for receipt of all application materials for the 2008 mentorship session is midnight [Pacific time], October 31, 2007.
More info

Newsblog changes; MRCentral.net morphs; Gabo goes home

2007-05-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

***Note to readers***

MRNews will be taking a summer hiatus starting today, June 1.
We will return to our regular schedule in 12 weeks.

NEXT NEWS POST: 8.31.2007

SUMMER BIRTHDAYS

[JUNE]—Federico Garcia Lorca [6.5]; Louise Erdrich [6.7]; Maria Luisa Bombal, Sara Paretsky [6.8]; Yasunari Kawabata [6.11]; Djuna Barnes [6.12]; Maria Dermout [6.15]; Salman Rushdie [6.19]; Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Ian McEwan [6.21]; Mark Helprin [6.28]; Antoine de Saint-Exupery [6.29]

[JULY]—Juan Carlos Onetti [7.1]; Bessie Head, Franz Kafka, Charlotte Perkins Gilman [7.3]; Nathaniel Hawthorne [7.4]; Bruno Schulz, Pablo Neruda [7.12]; Isaac Babel [7.13]; I.B. Singer [7.14]; Reinaldo Arenas [7.16];

[AUGUST]—Isabel Allende [8.2]; W.H. Hudson, Witold Gombrowicz [8.4]; Alain Robbe-Grillet [8.18]; Ray Bradbury, E. Annie Proulx [8.22]; Jorge Luis Borges, AS Byatt, Jean Rhys [8.24]; Alvaro Mutis [8.25]; Julio Cortazar [8.26]; Jeanette Winterson [8.27]; Janet Frame [8.28]

OF SPECIAL INTEREST

MRCentral.net continues to morph. Here are some updates:

• Periphery: a magical realist zine, will begin accepting manuscripts in September for its 2008 edition. Details forthcoming in late summer. Look for format changes as this publication is reinvented to serve its growing audience.

• The Invisible Cities Wiki continues under the enthusiastic leadership of Mary Overton; director Tamara Sellman hopes to join in the fun this summer (finally!).

• A new competitive mentorship for magical realist writers will be unveiled later this summer. Stay tuned at MRCentral for the details of this terrific opportunity.

• MRCentral.net's first ever online workshop is halfway through and, so far, has been a positive experience. Members at MRCentral.net will receive first notice of all workshops before they are offered to the public. All members receive discounted tuition as well.

• Other programs under development for MRCentral.net (podcasts, bookstore/merchandise, book discussion groups, etc.) will be placed on hiatus during the summer.

• The monthly members dispatch for MRCentral has been changed to a quarterly dispatch.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT

[5.30.2007]—From Prensa Latina: Nobel prizewinner Gabriel García Márquez returned to his birthplace of Aracataca after 24 years of absence.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B04B41B8B-F318-417D-AC51-E96E322134A2%7D)&language=EN

BOOKLIST

[6.01.2007]—The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander (Knopf: April 2007)—"[This book] is a novel of ideas, a historical novel that at times feels like one of magical realism, but it’s the story of a society gone awry, when surreal things can happen."—Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week Book Critic
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14123

[5.30.2007]—Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (Pocket: 1992)—Writes Matt Staggs for Skullring: "It's kind of a weird, magical retelling of a boy's summer in the sixties in a small town in Alabama… Mixed into this is lots of crazy magical realism/fantasy stuff…"
http://mattstaggs.blogspot.com/2007/05/review-boys-life-by-robert-mccammon.html

MIXED MEDIA

[5.30.2007]—Super Casino [foreign film]—From the North-west Evening Mail of Cumbria, England: "Super Casino is a new genre of movie we’ve come up with—magical realist documentary—and it’s very flattering that the film has been accepted for Cannes."—Lanternhouse International producer Stephen Powell.
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=503825

[5.23.2007]—Golden Door [foreign film]—Writes Christy Lemire for The Associated Press—"[Director] Crialese didn’t need to inject magical-realism fantasy sequences to convey his lead character’s dreams about the bountiful riches the New World has to offer. Compared to the stripped-down tone that dominates the rest of the film, they feel distractingly out of place."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18830849/

Leopardo; perfect Yamashita summer; Iran embraces MR?; Fantastic Women cfs; Welty as MRist; Glover's General

2007-05-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[5.29]—GK Chesterton

INDUSTRY REPORTS

[5.18.2007]—From the Hollywood Reporter: "Madrid-based production house Morena Films said Thursday it is taking the production lead in Adrian Caetano's much-anticipated Leopardo al Sol. …Leopardo, which centers on warring contrabandist families in Colombia with a magical realism touch, is based on Laura Restrepo's novel of the same name."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3icaf38d093b12e7d020a82cf84fd3d8a8

[5.14.2007]—Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rainforest earned the distinction of being "the perfect summer read" from The Stanford Daily.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/5/14/readingForRecreation101YourNewSummerClass

[5.13.2007]—Iran embraces magical realism? From MehrNews.com in Iran: "The Iranian Literature Foundation plans to survey Latin American literature in an international congress which will be held in Tehran and Isfahan from May 26 to June 1."One of the topics of three sideline roundtables is, you guessed it, “Postmodernism and Magical Realism.” Oh, to be a fly on that wall.—Editor
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=485571

WRITER'S RESOURCE

[5.23.2007]—Writer's Rainbow announces new Online Creative Writing Workshops for Fall 2007, taught by Tamara Kaye Sellman, director of MRCentral. Registration begins June 1. Offerings include:

Scavenger Hunt: "Clichés" (all genres) ~ Revision Workshop: "The Compression
Game" (short fiction) ~ Structure workshop: "Writing Backward" (short fiction) ~
Writing Clinic: "Novels, Fast and Furious" (companion to National Novel Writing
Month/Nov 2007)

Interested? Reserve a space by May 31 and receive 10% off tuition! http://www.writersrainbow.com

[5.23.2007]—From Endicott Redux: "Tin House, a fascinating and eclectic literary magazine, is currently accepting submissions for an upcoming issue on Fantastic Women. Here is a brief description of what they're looking for:'We will read until May 31, 2007 (postmark date). …Fantastic Women—an issue celebrating the women writers working with an emphasis on the fantastical—has a very limited number of slots open for poetry, fiction, and Lost and Found essays.' "
http://www.tinhouse.com/mag_frm_submit.htm

INTERACT

[5.15.2007]—Eudora Welty's "No Place for You, My Love" was examined in the blog, Pretty Fakes, as part of the new celebration of Short Story Month started by Emerging Writers. Writers Professor Fury of the Welty story: "this story is most interesting to me for Welty’s hallucinatory, nearly magical realist prose."Emerging Writers has a list of authors they'll be examining over the month of May including some who've dipped their pen in MR, such as Alan deNiro, Tess Uriza Holthe, Dorene O'Brien, and Chris Abani.
http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/emerging_writers_network/2007/04/short_story_mon.html http://prettyfakes.com/?p=1062

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT

[5.20.2007]—It was announced recently that Gabriel García Márquez's novel, The General in His Labyrinth, will be made into a film. To be financed by the Venezuelan government and produced by Danny Glover, it will be directed by Venezuela-born director Alberto Arvelo.
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/mmx-0705190391may20,0,6375230.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds

BOOKLIST

[5.21.2007]—Catching Butterflies. Bringing Magical Realism to Ground by Maria Takolander (Vienne, Peter Lang: 2007)—From the book's summary: "This book rescues magical realism from misreadings and misdemeanours, tracing the historical development of the literary genre and analysing an original spectrum of magical realist texts from Latin America, Africa, India, Canada, the US, the UK and Australia."
http://www.fabula.org/actualites/article18913.php

[5.20.2007]—Half of an Elephant by Gusti (Kane Miller: 2006)—Writes Liz B for A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy: "I …read this as magical realism in picture book format. OK, so magical realism isn't quite the term I mean… but I cannot think of a term to use where the text of the story is so serious and factual while discussing something that is impossible. The serious treatment of something magical—the treating it as every day and normal—appealed to me, especially since the illustrations are also otherworldly."
http://yzocaet.blogspot.com/2007/05/half-of-elephant.html

[5.18.2007]—Save Me, Julie Kogon by Allen Ruff (Trafford Publishing: 2007)—From the Capital Times: "Ruff's novel has a strong undercurrent of magic realism, but Ruff, who received his Ph.D. in U.S. history from the UW and who grew up in New Haven, also straddles the past and present in the novel, exploring the history of a place now vanished. …For Ruff, writing the novel proved an exploration of what he describes as the 'gray world of fact and fiction, truth and myth.'"
http://www.madison.com/tct/entertainment/135008

[5.17.2007]—The soon-to-be-released novel, The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (Nan A. Talese, 2007) was reviewed by Sameer Rahim for the Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/17/booye12.xml

VINTAGE MR

[5.18.2007]—The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes) by Henri Alain-Fournier, translated by Robin Buss (Penguin Classics: release date, Dec 2007)—Allan Massie writes for the Scotsman: "The magical trance-like element is set against a realism that is very down-to-earth and even harsh."
http://living.scotsman.com/books.cfm?id=776242007

[5.12.2007]—Derek Wall of Great Britain gives Green Party perspective on the classic Asturias novel, Men of Maize, at Another Green World.
http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2007/05/men-of-maize-poetry-of-substance.html

RELATED READING

[5.21.2007]—Faris Yakob, the blogger behind Talent Imitates, Genius Steals, hints on something that hasn't been discussed enough: the way Hollywood interprets and produces magical realist film. His comments aren't specifically pointed toward MR, but his discussion of the film, 300, and the CGI used to create reality out of fantasy, is worthwhile for consideration.
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2007/05/300.html

[5.15.2007]—"Getting to the Bottom of Some Health Related Urban Legends."
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1217852

MIXED MEDIA

[5.22.2007]—Dominion by Calvin Baker (Grove Press: 2007) "is a tale of slavery told using the rhythms and styles of magic realism."—from NPR (click on the link to hear the entire interview) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10329537

[5.21.2007]—El Orfanato/The Orphanage [foreign film]—Tim Ryan has this to say in his Cannes 2007 wrap-up for Rotten Tomatoes—"Directed with verve by Juan Antonio Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage is a sort of companion piece with Pan's Labyrinth; it's a magic realist story about the intersection between a child's imagination and the real world."
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=422085

[5.21.2007]—The Mad Dancers [stage]—From the Chicago Sun-Times: "An exercise in what might be described as Jewish magical realism, the work takes the form of a time-traveling, globetrotting tale that sets a rather ordinary man on the road to an unwitting and altogether hallucinatory encounter with his spiritual heritage and his lost (or denied) identity."
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weiss/394773,CST-FTR-Mad21.article

[5.17.2007]—Khadak [foreign film]—"A young shepherd with an uncanny gift for finding lost members of his flock faces destiny and modernity in Khadak, a hypnotic magic-realist fable set on the frigid steppes of Mongolia."—Barry Paris, Post-Gazette film critic
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07137/786534-120.stm

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

[5.20.2007]—"An ever deepening reservoir of jargonized muck: Notes and half-baked assumptions on Post Modernism and Writers."—from Ted Burke, Like It or Not
http://ted-burke.blogspot.com/2007/05/ever-deepening-reservoir-of-jargonized.html

NEXT NEWS POST: 6.01.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

Agualusa wins; Bulgakov BDay honors; Lydia Davis Q&A; Allende says "no" to Gabo; Museum of Lost Wonder; the grotesque; Bakopoulos review

2007-05-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[5.11]—Edward Kamau Brathwaite; Rubem Fonseca; Camilo José Cela
[5.12]—Mossimo Bontempelli
[5.15]—Mikhail Bulgakov
[5.16]—Juan Rulfo

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[5.08.2007]—"Stretch Of I-4 Believed To Be Haunted Built Over Graves."—WKMG-6 News, Orlando
http://www.local6.com/news/13281055/detail.html

[4.30.2007]—"Woman believed to be blood sucking spirit beaten to death in Guyana."—Caribbean Net News
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-1241--13-13--.html

[4.27.2007]—"Village That Disappeared."—UFOArea.com
http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_villagecanada.html

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[5.01.2007]—José Eduardo Agualusa's novel about Angola, The Book of Chameleons (translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn), recently won the Independent Foreign Fiction prize. Agualusa is the first African to win the Arts Council sponsored prize of £10,000 prize; his book is described as having "witty originality and profound humanity" by the Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2070014,00.html

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[5.11.2007]—Writer's Rainbow announces new Online Creative Writing Workshops for Fall 2007, taught by Tamara Kaye Sellman, director of MRCentral. Registration begins June 1. Offerings include:

Scavenger Hunt: "Clichés" (all genres) ~ Revision Workshop: "The Compression Game" (short fiction) ~ Structure workshop: "Writing Backward" (short fiction) ~ Writing Clinic: "Novels, Fast and Furious" (companion to National Novel Writing Month/Nov 2007)

Interested? Reserve a space by May 31 and receive 10% off tuition!
http://www.writersrainbow.com

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[5.07.2007]—Mikhail Bulgakov, whose magical realist novel, Master and Margarita, is a perennial favorite among fans, has enjoyed some publicity lately in Russia. All editions of his masterwork have been published inside one cover. Apparently, Bulgakov had trouble arriving at a proper title for his book. In this new collection, the well-known connoisseur of Bulgakov’s writings, Viktor Losev, has collected all the different attempts at this novel in one book, entitled My Poor, Poor Master. According to Pravda, "The set of works includes all the preserved of the important editions of the novel under the titles The Black Magus, Hoof of an Engineer, Evening of the Frightful Saturday, The Great Chancellor, and The Golden Spear. Among these titles Bulgakov had tried to choose a proper name for his masterpiece till he arrived at the final version Master and Margarita."
http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/3925/

[5.07.2007]—Meanwhile, back in the States… Kevin Moss at Middlebury College has constructed a site focusing on Bulgakov's classic that he describes as "intended as a web-based multimedia annotation to Bulgakov's novel." Someone's been doing their homework.
http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/

[4.29.2007]—"I haven't met a so-called experimental writer who likes the term." A Boston Review Q&A with Lydia Davis.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/04/29/qa_with_lydia_davis/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Ideas+Section

[4.28.2007]—She just says "no" to Gabo. Aida Edemariam discusses the work of Isabel Allende in the Guardian Unlimited: "Allende quickly tired of being compared to Gabriel García Márquez, to being claimed, over and over again, as a late, pale entrant into the magical-realist fold. 'I just want to tell a story as straightforwardly as possible, from all angles, with a strong voice,' she says tersely. 'I'm not trying to experiment with the form.' In fact, the more baroque aspects of her work have progressively been subdued."
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2066909,00.html

BOOKLIST
[5.08.2007]—After Dark by Haruki Murakami (Knopf: 2007)—From Publishers Weekly: "Taking place over seven hours of a Tokyo night, it intercuts three loosely related stories, linked by Murakami's signature magical-realist absurd coincidences."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0307265838/sr=8-1/qid=1178747553/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-9364923-8569638?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1178747553&sr=8-1

[5.06.2007]—The Pesthouse by Jim Crace (Nan A. Talese: 2007)—MINI-SPOILER from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "In one of the novel's touches of magical realism, a mysterious, long-buried cloud creeps into the town, killing every last creature, including Franklin's and Margaret's kin."
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1178353872234600.xml&coll=2

[4.29.2007]—A Far Country by Daniel Mason (Alfred A. Knopf: 2007)—Writes Matt Steinglass for The New York Times Sunday Book Review: "…Isabel's family is her refuge. In particular, she shares a supernatural bond with Isaias, whom she can locate, even blindfolded, in the maze of the cane fields. This touch of Márquezian magic realism risks making the novel feel derivative …but Mason plays down Isabel's gift, treating it less as a marvel than as a medical condition…"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/books/review/Steinglass.t.html?ex=1179028800&en=083b75cc87e5a094&ei=5070

[4.27.2007]—The Thief of Time by John Boyne (Thomas Dunne: 2007)—"Taking a magical realist page from Günter Grass' The Tin Drum, where little Oskar decides to stop growing at age 3, Boyne's picaresque hero, Matthieu, stops aging at the end of the 18th century, retaining the look of a 50-year-old man while appearing Zelig-like in events from the French Revolution and the Great Exhibition of London to the McCarthy hearings and the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg."—Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., special to The Charlotte Observer
http://www.charlotte.com/440/story/101811.html

RELATED READING
[5.07.2007]—Museum of Lost Wonder by Jeff Hoke (Weiser Books: 2006)—"Every now and then, a book comes along that's almost impossible to categorize, like Hoke's beautifully illustrated gem, a strange marriage of alchemical lore and psychology, science and 'wonder.' "—Publishers Weekly
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578633648/downandoutint-20

[5.07.2007]—Flannery O'Connor, "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960) (from the American Literature Archive at the University of Texas at Austin)
http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/grotesque.html

[5.03.2007]—The Girl With the Golden Shoes by Colin Channer (Akashic Books: 2006)—Russell Banks: The Girl with the Golden Shoes is a “nearly perfect moral fable.”
http://akashicbooks.com/girlwiththegoldenexcerpt.htm

MIXED MEDIA
[5.11.2007]—Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays From Clubbed Thumb [play anthology]—"While each of them contains the authors’ unmistakable style, [the plays] all have in common a rich sense of whimsy and humor and contain a magic realist’s mixture of classical narrative structure with avant-garde elements."—Jason Grote for The Brooklyn Rail
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/5/theater/funny-strange-provacative

[5.05.2007]—Racing Daylight [independent film]—"A slice of magic realism."—Chronogram Magazine
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2007/5/Arts+&+Culture/Screen-Scene

[5.04.2007]—Madeinusa [Peruvian film]—Writes Robert Horton for HeraldNet—"This story was dreamed up by director Claudia Llosa, the niece of celebrated novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. It has a brilliant idea, yet as the story unfolded, I was left with the curious feeling that the most interesting possibilities were unexplored."
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/05/04/100ae_ae12madeinusa001.cfm

[5.03.2007]—The Madwoman of Chaillot [stage play]—Writes Sara Nicole Miller for the Minnesota Daily: "The huge cast (of all sensibilities, some of them amateur actors) is passionate and engaging, but the real gems of the show are the Madwomen and the Ragpicker, who carry the performance, soaring into the realm of witty, magical realism with their emblazoned monologues."
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/05/02/71811

[5.01.2007]—This tribute to the plays of August Wilson, written by George Weinberg-Harter for SanDiego.com, takes into account "a vein of the supernatural (what some now call 'magical realism') [which] provides an important thematic element running through Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle."
http://www.sandiego.com/critichome.jsp?x=000&id=f079a853-531e-495b-965e-753fa914305b

[5.01.2007]—Posthumous Memoirs [Brazilian film]—"Beginning with the narrator's death, this life is told to us through a wonderfully cheeky, disjointed narrative. One of the aspects that does indeed ground the narrative is the reliance on sensing the world through our bodies. Noses, eyes, legs are brought to the fore to foretell this story of a life lived with some regrets, yet still fully lived. The same can be said of the production of this film. …it is consistent in its own artifice to satisfy its magical realism style."—Adam Hartzell for GreenCine Daily
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/003663.html

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[5.08.2007]—Bill Degenaro, at the blog that shares his name, reviews Please Don't Come Back from the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos.
http://bdegenaro.blogspot.com/2007/05/worth-look.html

NEXT NEWS POST: Wednesday 5.23.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

RIP Kirill Lavrov; PEN WORLD VOICES; Curses! workshop has 2 slots open!; Viable Paradise, Hudson as Thoreau; A Lobster Tale

2007-04-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

IN MEMORIUM
Kirill Lavrov, Russian actor. One of Lavrov's final roles was as the character, Pontius Pilate, in Russia's highly acclaimed 2006 television adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's magical realist novel, Master and Margarita.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[5.7]—Peter Carey; Angela Carter; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
[5.8]—Thomas Pynchon.
[5.9]—Richard Adams.
[5.11]—Camilo José Cela; Rubem Fonseca; Edward Kamau Brathwaite.
[5.11]—Mossimo Bontempelli.
[5.15]—Mikhail Bulgakov
[5.16]—Juan Rulfo

CALENDAR
[4.27-29.2007]—Of interest to magical realist fans at this weekend's PEN WORLD VOICES event (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/arts/27spare.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) in New York:

FRI APR 27—Imaginary Geographies: With Daniel Alarcón, Arthur Japin,
Tatyana Tolstaya, moderated by Deborah Treisman; Conversation: Kiran Desai &
Vikram Chandra, with Rachel Donadio

SAT APR 28—Conversation: Tatyana Tolstaya & David Remnick; A Believer
Nighttime Event: With Niccolò Ammaniti, John Hodgman, Uzodinma Iweala, Miranda July, Yasmina Khadra, and Eric Bogosian

SUN APR 29—A Tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski: Breyten Breytenbach, Elzbieta
Czyzewska, Carolin Emcke, Philip Gourevitch, Adam Michnik, Salman Rushdie,
Lawrence Weschler; Internal Exile: Imma Monsó, Zafer Senocak, Adriaan van Dis, moderated by Esmeralda Santiago

[Coming up]—Margin contributor Thad Rutkowski will be reading from his own work at the following two upcoming appearances:

• Mon Apr 30 at 6:30p at the College of Staten Island, English Department
• Tues May 1 at 7p at the Brooklyn Library, Grand Army Plaza, Eastern
Parkway and Flatbush Avenue. Rutkowski will appear with Rigoberto Gonzalez and
Katha Pollitt. Hosted by Robert Hershon.

[5.01.2007]—Registration deadline for MRCentral online writers workshop, "Curses!" (see Writer's Resource, below, for more info)

[5.4.2007]—MR News: The Week in Review is on hiatus; see you 5.11.2007!

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[4.27.2007]—There are two spots left in MRCentral's first online workshop, "Curses!" The generative writing workshop includes a podcast lecture, 4 live discussions, selected reading, homework centered on the use of the curse in magical realist literature, and a private critique from workshop facilitator Tamara Kaye Sellman. Cost: $120 includes lifetime membership to MRCentral. HURRY! Registration Deadline: 5.01.2007.
More info: mrcentral@magical-realism.com.

[4.27.2007]—The Aliform Group offers a variety of mixed media services to meet the needs of Latin American and Luso American writers, journalists and artists, including translation, interpretation, personal/creative communication, television commercial production, speakers bureau services, guide services and more. For information: www.aliformgroup.com or information@aliformgroup.com

[4.27.2007]—Viable Paradise is a one-week science fiction and fantasy writers' workshop that meets in Martha's Vineyard in Sept 2007. Applications due June 15.
http://www.sff.net/paradise/index.htm

VINTAGE MR
[4.24.2007]—The Christian Science Monitor has a nice article up describing the revival of interest in W.H. Hudson (Green Mansions) as Argentina's version of Thoreau.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p20s01-litr.html?page=1

RELATED READING
[4.22.2007]—"Suppose you have spent all your life in the northern hemisphere and have only ever seen white swans. You might very well conclude (inductively) that all swans are white. But take a trip to Australia, where swans are black, and your theory will collapse. A 'Black Swan' is therefore anything that seems to us, on the basis of our limited experience, to be impossible."—from the article, "We can see the causes of Cho's rampage now, so why not before?" by Niall Ferguson for the Sunday Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/22/do2201.xml

MIXED MEDIA
[4.16.2007]—A Lobster Tale [independent film]—This film, which recently enjoyed critical success at the 7th annual Phoenix Film Festival, described this film as a "a movie tinged with magical realism" by Randy Cordova for the Arizona Republic.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0474865/

NEXT NEWS POST: 5.11.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.

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ACLA seminar in Mexico; lightbulb joke; mentee Carol D. O'Dell; Rulfo at La Bloga; MR in India and Uruguay

2007-04-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[4.26]—Bernard Malamud

CALENDAR
[4.19-22.2007]—Currently appearing: "Magical Realism: An Experiment in the Interstices"—Seminar at ACLA 2007, Trans, Pan, Inter: Cultures in Contact, Puebla, Mexico. From the conference description:

"Like much of postmodernism, magical realism embodies an experiment in the crossing of linguistic, cultural, ideological, and national boundaries, serving the comparatist as an ideal location for exploring interconnectedness. Magical realism has been formed from variant locations and historical moments. Influenced by a modern 1920s movement of German painters, magical realism 'boomed' as a postmodern literary movement out of Latin America in the 1960s. Though some Latino writers and theorists would have had magical realism identified as the exclusive property of their continent, the mode has since (and, arguably, previously) become an international phenomenon. Ideologically, magical realism is a clash between realism and postmodernism, empiricism and the sublime. It serves as a location of collision between colonist and native. Magical realism exists in the interstices and demands a comparative approach."

Participating scholars and authors include: Yoshiko Anegawa, Peter Arnds, Anna E. Baker, León Berdichevsky, Wendy Faris, Monica Filimon, Corina Kesler, Geetha Ramanathan, Kim Sasser, and Janice Zehentbauer. Go to the link to see the weekend presentation lineup.
http://dev.cdh.ucla.edu/acla2007/?p=66

JUST FOR FUN
Q: How many magical realist writers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None: the light bulb just changes, for no apparent reason, into a baby. The baby is calling your name. It’s still snowing.
—from Luc Reid's Lightbulb Jokes

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[4.16.2007]—Writer Carol D. O'Dell is busy promoting her new book, Mothering Mother (2007: Kunati Publishing). O'Dell assisted in the production of Southern Revival: Deep Magic for Hurricane Relief and is MRCentral's first mentorship recipient.
http://www.caroldodell.com

BOOKLIST
[4.19.2007]—A Dark Music by Robert Froese (Flat Bay Press: 2007)—Writes Tony Brinkley, Special to The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander: "The novel narrates moments of [the] past, not from an archaeological point of view, but with the kind of magic realism that only the best fiction writing can achieve."
http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7528&Itemid=86

MIXED MEDIA
[4.19.2007]—A Dios Momo (Good-Bye Momo) [foreign film; Uruguay]—Writes Gerald Wright for Blogcritics Magazine: "This heartwarming drama is a mystical and magical tale of an 11-year-old Afro-Uruguayan boy named Obdulio (Mathias Acuna) who learns how his formal education is a necessity in the ghetto community where he lives. All this is set against a backstory of Uruguay's Carnival festivities."
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/19/074144.php

[4.15.2007]—Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo [stage]—Writes Uttara Choudhury for DNA India—"[Playwright Rajiv] Joseph…was moved to write Bengal Tiger which takes his audience into a Kafkaesque Iraq following two American soldiers, a talking tiger and an Iraqi translator after he read a news item."
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1090900

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[4.20.2007]—La Bloga's guest columnist Jesse Tijerina featured a discussion on Juan Rulfo's important MR novel, Pedro Paramo, today.
http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/04/guest-columnist-jesse-tijerina.html

NEXT NEWS POST: 4.27.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

KVJ; MR workshop in Kafka country OR online; Borges Center opens; differences between MR and fantasy; falling frogs; Fantasy Matters; Gabo in Iran?

2007-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

IN MEMORIUM
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007)
Editor's note: Some will insist that his science fiction and speculative writings were laced with magical realism. I have had two exchanges with him. The first was at a reading he presented for the King County Public Library system back in the 1990s; I asked him two different questions about writing and he made some sort of comment about writers never looking so lovely… (that was great for my ego, because I was pregnant at the time). Later, I witnessed two young men stealing books from his signing table. I also submitted a short story of mine to one of his Hamptons contests. It was rejected, but he gave me a lovely, hand-written reply that was rather encouraging, suggesting that I needed to build on my story's already strong skeleton. That was a pleasure to open. Godspeed, KVJ.

Celebrating the muse: The Canadian author, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, who wrote The Cure for Death by Lightning, memorializes her recently passed mother (Irene Anderson, 1927-2007) in this lovely entry about muses, lightning, and memory.
http://www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca/index2.htm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[4.17]—Thornton Wilder; Cynthia Ozick.

CALENDAR
[mid Apr]—Magic Realist Writing Workshop—Prague, Czech Republic! While the 2-week workshop, sponsored by North Carolina State University, doesn't happen until June, you need to get your deposit in by mid-April if you hope to attend. For more information, contact Wilton Barnhardt [wwbarnha@unity.ncsu.edu] or John Kessel [tenshi@unity.ncsu.edu].
http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/creativewriting/SummerWorkshopPrague.htm

[through 4.14.2007]—Borges fans, don't miss out on the Inaugural Conference of the UI Borges Center, held at the Old Capitol Museum, Iowa City, IA. "The Place of Letters: The World in Borges" celebrates the work of internationally acclaimed Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The events are free, open to the public, and feature world scholars speaking about the work, life and legacy of one of the most famous Latin American writers of the 20th century. More info: http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070406/NEWS01/70406006/1079/NEWS01

INTERACT
[4.06.2007]—This blog entry by Jalisa annotates a number of arguments for distinguishing magical realism from fantasy. Want to add your two cents? There's a comment box at the bottom of the discussion.
http://jalisa-100yrsofsolitude.blogspot.com/2007/04/annotated-bib.html

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[3.12.2007]—"Traffic came to a halt and locals fled inside after thousands of frogs fell from the sky onto a Serbian village."
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1421070.html?menu=news.quirkies

[3.12.2007]—"Some media sources report that the multiple visitors of the Arkaim valley can see some strange light moving not in according to the satellite trajectory in the sky at night, light flashes, fog clusters, and some other things. If believe the stories of witnesses, people often start to feel unreasonable psychic tension in some areas; they may register changes in heart beating rhythm, blood pressure, and body temperature. The atmospheric temperature in Arkaim can rise and fall by 5 degrees within 5 minutes."
http://www.russia-ic.com/travel/resorts/445/

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
MRCentral has launched a trial online writers workshop for those interested in mastering aspects of magical realist narrative and generating new material. Our first workshop theme will be "Curses!" This class is now full. Check back for future workshops or contact director Tamara Kaye Sellman directly to express your interest and hold your spot in the next series.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[4.13.2007]—Consider contributing to or attending next fall's Fantasy Matters Conference at the University of Minnesota. Includes call for submissions with a May 2007 deadline.
http://www.fantasymatters.org/index2.html

[4.13.2007]—Publishers Weekly made some summer hit predictions this week and among their faves are two books of interest to magical realism fans: Lisa See's Peony in Love and Günter Grass's much-awaited memoir, Peeling the Onion.
http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6431243.html

[4.06.2007]—Clive James features Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic (The Museum of Unconditional Surrender, Margin 2006: http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/spotintnatl.html)
in one of his latest entries for Slate s ongoing series, "Clive's Lives: A Guide to 20th-Century Culture," which features selected essays reprinted from James' popular book, Cultural Amnesia. http://www.slate.com/id/2163599/fr/rss/

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[4.12.2007]—Magical realist writers may wish to consider joining the Interstitial Arts Foundation. From their website: "The dictionary definition of interstitial refers not only to the space between things, but also to that which binds two or more things together. Interstitial literature can fall into the cracks between genres or it can bind two or more genres together. The IAF is here to give support to writers working between or across categories."
http://www.interstitialarts.org/what/literary.html

[4.07.2007]—Here's an interesting interview with Martín Espada, called “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors” by Sandra Cisneros, conducted by Gabriel Thompson for the Brooklyn Rail.
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/4/express/a-bard-from-east-new-york

[4.05.2007]—Three friends to magical realism, Andrei Codrescu, Lance Olsen and Brian Evenson, have given their thoughtful answers to the looming question, "What does fiction do?", recently posted at the Chiasmus Press blog.
http://chiasmuspress.wordpress.com/2007/02/11/the-answers/

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[4.13.2007]—Jan Steckel reports the following scheduled appearances over the next week:

Sat Apr 14, 2-5p, Art and Poetry at the Lake (with open mic) at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, in the Lakeshore district near Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA. 510-238-7344. FREE!

Tues Apr 17, 7-8:30p, Featured Reader at a National Poetry Month reading
organized by Kit Kennedy, also featuring Elz Cuya, Clara Hsu, Rich Schimpf and Paul Watsky. Eureka Valley Library/Harvey Milk Branch. 16th and Castro, San Francisco. 415-355-5616. FREE! Snacks provided.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT

[4.10.2007]—Philip Hensher reviews Touchstones: Essays on Literature, Art and Politics by Mario Vargas Llosa for The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/04/01/bollo31.xml

[4.10.2007]—Reports of Gabo's cancer-free recovery may be a bit precipitous. The Colombian MR master was forced to cancel his much-anticipated trip to Iran this week after medical officials determined his health was too poor for traveling. http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?

Or was he? NewsID=468503 http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=5414&sectionid=351020105

Let the rumor mill begin.

[3.31.2007]—"Magic realism can be a tool that might help us inject a fresh feel and voice to Zimbabwean literature."—Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudza, Zimbabwean author, in Ohmynews.com.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=10&no=353367&rel_no=1

[3.30.2007]—Gabriel García Márquez on the "Difference Between Novels and Journalism."
http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/gabriel-garcia-marquez-on-the-difference-between-novels-and-journalism-quote-of-the-day-15/

[3.30.2007]—Could it be? Gabo in podcast? Check it out.
http://living.scotsman.com/books.cfm?id=491042007

BOOKLIST

[4.13.2007]—Check out these titles by Deep South writer Donald Harrington.
http://www.donaldharington.com/books.html

[4.9.2007]—Ned Stapleton and the Wrath of the Death Gods (YA novel) by Nathan Town (2006: Consignment Grant Park)—From McNally Robinson Booksellers: "Filled with comedy, horror, magic realism, and unforgettable characters, Ned Stapleton and the Wrath of the Death Gods is a riveting and page-turning adventure."
https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/product.php?txtProdPOSKey=0978104005&blnBKM=true

[4.8.2007]—Selected Poems by Derek Walcott (2007: Farrar, Straus & Giroux)—From William Logan in the New York times Sunday Book Review: "Derek Walcott has crossed so many borders, his poems read like a much-thumbed Baedeker. To a boy born on St. Lucia, the rhythms and intonations of English verse were a passport to the elsewhere; but they came with a burden—the language of the colonial masters was not the one caught in his ear at home. 'How choose,' he wrote, 'Between this Africa and the English tongue I love? / Betray them both, or give back what they give?'"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/books/review/Logan.t.html?ex=1333684800&en=8f9de5d587a7ff76&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

MIXED MEDIA

[4.13.2007]—La Strada/The Road [DVD]—Dan Schneider for Blogcritics Magazine writes that "Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini’s 1954 black and white film La Strada (The Road) is one of those films that is midway between his early neo-realism and his later magical realism, with touches of both aplenty."
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/12/175922.php

[4.1.2007]—Gem of the Ocean [theatre]—Writes Marcia Morphy for The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, "August Wilson combines history, slavery and magical realism for a rich view of African-American culture." Now showing at the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, through April 29. More info:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070401/ENT0102/704010314/1053/ENT01

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

[4.13.2007]—BookNinja reports on the controversy surrounding the short list for the IMPAC Dublin Literary award, which includes Julian Barnes and Salman Rushdie. The prize, at €100,000 (£68,000), "is the world’s richest, as well as its most unpredictable. While a number of female literary big-hitters featured at the early stages, including Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, Booker-winner Margaret Atwood, Orange-winner Ali Smith and Zadie Smith, none made it through to the next stage, resulting in an all-male shortlist. Other big names to miss out include Kazuo Ishiguro, John Banville, Ian McEwan and Haruki Murakami."
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/http://www.bookninja.com/?p=2591

[3.31.2007]—Anthology Review: Text:UR—The New Book of Masks, from Horrorscope
http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/2007/03/review-textur-new-book-of-masks.html

NEXT NEWS POST: 4.20.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.

GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

MR Opera; miracle house; Murakami shares; Hugos announced; new Alcalá release; Gabo before the Spanish Congress

2007-03-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

NEXT EDITION: 4.13.2007
(4.6.2007 edition skipped; editor on spring break)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[3.31]—Octavio Paz; Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
[4.1]—Milan Kundera

CALENDAR
[3.30-4.1.2007]—For opera fans: Florencia en el Amazonas opens tonight and plays through Sunday at the concert auditorium at Michigan State University.The College of Music premieres its Spanish-language opera (music by Daniel Catán and libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Berain)which is being described as "[d]one in the style of magical realism…it draws upon the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez." Tickets: $18, $16 for seniors, $8 for students. More info: http://hub.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/THINGS0101/70328005/1104/HUB

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[3.27.2007]—From TodayTonight [Australia]: "The house of miracles: After a 17-year-old boy died, oil began seeping through his bedroom walls and ash appeared on the floor. Some now believe he was a messenger of God."
http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/38725/lifestyle/house-miracles

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[3.28.2007]—This year, Haruki Murakami [Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman] shares the Kiriyama Prize with Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. In Media Bistro:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/awards/murakami_shares_kiriyama_prize_55833.asp?c=rss

[3.29.2007]—The Hugo Nominees were announced this week and some familiar names cropped up, among them Ian McDonald and Neil Gaiman.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/29/hugo_nominees_announ.html

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[3.30.2007]—Kathleen Alcalá announces her latest book from the University of Arizona Press: The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing. http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/util/show_search_result.php?file=%2F%2FBOOKS%2Fbid1789.htm&terms=alcala&case=Insensitive

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[3.26.2007]—from Anubis Galardy, special envoy for Prensa Latina—"The 4th Congress of the Spanish Language surrendered today before Gabriel García Márquez in an opening session dedicated to highlight his influence in literature in the language he enriched like none."
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BCC03D15E-78F9-499A-B4A7-88F73E5CEC31%7D)&language=EN

BOOKLIST
[3.25.2007]—Fireproof by Raj Kamal Jha (Picador: 2006)—From the Kashmir Observer: "…a thrilling bullet train of mayhem, mystery, and magic realism…"

MIXED MEDIA
[3.28.2007]—from Variety: "Alejandro Amenabar co-scribe Mateo Gil is teaming with Spain’s Sogecine and Ariete-Ariane and Portugal’s Take 2000 to write and direct a bigscreen adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s novel, Pedro Paramo, a seminal work in modern Latin American literature. Mexican Eugenio Caballero, who won an Academy Award this year for Pan’s Labyrinth, has been tapped as art director. … Gil and Caballero are scouting in Jalisco, Mexico, for a ghost village as the film’s key location." Editor's note: Think it can be done? Hmmm…
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117962008.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

[3.28.2007]—C.R.A.Z.Y. [DVD]—Writes Steve Warren for Windy City Times—"At first, C.R.A.Z.Y. recalls Ma Vie en Rose, the Belgian film about a boy who knows he’s queer at an early age and has no problem with it, even though everyone around him is freaking out. It’s also got enough elements of magic, magic realism and surrealism to suggest another Amelie. And with Vallée’s offbeat humor, we seem to be in for a most pleasant experience."
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=14436

[3.26.2007]—from India FM: "Eklayva, The Royal Guard, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s stylish movie, stunned Hollywood luminaries at a special screening on Saturday, 24th March at UCLA.… Dr. Rob Rosen, the Dean of UCLA’s film program, found the film to be a kin of Gabriel García Márquez’s magic realism."
http://www.indiafm.com/news/2007/03/26/9164/

NEXT NEWS POST: 4.13.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: New guidelines can be found at www.mrcentral.net.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

Gabo mobbed, but cancer free and back to writing!; more on Gabo/Llosa feud; Larry Brown's Catfish; Kafka reissue; Etgar Keret; Infinite Libraries

2007-03-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[3.19]—Nikolai Gogol
[3.25]—Wilson Harris; Toni Cade Bambara
[3.28]—Mario Vargas Llosa
[3.29]—Ernst Junger

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[3.10.2007]—Writer Cherryl Floyd-Miller recently signed a publishing contract with London-based Salt Publishing for her next collection of poems, Exquisite Heats, which she describes at her blog as her "brand of leaping into sound and magical realism."
http://cherrylfloyd-miller.blogspot.com/2007/03/out-of-closet-ive-been-sitting-on.html

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[3.20.2007]—It's tough being Gabo. "Colombian author shies from media."—CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/03/20/psyk.marquez.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[3.14.2007]—Gabriel Garcia Marquez: now cancer-free and returning to the writing of his memoirs! Read it all here.
http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/m/FMPro?-db=ma&-lay=a&amp;-format=d.html&id=2848&-Find

[3.14.2007]—from The Independent comes this overview of famous literary feuds. Some relative to magical realist interests include the feuds between Amis v. Barnes and Le Carré v. Rushdie, but perhaps the most widely known is the 30-year brick wall between Llosa and García Márquez. New discussion in this novel places a woman at the center of this longstanding feud.
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2353470.ece

[3.12.2007]—reported in Jurnalo—"Colombian author Garcia Marquez mediates between government, rebels."
http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=22864

BOOKLIST
[3.17.2007]—A Miracle of Catfish by Larry Brown (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill: 2007)—"There’s also a touch of magical realism in the form of a huge catfish in Cortez’s pond."—Winston-Salem Journal.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350260957&path=rss

[3.14.2007]—Friday and the Year That Followed by Juan J.Morales (Fairweather Books/Bedbug Press: 2006)—"From Ecuador to Puerto Rico to Vietnam and some points in between, this collection covers a great deal of space and time: we're shown the devastation of an earthquake along with the kind of magic one associates with One Hundred Years of Solitude--mystical healing, capturing witches, curing imbecility."—SPD Books
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780977197354

[3.14.2007]—She's Gone by Kwame Dawes (Akashic Books: 2007)—"Kwame Dawes is always reinventing the Caribbean narrative, fusing myth, legend, reggae, and his own sense of style to create a powerful and tremendous art."—Chris Abani
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=1933354186

[3.14.2007]—Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt Children's Books: 2007)—From Terri Windling in her Endicott Studio review: "I thoroughly enjoyed this coming-of-age story about a 14 year old girl growing up in the ramshackle 11,000 rooms of Crackpot Hall, along with her magically dysfunctional family."
http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/03/the_heroine_of__1.html

VINTAGE MR
[3.17.2007]—"The Czech writer Franz Kafka, whose works have just been reissued in a new translation, painted a nightmare world of legal injustice that has resonances today, almost a century on. Sinead Kennedy looks at the politics of this disturbing but profoundly relevant novelist."—from the article in The Socialist Worker.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10923

RELATED READING
[3.16.2007]—"Life at a louder volume: Etgar Keret's ambiguous, surreal short stories, along with his films and graphic books, have made him a controversial and popular figure, often hailed as the voice of young Israelis."—The Guardian
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2035005,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=10

[3.16.2007]—For fans of Borges, in particular: "Making sense of the web’s new ‘infinite library’—The search engines that guard entry to the treasure that is the worldwide web are modern-day dragons, according to a new book on the subject, writes Stephen Bell."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/EF85B1D20165BFA1CC25729900121203

MIXED MEDIA
[3.15.2007]—Into the West [family film/DVD]—From the New Yorker: "This sort of marriage of ancient myths and contemporary realities rarely works, but Sheridan and the director, Mike Newell, keep the story moving along nimbly and achieve a winning blend of comedy and lyricism. The filmmakers don't have to insist on the magical properties of their story, because the horse-which evokes memories of the wondrous creature in Albert Lamorisse's great 1953 children's film, White Mane-supplies all the magic the movie needs."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B00007K02D/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-9364923-8569638?ie=UTF8&n=130&s=dvd

[3.15.2007]—Affabulatori, the distinctly Italian and theatrical art of the political monologue, "represent[s] the most recent revelation of Italian theater," said critic Roberto Incerti in 2006. But these tale spinners aren't all about the rhetoric of politics, writes journalist Elisabetta Povoledo. "[D]irect political denunciation would hardly inspire the adoration it does in his fans were it not laced with a good dose of magical realism that transports audiences—from the dreary reality of war or a factory job to another realm where flies negotiate with the Virgin Mary to make the body of Jesus Christ disappear, armies are populated by monkeys and the ghosts of dead sons still crave freshly picked pears." From the International Herald Tribune.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/15/style/fmpovo.php

[3.12.2007]—Black Snake Moan [feature film]—Writes John Wirt for The Advocate—"Black Snake Moan is a colorful mix of Southern authenticity and magic realism." Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. With director Craig Brewer.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/movies/reviews/6388657.html

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[3.14.2007]—From Red Star Coven comes this review of The Uncomfortable Dead, written by Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II: "What really makes the book come alive is Marcos' writing, which is experimental and self-referential, a little post-modern, a little magic realist - but without ever losing control of the narrative drive."
http://redstarcoven.blogspot.com/2007/03/uncomfortable-dead.html

[3.13.2007]—"What it's like being Rushdie."—The Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0703130246mar13,1,5821076.story?track=rss

[3.11.2007]—From The Lord is My Shepherd comes this thoughtful essay on the complexity of memory in Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo.
http://joanerl.blogspot.com/2007/03/recuerdos-of-past-present-and-future.html

[3.11.2007]—From Logomorphoses: The Word Become Film comes this comparison between the novel, Eisenheim the Illusionist, published by Steven Millhauser in 1990 and The Illusionist, last year's film starring Edward Norton, which was directed by Neil Burger.
http://logomorphoses.blogspot.com/2007/03/illusionist.html

[3.11.2007]—From Aristokat: Why Charles de Lint isn't writing in the Magic Realism genre
http://aristokat.livejournal.com/34890.html

NEXT NEWS POST: 3.30.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

RE: Next newsblog Wed 3.21

2007-03-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

With apologies for the missing newsblog last Friday but personal and work commitments forced this to the back burner. Plenty of good things to check out on Wednesday, so see you then!

Gabo: No Retirement,80th birthday; MR stage season; white chicks CAN write MR; Invisible Cities wiki novel; FOUND: Winterson novel; Kafka can't sleep!

2007-03-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[3.09]—Keri Hulme
[3.10]—Pedro Antonio de Alarcón
[3.12]—Patrick Chamoiseau
[3.15]—Ben Okri

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Un Feliz Compleanos! Gabriel Garcia Marquez turns 80!
Autumn of a man of letters—Gabriel García Márquez turns 80 [Gulf Times: Qatar]

Spain holds marathon reading of García Márquez masterpiece [USA Today]

Colombian García Márquez Turns 80 [Prensa Latina]

Colombia vows to rebuild novelist's home [Miami Herald]

The Town’s Biggest Event Since the Banana Fever Ended [The New York Times]

Gabriel García Márquez turns 80, and he's not quitting. Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez makes a declaration for his birthday: He's not retiring. [LA Times]

New Spring for the patriarch: Gabriel García Márquez marks his 80th birthday surrounded by the splendors of fame that he never imagined in his days of listening to fabulous tales in Aracataca [Granma Internacional]

CALENDAR
[3.08-10.2007]—Río de Lágrimas by Las Maganenas shows at the Albuquerque Journal Theatre. Río de Lágrimas is "a trilingual (Nahuatl, English and Spanish) multimedia performance piece based on the legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. The piece begins in Mexico with La Malinche, Hernán Cortés' estranged lover, whose despair over their broken relationship and the death of her children transforms her into La Llorona, and ends at the border in Ciuidad Juárez, where she grieves for 4,000 dead and missing maquiladora workers."—Albuquerque Events. Evening performance 8p; matinee at 2p Sun only. More info at 724-4771 or here.

[through 3.11.2007]—Now playing: The Sheep And The Whale. "[Director Soheil] Parsa maintains a fine dramatic tension throughout, skilfully blending magic realism, engaging storytelling, ritual and intense emotions."Cahoots/Modern Times/Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson in Toronto. Admission: Pwyc-$30. Show times and tickets: 416-504-7529 or here.

[3.11-16.2007]—Chicago's 11th annual Story Week Festival of Writers 2007: Cities of Words features more than a dozen events, including readings and signings by magical realist authors Salman Rushdieand Chris Abani. Price: Free. Complete schedule and more info: 312-344-7611 or here.

[3.15-25.2007]—¡Viva! 13th Annual Spanish and Latin American Film Festival will show at the Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street,Manchester, M1 5NH, United Kingdom. "Not wanting to take any chances for our 13th year, we’ve programmed a particularly ghoulish season of Horror que habla en español to ward off any bad juju." The Cervantes Institute, sponsor. Complete schedule and more info.

[through 3.17.2007]—Now playing: Mundo Tango, which "pivots on notions of duality in its sizzling exploration of national character and the artist's role in shaping its contours."The text, by Cristina Iovita, is adapted from the magic-realist works of Jorge Luis Borges and the theatre pieces of Rodrigo Garcia. Theatre de l'Utopie's 10th production shows at MAI, 3680 Jeanne Mance Street in Montreal. Admission: $20; students and seniors $15. Show times and tickets: 514-982-3386 or here.

[through 3.18.2007]—Now playing: Republic of Dreams, a world-premiere work inspired by the art and writing of Bruno Schulz. The Mexican-Jewish author Ilan Stavans is a dramaturg and collaborator on the project. Double Edge Theatre, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, will present the theatrical event at La MaMa's The Annex, 74A East 4th Street in New York. Show times: Thurs-Sat at 730p; Sun at 230p and 730p. Tickets: (212) 475-7710. Info

[through 3.24.2007]—Now playing: Each Day Dies With Sleep, an edgy, "avant-garde journey into magical realism that layers fantasy with brutal reality."—Long Beach Beachcomber. Runs through Mar. 24. Performance schedule: 8p on Thurs, Fri and Sat. The Garage Theater, 251 E. 7th St. (at Long Beach Blvd.), Long Beach, CA. More info: 562.433.8337 or here.

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[3.09.2007]—Someone! Please email Mary Q Contrary and tell her that even white chicks can write magical realism! Send her some suggestions, while you're at it, i.e. Jeannette Winterson, Angela Carter...

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[2.24.2007]—From the Malta Star: "A few weeks ago, a man sitting in the town police station’s corridor saw a lady in black walk towards a door, and head straight through it… without opening it. …But the spookiest part of it is yet to come—when he told this to police, they did not laugh at him."

[2.24.2007]—From Weird India: "A miracle occurred when woodcutters began felling a tree inside the compound of a Sufi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir state of India. They were surprised to find 'impressions of Quranic verses' on the wood. It was divine intervention against cutting of trees!"

WRITERS' RESOURCES
[3.01.2007]—It's official: a nexus of members of MRCentral.net have decided to write their own magical realist wiki novel. Code name: Invisible Cities. Wanna join in? Become a member of MRCentral.net.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[3.07.2007]—Last January, The Western Stage of Salinas, CA, learned it will receive a $20,000 Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the NEA in support of its development of composer-playwright Hector Armienta's opera, La Llorona: The Weeping Woman-A Mexican Musical Novela.

[3.06.2007]—Several Canadian magical realists have earned regional recognition in the annual Commonwealth Prize competition, including winner D.Y. Béchard of Montreal (for Vandal Love), Mark Frutkin's Fabrizio's Return, and Baby Khaki's Wings by Anar Ali. Final results will be announced in late May.

[3.05.2007]—Haruki Murakami (Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman) is among this year's ten finalists for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[3.08.2007]—from Caroline Briggs for BBC News: "An unpublished novel by renowned author Jeanette Winterson has been found at an Underground station in south London."

BOOKLIST
[3.09.2007]—The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (Warner Books: 2006)—"The New Moon's Arms is a mainstream magical realism novel set in the Caribbean on the fictional island of Dolorosse."—Time-Warner Bookmark

[3.09.2007]—Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow: 2006)—From Bookreporter.com: "Gaiman is not about sword-swinging, dragon dueling epics, though he could probably pull it off with great flair. His work is about legend, myth and the spaces in between, about relationships and dreams and the magical realism that also can be found in a magician's sleight-of-hand trick."

[3.09.2007]—On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (Babbage Press: 2006)—From I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending: "Being the pragmatic sort, [protagonist] Shandy leaps with both feet into pirate life, replete with voodoo sorcery, constant drunkenness, and shipboard battle. After a run-in with the British fleet, Shandy joins Blackbeard in the search for the mythical Fountain of Youth. Zombies, ghosts, and deadly voodoo magic abound."

[3.05.2007]—A Far Country by Daniel Mason (Knopf: 2007)—From the Mercury News: "The overtones in A Far Country are of Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez. There are touches of magic realism in the novel, as when the young Isabel 'saw a little boy wandering on the dusty road above town. He was covered with long glass-like hair and he chirped when she approached him. A week later, she fell sick.' She's taken to a healer, 'a man who was said to move easily between both worlds,' who proclaims, 'Her body isn't closed'—the 'barrier between this world and the other one' is still permeable for Isabel."

[2.26.2007]—Clara and Senor Frog by Campbell Geeslin, illust. by Ryan Sanchez [ages 4-8] (Schwartz & Wade: April 24, 2007)—From A Fuse #8 Production: "With oodles of references to Diego Rivera, it's got a cool magical realism feel to it that's just sublime."

[2.25.2007]—Measuring Time by Helon Habila (WW Norton: 2007)—Writes Hari Kunzru for the The New York Times: “Measuring Time, Habila’s accomplished second novel, overlays this tradition of despair with a self-consciously mythic plot that brings the book to the borders of that definitively 'postcolonial' style, magic realism."

VINTAGE MR
[3.06.2007]—Kafka was a terrible insomniac. So, are we surprised by that? Perhaps he was afraid of what he'd wake up as...Read about it here.

MIXED MEDIA
[2.27.2007]—El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera [children's cable television: Nickelodeon]—"The brightly colored animation has roots in Mexican folk and pop art, and the slightly insane story lines dabble in magical-realism storytelling."—The Star-Telegram

[2.26.2007]—Academy Awards finals: "Pan's Labyrinth received Oscars for cinematography, art direction and makeup at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, but fell short of its ultimate prize, best foreign-language film, which went to The Lives of Others, from Germany."—The New York Times

[2.23.2007]—The Taste of Tea [foreign film/Japan]—Writes S. James Snyder for the New York Sun—"Existing mostly in a silent universe—other characters in the film have a great deal to say, while this family keeps to itself—[director Katsuhito] Ishii's brand of magic realism works thanks to an ensemble of subtle actors capable of using the slightest gestures—the flick of a finger, the arch of an eyebrow—to convey an ocean of heartache."

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[3.09.2007]—Zissimos reviews Emir Kusturica's latest film: Black Cat, White Cat. "Nothing on paper surpasses the magic realism that Kusturica meticulously and restlessly portrays onscreen—so much so that the storyline is a mere expedient, an incidental aside to help him indulge in pictorial madness."

[3.01.2007]—La Bloga interviews Martín Espada. From the publisher of The Republic of Poetry: "In his eighth collection of poems, Martín Espada celebrates the power of poetry itself. The Republic of Poetry is a place of odes and elegies, collective memory and hidden history, miraculous happenings and redemptive justice. Here poets return from the dead, visit in dreams, even rent a helicopter to drop poems on bookmarks."

[2.26.2007]—Read this essay on the magical realism of vultures, from a tropical ecology student reporting from Connecticut. Nonfiction.

NEXT NEWS POST: 3.16.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: All active calls for submissions can be found at MRCentral.net.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

MR@AWP; book bargains; sparking Jesus; Gabo's bday!; Kafka's Soup; Taylor/Overton/McQuerry; Kafka's church

2007-02-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[2.27]—N. Scott Momaday
[3.03]—Yuri Karlovich Olesha
[3.06]—Gabriel García Márquez* (what are you doing for Gabo's birthday? See Of Special Interest, below)
[3.07]—Donald Barthelme; Kobo Abe

CALENDAR
[2.25.2007]—Contributor Richard Peabody is reading for the Bogg Magazine 40th anniversary event with J. Wesley Clark, Ellen Cole and Katherine McCord. Event starts 2p at The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda MD 20815. Info: phone 301.654.8664.

[2.28-3.3.2007]—AWP Conference 2007 in Atlanta, GA!
(Note from the editor: Wish we could be there! Look for us in New York in 2008. Want to run a panel together in 2008? ) Some great discussions to check out this year in Atlanta. MR fans might be interested in the following events (complete schedule [pdf]) :

R104: Writing a Larger World: Stories of Cross-Cultural Connections and Collisions (Thurs)

R143: Deviant Fictions by Women (Thurs)

F107: Con Tinta: A Coalition of Chicano/Latino Writer-Activists (Fri)

F129: Fairy Tales and Contemporary Fiction (Fri)

F152: Establishing Normalcy When Writing the Extraordinary (Fri)

F198: A Reading by John Barth & Michael Martone (Fri)

S102: Beyond Realism: Fiction That Tangles With Tangibles (Sat)

S156: The Imagination of Displacement (Sat)

Don't forget to check out the book fair and visit some of our friends!

Black Warrior Review • BOA Editions • Center for the Art of Translation •
CLMP • Columbia College • Con Tinta • Gargoyle • The Georgia Review •
Jane's Stories • The North American Review • Oberlin College Press •
Omnidawn • Other Voices • Tameme Chapbooks

Note: skipping MR News next week.
NEXT NEWS POST: 3.09.2007

BARGAINS OF INTEREST TO FANS OF MR
(New York Review of Books* winter sale runs through 3.11)
• Asleep in the Sun by Adolfo Bioy Casares $6.47
• The Golovlyov Family by Shchedrin $6.47
• Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories, edited by Randall Jarrell $7.47
• Witch Grass by Raymond Queneau $7.00

*MRCentral.net is in no way affiliated with New York Review of Books

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[2.13.2007]—"Sparks fly from Jesus artwork."—Liverpool Daily Post

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
What are you doing to celebrate Gabo's birthday on Tues Mar 6? Send us a description of your plans and we'll post it at MRCentral.net!

SOMETHING TO DO OVER THE WEEKEND
Make something from Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes. Inside, you'll find a more compassionate Kafka who has a quick and easy miso soup (enough to sustain even "A Hunger Artist"), plus Gabo's Coq au Vin, a Vietnamese Chicken recipe from Graham Greene, Borges's Sole and other works of literary genius. Not all magical realist, but definitely all fun.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[2.21.2007]—On December 1, the University of Dallas Spanish Program held its first-ever public defense of senior theses. The works of Spanish poet Antonio Machado and Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez were discussed by seniors Borja Gutiérrez and Omar Garcia-Rojas (respectively).

INTERACT
MRCentral.net brings together fans, students, teachers and writers of literary magical realism. Membership includes access to MRWiki, MRCentral Interactive and a host of other benefits.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[2.23.2007]—Bruce Taylor reports on a number of projects. He will have a chapter in a “shared word” anthology, Freedomhowler, due out in 2008. He also got favorable mention in the January, 2007 issue of the New York Review of Science Fiction regarding his work. Bruce has been invited to take part in Vancouver's (BC) Word on the Street celebration next fall, but more recently, he appeared as a guest at the RadCon Science Fiction convention in Pasco, WA.

[2.23.2007]—Margin featured author Mary Overton announces that she has work appearing this month in So to Speak and will have work appearing in Zahir in summer 2007. She's also anticipating publication of her work in a upcoming anthology in the fall; stay tuned.

[2.16.2007]—Contributor Maureen McQuerry blogs about the new magazine, Goblin Fruit. Her new book of poems, Relentless Light, can be purchased with free shipping from the publisher before Mar 7.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[2.17.2007]—Salman Rushdie, now an active instructor at Emory, recently penned this tribute to painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the woman who inspired his female protagonist in The Moor's Last Sigh.

BOOKLIST
[2.23.2007]—Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert (How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone) [in German] by Sasa Stanisic (Luchterhand Literaturverlag: 2006)—From an abstract of the review by Carolin Emcke for Foreign Policy: "When his grandfather Slavko died that same day in 1992, Aleksandar’s freshly acquired magical capabilities became indispensable for his survival in the war that would soon envelop his native Yugoslavia. …The magic of storytelling lies at the heart of Sasa Stanisic’s sensational debut novel."

[2.22.2007]—The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (Canongate US: Mar 2007)—Writes Matt Thorne for the Independent Online: "His is an innovative, postmodern, metafictional novel most obviously inspired by Paul Auster and Haruki Murakami."

[2.22.2007]—The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak (Viking Adult, 2007)—John Freeman reviews the book for Alibi. Elif Shafak was put on trial by the Turkish government for "offending Turkishness," then later released, with charges dropped, a week after she gave birth to her daughter.

[2.18.2007]—Tales from the Town of Widows by James Cañón (HarperCollins: Jan 2007 )—From Jonathan Kirsch for the Washington Post: "Among the colorful characters who populate James Cañón's first novel is an American reporter who carries a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude in his backpack, an incidental detail that turns out to be a wink and a nod to the reader. Cañón owes a creative debt to the literary tradition of South American fabulism, as pioneered by Gabriel García Márquez and as more recently practiced by Isabel Allende."

[2.18.2007]—After Dark by Haruki Murakami, tr. Jay Rubin (Knopf: May 2007)—Writes Mary Ann Gwinn for the Seattle Times: "A brief novel about two sisters, a model and a young student, and their lives among the 'night people' of Tokyo."

[2.16.2007]—The Lizard's Tail by Luisa Valenzuela (Serpent's Tail [reprint]: 1992)—Writes E.A. Barrera for La Prensa San Diego: "The magical realism that accompanies Luisa Valenzuela and other Latin American writers is born of a betrayal and misery few North Americans or Western Europeans can grasp."

[2.15.2007]—King of Nod by Scott Fad (Monogram: Winter 2007)—From Kirkus Reviews: "Like Toni Morrison in Beloved, Fad uses the framework of the ghost story as a metaphorical vehicle for discussing the continuing effects of slavery."

VINTAGE MR
[2.19.2007]—The church where Franz Kafka stayed in 1917-1918 and which inspired his work, The Castle, is being preserved. It's one church among more than 3 dozen slated for reconstruction in the Czech Republic. Read the Prague Daily Monitor article here.

MIXED MEDIA
[2.23.2007]—The Astronaut Farmer [feature film]—Kevin Crust writes for the Los Angeles Times: "As in their three previous independent features—Twin Falls, Idaho; Jackpot; and Northfork—the Polishes mine a swath of Americana that seldom turns up in movies, at least with their sense of magic realism and poetry." Starring Billy Bob Thornton; directed by Michael and Mark Polish.

[2.23.2007]—Quartier Mozart [film from Cameroon, 1992], directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo. "An exotic and erotic blend of magic and machismo that offers a sharp social satire."—Philadelphia Inquirer

[2.23.2007]—Werckmeister harmóniák (Werckmeister Harmonies) [Hungarian film, 2000], directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky. Writes Jeff Kuykendall for Kill the Snark: "There should be more filmmakers taking the approach that Béla Tarr takes in Werckmeister Harmonies—and if I picked up a camera, it is the school I would follow, the same school of which the late Andrei Tarkovsky is still principal. It is to film the action, no matter how fantastic or strange (both Tarkovsky and Tarr tell stories with dollops of magical realism), as it happens and with complete realism; rather than rushing events, to plunge the viewer into the film's space by stripping away the D.W. Griffith language of cinematic editing."

[2.22.2007]—Seraphim Falls [feature film, released 1.2007]—David McKee for CityLife writes: "Once Neeson's Carver and Brosnan's Gideon finally face off to settle old scores—at which point our assumptions about the two are neatly stood upon their head—Seraphim Falls makes a hard left turn into metaphor and magical realism. After three acts' worth of neo-realism, the shift toward symbolism causes the movie to seem as though it has been suddenly rewritten by Luis Buñuel." Starring Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston. Directed by David Van Ancken.

[2.18.2007]—Rupert Degas brings Haruki Murakami's bizarre tales to life with two audio books. Detroit Free Press article here.

NEXT NEWS POST: 3.09.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

My Brother and Sister With Wings; Brandeis's Self Storage; Pan redux; Hotel Dusk; lit horror=mr?; SSSanchez; Roy returns;

2007-02-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[2.18]—Toni Morrison
[2.19]—Amy Tan

CALENDAR
[2.16-25.2007]—The Butterfly Connection of Fort Worth, TX opens its 2007 season with the work of magical-realism-loving playwright Rob Bosquez: My Brother and Sister With Wings. Rose Marine Theater, 1440 N. Main St., Fort Worth TX. $10. 817-333-4028 for more info

[2.16-22.2007]—Contributor Gayle Brandeis will be reading from her new book, Self Storage, at the following venues in the next week:

• 2.19.2007 at 730p, Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside Street, Portland,
OR 97209; info 503-228-4651
• 2.20.2007 at 7p, University Bookstore, 4326
University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105; info 206-634-3400
• 2.22.2007 at Great
Good Place for Books, 6120 La Salle Ave, Oakland, CA 94611; info 510-339-8210

[2.20.2007]—Opening: The Sheep and the Whale. Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson, Toronto. Show times: Tues-Sat 8p; matinees Wed, Sat and Sun 2p. Runs through Mar 11. Pay what you can to $30. Info: 416-504-7529 or visit here

2007 OSCAR WATCH: The latest buzz surrounding Pan's Labyrinth

[2.10.2007]——from Isebrand.com: "It is a work of magical realism, and of course, the real point about magical realism is the realism, not the magic."

[2.09.2007]——from Club Parnassus: "Visually the film is excellent- Del Toro has a gift for rich, earthy visuals, and the use of color is also effective in smoothing the transition from the magic to the mundane and back again. What we see of the magical realm makes us wish for more, but the 'real' vistas are often equally impressive."

[2.08.2007]——from People's Weekly World: "The moviegoers who are sure to love Pan’s Labyrinth are those who embrace magic realism and fall into both stories with innocent trust that the filmmaker will use to take both stories to successful and intermixed conclusions."

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[2.16.2007]—Get yourself a copy of Hotel Dusk and start playing. The world's first digitally interactive book? "What makes Hotel Dusk cool is the otherworldly nature that comes from its mongrel heritage: The quiet, Myst-like pace, the sense of being locked inside a puzzle, the comic-booky quality, the sheer magic realism of watching illustrations come to life."—Wired News. Read about it Learn more

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[2.16.2007]—The New York Review of Books finally analyzes Murakami's Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. What took them so long?

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[2.11.2007]—Horror writing might be on the upswing, but in a more literary way, speculates the Independent Online. Award-winning author Will Elliott seems to concur. "I find more is possible in a story when the rules of reality can be disregarded. Writing in, I guess you could call it magic realism, makes it possible to hold up a warped mirror to our world and laugh at the strange shapes reflected in it."

[2.11.2007]—Fans of the Canadian journal, OnSpec, can keep tabs on the publication's activities at their new blog here.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[12.16.2007]—Contributor Gayle Brandeis has published her third book: Self Storage (Ballantine: 2007).

[12.16.2007]—Contributor Sandra Schwayder Sanchez reports new work of hers has appeared in the Dublin Quarterly.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[2.14.2007]—Here's a reprinted review of Love in the Time of Cholera by none other than Thomas Pynchon. In ru_pynchon

[2.14.2007]—from MediaBistro's Galleycat—"The Telegraph reports that in the wake of possible threats after the assassination of journalist Hrant Dink, Orhan Pamuk has left his native Turkey behind for New York City, and is said to have told friends he has set no deadline for his return."

[2.13.2007]—reported in Reuters: Arundhati Roy, the celebrated author of The God of Small Things, returns to fiction after a decade-long hiatus in which she worked diligently as an activist surrounding issues of global corporatization. No word on whether her new book will be magical realist. Stay tuned.

BOOKLIST
[2.14.2007]—The Zoo by Suzy Lee (Kane/Miller: 2007)—from the children's literature blog, A Fuse #8 Production: "…[A]s the older members of the family strain to catch even a glimpse of a bear on Bear Hill, the little girl follows a wayward peacock. Immediately the bird leads her to a multi-colored landscape where the child plays gleefully amongst watering holes, long-necked giraffes, and (in a burst of flight) even the sky itself. The parents are in a panic, but soon find their little one sleeping peacefully on one of the zoo’s many benches. Was it real or just a dream? The answer is left to the reader."

[2.12.2007]—The Tango Singer by Tomás Eloy Martínez, tr. Anne McLean (Bloomsbury USA: 2006)—"Here, finally, is the book I wanted to read."—Gabriel García Márquez

VINTAGE MR
[2.08.2007]—"Alice, 103, made a heaven in hell—Pianist recalls visits by ladies’ man Franz Kafka"—from the Camden New Journal

MIXED MEDIA
[2.16.2007]—The Sheep and the Whale (theater)—Writes Jon Kaplan for NOW magazine (Toronto): "With its combination of lyricism, music, ritual and magic realism, Ghazali's play has an epic feel."

[2.15.2007]—Bordertown (foreign film)—Writes Daniela Gerson in Berlin for Spiegel: "[Director Gregory] Nava says his inspiration for Bordertown draws from the work of Guatemalan writer Miguel Angel Asturias, the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the social dramas of Charles Dickens." Stars Jennifer Lopez.

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[2.14.2007]—From Recommissioned Life, a personal essay and tribute to magical realist author Sean Stewart.

NEXT NEWS POST: 2.23.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
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RIP RG Mertin; Force trilogy plays; Love & Rockets in Seattle; Oscar Watch/Pan, Volver, Iraq in Fragments; Dreamtime; MRWiki; MRCentral;

2007-02-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

IN MEMORIUM
[1943-2007] Literary agent Ray-Güde Mertin, Ph.D., head of the renowned German literary agency that carries her name. Mertin was widely known for her promotion of Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese literature worldwide. She is perhaps best known for representing Nobel laureate José Saramago. Mertin died after a long struggle with breast cancer. Read more

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[2.9]—Alice Walker

CALENDAR
[2.9-17.2007]—Force, a trilogy of original plays by Bryn Manion performed in repertory by the Queens-based company Aisling Arts at the Chocolate Factory Theatre, 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. Wanderlust plays on Wed 2/14 at 8pm. Threshold plays Thurs 2/15 at 8pm. Convergence plays Friday 2/9 and 2/16 at 8pm. The entire trilogy plays Saturday, 2/10 and 2/17 at 2pm. Read MIXED MEDIA below for details. Tickets and other info

[2.10.2007]—Contributor Jan Steckel is featured reader at the Second Saturdays Prose and Poetry Reading series. The Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA. 7-9p. Open mic. Hosted by Patricia Edith. 1601 Paru Street at Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA. 510-523-6957. Free

[2.10-11.2007]—Celebrating a quarter century of "Love and Rockets" comics, which are frequently described as magical realist,creators Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez will be appearing at the new Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle (1201 S. Vale St. in Georgetown) for two events:Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m.: A gala reception on Sat Feb 10 between 5-8p for a month-long exhibition of their original artwork, then a panel discussion on "L&R" moderated by the president of Fantagraphics, Gary Groth, from 1-3p Sun Feb 11, followed by a book signing with "Los Bros." More info

2007 OSCAR WATCH
The latest buzz surrounding Pan's Labyrinth, Volver and the documentary, Iraq in Fragments

Iraq in Fragments
[2.02.2007]—from The Wesleyan Argus: "I would describe the film in terms of magical realism, expressionism, with an underpainting of verite."—James Longley, director, Iraq in Fragments

Pan's Labyrinth
[2.05.2007]—from Film Fanatic Oasis: "In the classic Latin American tradition of magic realism, the film never once feels forced, dexterously fusing the fantastical and the brutally real into one organic and fiercely compelling whole."

[2.03.2007]—from unagotitadenada: "Guillermo del Toro’s new movie, also known as El Laberinto del Fauno, is a very dark and very violent fantasy. It is brilliantly imaginative and filled with astonishing imagery. Yet I never warmed to it."

[2.03.2007]—from funblog.com: "…the whole movie is just SO gloriously spanish in every sense of the word; the mixture of tragedy and hope, the realism, the magic, the magic realism, the violence tempered by beauty; everything is so on-target and perfectly balanced, poignant but never sentimental…"

[2.01.2007]—from florafloraflora: "What a hideous disappointment."

Volver
[2.09.2007]—from Typically Spanish: "Volver wins Best Foreign Language Film in London."

[2.09.2007]—from ZA [at] Play: "Undeniably the movie of the week."

[2.09.2007]—from Style Weekly: "Men, in fact, are almost entirely shooed off the screen in Volver, sometimes violently, the better to bring one of the great Spanish director’s abiding themes to the fore: the endurance of women and the bonds that unite them."

[2.05.2007]—from Cinematical: "The ensemble as a whole—Cruz, Lola Dueñas as Sole, Raimunda's sister, Yohana Cobo as Raimunda's daughter, Paula, and Carmen Maura as Irene, Raimunda and Sole's dead mother—is one of the best ensemble performances I've ever seen."

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[2.02.2007]—Here's one blogster's Gabriel García Márquez dream. Have you had a dream with Gabo in it? Write it down and send it in! It would be fun to see how he renders in dreamtime...

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
New! MRWiki is the world's only magical realism wiki. Check out current topic lists

New! Join MRCentral and be part of our global interactive communtity! Membership benefits

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[2.09.2007]—The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts by David Lodge (Penguin, 1994) covers the territory of magical realism in fiction from a reader's critical perspective. Useful for writers.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[02.08.2007]—Contributor Daniel Olivas is the subject of conversation at today's California Authors website.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[1.31.2007]—from eitb24.com—Orhan Pamuk recently canceled a trip to Germany amid security fears following the murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

BOOKLIST
[2.01.2007]—The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman (Dark Horse Comics: 2007)—From the publisher's blurb as quoted in Bryan's Book Blog: "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is a 'mostly true story' that combines the author’s trademark magic realism with Zulli’s sumptuous paintings, and has been newly rewritten for this hardcover. Join a group of friends, with the stern Miss Finch in tow, as they enter musty caverns for a subterranean circus spectacle called 'The Theatre of Night’s Dreaming.' "

[2.01.2007]—Kelly: A Novel by Michael Mullen (Wolfhound Press: 1981)—From the blogster, Pedantic-E: "I made a foray, recently, into the small world of Irish magical realism—yes, it really does exist. Michael Mullen's Kelly: A Novel (1981) is the story of a man in circa-1880s [County] Mayo who by an odd twist of circumstances finds himself transformed into a sort of avatara (in the proper Hindu sense of the word) of one of the gods of old."

[2.09.2007]—The Angel of Galilea (Vintage: 1999)—"Laura Restrepo breathes life into a singular amalgam of journalistic investigation and literary creation. Her fascination with popular culture and the play of her impeccable humor, of that biting but at the same time tender irony…infuses them with unmistakable reading pleasures."—Gabriel García Márquez

MIXED MEDIA

[through 2.17.2007]—Force [theater; trilogy]—From NYTheatre.com—"Centering around the story of a fictional wartime journalist named Jack, and told on an epic scale through dreams, travel, memories, and magic realism, Force dissects the idea that man is as capable as nature of creating stupendous beauty and awesome destruction." Written and directed by Bryn Manion; production by Aisling Arts.

[2.08.2007]—The Science of Sleep [DVD release]—"The lovely, childlike animation of this magic realism is part music video, part Monty Python and part Austin Powers—playful and peripatetic to the point of frantic."—The Post-Gazette

[2.05.2007]—Harvest Time (Vremya zhatvy) [DVD]—From digitallyObsessed: "[Director Marina] Razbezhkina, as I understand it, is primarily a documentarian, but this film indicates a sensitive artistic side, blending magical realism with an intense family drama to make a absorbing if grim film."

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[2.08.2007]—Bookslut makes an interesting case for linking magical realism and interstitial writing while discussing the book, Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest.

NEXT NEWS POST: 2.16.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

Alfredo Ripstein; Oscar Watch; MRCentral launches; MRPod; book giveaway; "Postcard from Macondo"

2007-02-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

IN MEMORIUM
[1.20.2007]—Alfredo Ripstein, 90, died of respiratory failure. He was the noteworthy Mexican film producer who adapted Gabriel García Márquez's novel, No One Writes to the Colonel, and Naguib Mahfouz's novel, The Beginning and the End, to film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[2.04]—Russell Hoban

CALENDAR
[2.08.2007]—Word Pirates, a writers group that focuses on weird tales and magic realism, hosts a reading at the Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington Street, Petaluma, CA. Doors open at 730p, reading starts at 8p. Map

[2.08-11.2007]—Coming Up: Dell'Arte International's second-year MFA students perform their adaptations of short stories by Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. To be held at the Carlo Theatre, 131 H Street, P.O. Box 816, Blue Lake, CA 95525. Show starts at 8p, pay what you can. Call locally at 707.668.5663 or email for more information.

OSCAR WATCH 2007
The latest buzz surrounding Pan's Labyrinth and Volver

Both films
[1.30.2007]—Nathan Gardels, for the Huffington Post, asks filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: "What accounts for this fantastic eruption of cinematic talent from the Spanish-speaking world—yourself, Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men") and the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Volver)? How is it the same, how is it different, from the Latin boom in literature 30 years ago with Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa?"

[1.30.2007]—from Lakota Clay: "And the winner is…"

[1.30.2007]—from Cybrary Reviews: reviews of Pan's Labyrinth and Volver

Pan's Labyrinth
[2.01.2007]—from Planet Blacksburg: "If there’s one thing we learn from Pan’s Labyrinth, it’s this: if a fairy says 'Do not eat the fruit,' you’d better not eat the fruit."

[1.31.2007]—from Hellboy (blog): "Guillermo del Toro has crafted a masterpiece with Pan’s Labyrinth, a terrifying, visually wondrous fairy tale for adults that blends fantasy and gloomy drama into one of the most magical films in years."

[1.31.2007]—from PopMatters: "Without modifying [Guillermo de Toro's] cinematic approach, and staying true to his vibrant vision of a world constantly weakened by elements both fantastical and fatal, this fascinating fable of a little girl’s hellish existence amongst the Post-war Fascists of Franco’s Spain is simply stunning."

[1.30.2007]—from Jack Meyers Media Village: "What happens when make believe believes it's real?"

[1.29.2007]—from David's Movie Notebook: "A fairy tale not even remotely intended for children, this entrancing magical-realist drama concocts a sinister spin on Alice in Wonderland against the war-torn backdrop of 1940s Spain, shifting between two worlds with striking craft and discipline."

[1.29.2007]—from The Reader: "The film hinges on the use of a cinematic version of magical realism, a literary device popularized by Gabriel García Márquez, wherein fantastic elements (usually legend or folklore) sit alongside reality without pandering explanations. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the special effects-laden fantasy elements would dominate, forcing the actors and plotline to ride shotgun. Let this much be said, del Toro’s hands are not lesser: Pan’s Labyrinth is macabre genius."

Volver
[2.01.2007]—from Arkansas Times: "Quirky, colorful, and with the delightful Penelope Cruz…it’s a hell of a piece of cinema—Almodovar’s first stab at lending a magical-realist bent to his impressive body of work."

[1.26.2007]—from the London Free Press: "Almodovar mined his own La Mancha childhood to find the diamonds of insight he polishes for us here. In typical Almodovar fashion, events and characters are exaggerated, even to the point of being lurid or surreal. Yet everything feels rooted in reality."

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[1.27.2007]—"Amnesia victim wandered for 25 days"—LiveScience.com

[1.24.2007]—"Boy`s screaming kills chickens, for crying out loud"—AngolaPress

[1.23.2007]—"Do you believe in magic?"—The New York Times

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
[2.01.2007]—MRCentral launches! Come join our global interactive community for magical realist writers, students, educators and readers today!

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[2.01.2007]—"Magical Realism Is…" You fill in the blank! MRPod is looking for the best responses to this definition, which will be podcast with permission on future episodes of the world's only magical realist podcast. Deadline Feb 28. Details

[2.01.2007]—Book giveaway: Magical Realist Fiction: an anthology is up for grabs and will be given to the person who gives the most sincere and articulated reply to the question: "Who is my favorite magical realist and why?" Deadline Feb 28. Details

[1.31.2007]—Call for abstracts. Special Panel: Magical Realism—Texts and Contexts. For the Association of University English Teachers of South Africa/SAACLALS/SAVAL CONFERENCE 2007 (7.08-11.2007). To be held at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Howard College, Durban.

Convenor Faisal Marrouki is looking for "…discussions of magic realism in the Caribbean and African novel [which] may allude to or at best outline the contours of a 'post-modern' or national field that unites these works. …[W]e know that the works and their authors and readers are specific to, and articulated in, local circumstances, and these circumstances are usefully kept separate when we analyse the contrasting conditions of reception in London and New York on the one hand, the peripheries on the other."

Papers from across the disciplines are invited to engage with any aspect of magical realism including, but not limited to:

• 'territorializations', 'deterritorialisations' and 'reterritorializations' of magical realism
• the poetics, politics and problematics of magical realism in postcolonial fiction and theory
• magical realist narrations of Africa
• magical realism and the global economy of literary consumption and production
• magical realism, globalization and cultural difference
• magical realism and new possibilities for (South) African literature
• magical realism and attendant isms: postmodernism, postcolonialism, feminism...

Deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 April 2007. Website

INTERACT
[2.01.2007]—Blogster WatchMeBe needs some critical feedback on an MR manuscript. "Is anyone free to read my first 3 chapters of CALIBAN sometime over the next two days? It's about 30 pages, double spaced." Want to help? Contact

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[1.24.2007]—The Historical Novel Society recently reviewed Margin contributor Stephen Siciliano's novel, Vedette or Conversations with the Flamenco Shadows.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[1.31.2007]—If your book group plans to read Shadow on the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon in the near future, you might want to make this recipe for Paella de Casa Martinez, a dish inspired by the novel, for your group to enjoy. Recipe is part of an entire menu which appears in the Food by the Book column for The Muskogee Phoenix. ¡Buen apetito!

[1.30.2007]—MUST READ. "Postcard from Macondo." Christopher Hichens recalls the 40th anniversary of the release of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

BOOKLIST
[2.01.2007]—Kandže (The Claws) by Marko Vidojković (Samizdat: 2004)—Writes Milan-zzz for the blog, ZZZ's Creative Mess: "This is a modern fairytale: sex, politics, anger, beating, police torture, sex, marijuana, loyalty, revolution, alcohol, magical realism or narcotic hallucinations (?) = strange and interesting combination."

[1.31.2007]— Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (Vintage: 2001)—Writes Cynthia Ward in the blog, Notebook: Uttaruk.com: "Dhalgren may be read with equal validity as SF, magic realism, or metafiction."

[1.30.2007]—Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto (Grove Press: 1995)—"Her style is simple, concise and filled with stories with elements of magical realism....like an old man on the subway being transformed into a beautiful woman."—People Reading

[1.28.2007]—The Virgin of Flames by Chris Abani (Penguin: 2007)—"[W]hat [Chris Abani's] really interested in are people on the margins, and he samples both Raymond Chandler—a dwarf waiter at Iggy’s cafe named Ray-Ray parrots lines from Farewell, My Lovely—and Diane Arbus, who is quoted in the epigraph. Abani’s Los Angeles is at turns desolate and luminous, showered with ash from distant brush fires, 'a city constantly digesting its past and recycling itself into something new.'”—Karen Olsson, The New York Times

[1.28.2007]—A Tale of Two Lions by Roberto Ransom, tr. Jasper Reid (W.W. Norton: 2007)—"Ever since I read Russell Hoban's remarkable Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz some years ago, I have been looking for another piece of leonine magic realism," writes Alexander McCall Smith for the International Herald Tribune.

VINTAGE MR
[1.31.2007]—Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Shulz, reviewed by Dorothy W. for the blog, Of Books and Bicycles. "These stories are often fantastical. They might start off in a realistic mode, but most of them eventually veer off into the dream-like and the impossible."

[6.05.2006]—Somehow, I missed this discussion about magical realism in children's literature, which focuses on the E. Nesbit story, "The Deliverers of Their Country," published in 1899.

RELATED READING
[1.31.2007]—The blogger at Falldog muses about the effect of Dr. Who on his literary tastes. "…[I]t’s this clash of the magical and the scientific that has gone on to colour my tastes in fiction. It’s not simply a question of ‘liking science fiction’ or ‘liking fantasy’. While I’m partial to fiction of that type, I’m still remarkably fussy about it. For a piece of fiction to really tickle my fancy, there has to be some sort of clash: the magic realism of the novels of Paul Magrs is just one manifestation of the conjunction of real and unreal that I like so much. … It’s there in all my Officially Favourite Things: Buffy, Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, even the jolt of the Cylons’ mysticism in Battlestar Galactica, along with the many other odds and sods I hold dear to my heart, including, of course, Doctor Who."

[1.26.2007]—Here's an interesting piece from the National Ledger on the cultural practice of seeing the world through a variety of realities. "Some modern physics research includes examination of interesting ideas such as unseen dimensions within our universe separated by subtle and discreet boundaries sometimes referred to as 'branes.' …In some ways, this way of viewing the universe is similar to the longstanding beliefs in many human cultures that there are unique veils that separate our normal world and other realities, dimensions and beings in nature."

MIXED MEDIA
[1.28.2007]—Disappearances [film]—Writes Ethan Gilsdorf for the Boston Globe—"[Director Jay] Craven, a fan of Buñuel and Fellini, wove strands of a 'revisionist north country western' with a magical realist ghost story." Starring Kris Kristofferson, With director Jay Craven and author Howard Frank Mosher.

[1.27.2007]—"In Conversation With Anosh Irani" [[blog entry and article in The Daily Star of Bangladesh]—In the interview with Ahmede Hussain, Irani says: "The problem with magic realism is that writers forget the 'realism' part. Reality grounds the story, provides it with strong roots, so that eventually the story can take flight. For instance, in The Cripple and His Talismans, the quest itself, a man going in search of his lost arm, is absurd, it’s magical. So for the quest to make sense there has to be a dark reality to balance it."

[1.27.2007]—Cinemania debates the film, The Double Life of Veronique (1991) by Krystof Kieslowski. This film was previously discussed in Margin in 2004.

[1.27.2007]—The Lives of the Saints [film, England]—Writes Derek Malcolm for the Evening Standard: "This is unexpected: a magic realist fable, full of Catholic symbolism, set in Haringey's multi-ethnic Green Lanes."

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[1.30.2007]—Here's a thoughtful discussion about the works of noir writer, Paco Ignacio Taibo, especially The Uncomfortable Dead, about which blogster Glenn Harper has this to say: "As metafiction, magic realism, politics, and satire, this "novel by four hands" is not that satisfactory as noir fiction, but its politics are actually very much in line with noir: the neo-liberal bad guys of The Uncomfortable Dead are the same as the evil developers of Chinatown and numerous noir novels and films. The novel ends not with a victory over evil but with a partial revenge against the evil that the authors see as permeating society as a whole."

[1.27.2007]—Maria Elisa Quiaro pursues a discussion about the concept of the labyrinth, using literary works from Borges, Kafka and others as the foundation for her discussion.

[1.27.2007]—The work of magical realist author Tatyana Tolstaia is given a fair introduction by the blogger at Way to Russia.

MAGICAL REALISM LINKS
MRCentral
Magical-Realism (Yahoo! group and hub for MRCentral)
MRCentral Interactive
MRWiki
MRPod
Margin
Periphery

NEXT NEWS POST: 2.09.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

Alice Hoffman; MRCentral Sneak Peek; skeptic makes animals dance; writer's markets; Alcala and Ayala at UAP; Book Quiz!; MR in the blogosphere

2007-01-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[1.19]—Julian Barnes
[1.23]—Derek Walcott
[1.27]—DM Thomas
[1.30]—Richard Brautigan
[1.31]—Kenzaburo Oe
[2.1]—Hugo von Hofmannsthal

CALENDAR
[1.23.2007]—Coming Up: Alice Hoffman, author of Skylight Confessions, will open the winter season of Thurber House's "Evenings with Authors" series. To be held at the Columbus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave., Columbus, OH. 730p. Cost: $18 in advance/$20 at the door (discounts for students and seniors). Info: Call (614) 464-1032 or visit www.thurberhouse.org

[1.31.2007]—Last day to sign up for a free membership to MR Central! After that date, memberships are $20 in one-time dues to cover volunteer efforts and site maintenance.

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[1.15.2006]—Help the blogster WatchMeBe sort out the difference between magical realism and urban fantasy here: "I can't figure out quite what the line is here. Urban Fantasy seems to be more direct-- there's a very, very obvious and plainly stated magical element. Magical Realism seems to be more covert; the magical element might not be mentioned blatantly or might be uncertain. But that's only my very basic understanding, and I'm not sure I really get it. Can anyone clarify with examples?". Or, peruse these separate definitions, one from Chrononautic Log, the other from Oz and Ends. People have more questions than answers. Why not jump into the comments arenas for any of these blogs and give them something they can sink their teeth into?

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[1.18.2007]—"Snake-charmers make the snakes dance. But he makes the peacocks, snakes and mongoose dance together. He is not a yogi or a miracle man at all, nor does he believe in the miracles as such." from Kalinga Times

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Sneak Peek: Margin's upcoming launch of MR Central includes the following:

Monthly member dispatch (in your email box the first of every month starting Feb 1)
MR Wiki (for members only)
MR Forum (for members only)
MRPod: a regular podcast (short broadcasts to keep you plugged in)
Book giveaways (monthly)
Writing contests (to be announced!)
Book Discussion Group (blog format, for members only)
Annual Mentorship Program for Magical Realist Writers (starting Autumn 2007!)
Online Workshops (for writers of magical realism)
Bookstore and Merchandise with Discounts (coming soon!)

Make sure and sign up for your free membership today!

WRITER'S RESOURCE: MARKETS
Abyss & Apex: "Our next reading period for short fiction and flash is February 2007. …We are happy to read high fantasy, magic realism, hard science fiction, sword and sorcery, and genrebending stories that don't quite seem to fit elsewhere."

The Shantytown Anomaly "is a chapbook-style journal specializing in speculative (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror) poetry, short-short stories, reviews, and articles."

Southern Gothic: "Southern Gothic is fiction written by Southerners (native, imported, and honorary) that involves the grotesque, the mysterious, the desolate, and/or the fantastic, to some degree."

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[1.19.2007]—Two contributors have been picked up in new books offered by the University of Arizona Press: Kathleen Alcala (The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing) and Naomi Ayala (The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, edited by Francisco Aragón).

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[1.17.2007]—"Bricklayer traces his long-lost brother, Ian McEwan."—The Guardian Unlimited

BOOKLIST
[1.19.2007]—Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman (Little, Brown and Co.: Jan 2007)—"The haunting and other elements of the novel reflect a writing sensibility that was shaped in large part by the fairy tales the author heard as a child."—Christy Zempter for This Week.

[1.18.2007]—Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni, tr. Anthony Shugaar (Europa Editions: Nov 2006)—Writes Shaun Whiteside for The Independent: "A bit of a poet, and with a romantic hankering for Hannibal Lecter, Margherita lives on the edge of an unnamed city with her family, a cosily shambolic bunch, cranked up a couple of magic-realist notches: dad Fausto, a meteoropath ('his moods change with the weather'), who never throws anything away; Mamma, addicted to a telenovela called Eternal Love; loutish big brother, Giacinto, and brainy little brother, Heraclitus; and storytelling Grandpa Socrates, whose life is brightened by nightly tangos with Dona Lupinda, a 200-year-old ghost. This is not to mention our heroine's super-mongrel, Sleepy, or her imaginary friend, the elusive 'Dust Girl', Polverina."

[1.18.2007]—The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas (Harvest Books: Oct 2006)—Writes Laura Miller for Salon: "Depending on what kind of reader you are, Ariel might seem like such an intriguing narrator you won't even need to hear the additional bait: This is a story about a cursed book. But don't suppose that either of these setups offers a reliable forecast of what else you'll find in the pages of The End of Mr. Y. Perhaps the most pleasing thing about this book is that just when you think it's settling in to be one kind of novel, it saunters off in another direction entirely."

[1.17.2007]—The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (Warner: Feb 2007—Writes Midori Snyder for Endicott Redux: "Nalo Hopkinson's latest novel…is due out in early February and promises to be another wonderful read from this Caribbean-Canadian author."

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[1.18.2007]—The LitBlog Co-op announces its Winter 2007 READ THIS! book choice: Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The weeks ahead will include a chat with the author and discussion of the novel by members of the LBC. Join the book discussion at the blog starting Feb 5.

[1.16.2007]—You can find a thoughtful review of Marie Arana's Cellophane at La Bloga, which was awarded "Best Blog 2006" by L.A.'s Tu Ciudad magazine. La Bloga blogsters include Rudy Ch. Garcia, Daniel Olivas, Manuel Ramos, Gina Ruiz and Michael Sedano.

[1.15.2007]—Arturo Uslar-Pietri is given credit where it's sorely due in the blog, Venepoetics, inside a larger discussion about the history of Venezuelan poetry, El coro de las voces solitarias (Caracas: Grupo Editorial Eclespidra, 2003) written by Rafael Arráiz Lucca. "From his early theorization of magical realism in Paris in the late 1920s with Alejo Carpentier and Miguel Ángel Asturias to his groundbreaking novel Las lanzas coloradas (1931) and his prolific career as a critic and public intellectual, Uslar Pietri was arguably the most prominent Venezuelan writer of the XX century," asserts blogster GJPW.

[1.15.2007]—The blog, Thinking Room, offers this little musing on what Louis de Bernieres asserts as two camps of magical realist thinking.

NEXT NEWS POST: 2.02.2007

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

MR Central Interactive slated for 2/07; Murakami's birthday; writer's markets; Gabo and Llosa heal old wounds; Pamuk plays gatekeeper

2007-01-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[1.12.2007]—Haruki Murakami
[1.17.2007]—Pedro Calderón de la Barca
[1.18.2007]—Jorge Guillén

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[1.10.2007]—"Girl’s hair catches fire three times in two days"—"The hair of a 15 year-old schoolgirl in Nam Dinh city caught fire twice on January 8, 2007 seemingly without explanation, and once again yesterday, January 9."

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Margin subscribers can count down the days when they'll be switched over, free of charge, to the new Magical Realism interactive community, MRCentral.net, this coming February. Want to become a subscriber? You can subscribe for FREE through midnight, Jan 31, 2007. After that, a nominal $20 dues for a lifetime subscription will be charged for all new members. Why not sign up now? There's lots in the works, including a wiki feature, podcasts, member forum, monthly newsletter and much more.

FOR WRITERS ONLY
Kaleidotrope: a zine claims to have "a soft spot in our heart for the weird, magic realism, and humor." Guidelines

Flash Tales: "What we want: Original works of speculative fiction in flash fiction or micro-fiction formats. This includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their various subgenres, such as: urban fantasy, magical realism, and so forth." Guidelines

The Future Fire is open to considering magical realist manuscripts. "We have founded this magazine as an experiment in and a celebration of new writing. New not only as in recently composed and previously unpublished, but new as in original. Creative. Inventive. Experimental. Postmodern. Speculative. Meaningful." This is a paying market. Guidelines

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[1.12.2007]—Lois Schlegel announces her Fun With Fiction Writing class at the Southern Oregon University Extended Campus. Runs 7 weeks starting January 18. For more information

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[1.10.2007]—"Signs of a thaw in writers' 30-year feud." Reported in the Guardian Unlimited—"One of the world's iciest literary feuds, sealed with a punch-up in a cinema 30 years ago, is thawing as Colombian Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Márquez and Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa prepare to publish together," writes journalist Giles Tremlett in Madrid.

[1.07.2007]—"Provocative Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk took over editorship of a Turkish newspaper for one day, devoting it to stories about the oppression of artists." From CBC.ca Arts News.

[1.07.2007]—"This will be a year of celebrations for Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, who will commemorate three important anniversaries in 2007."—Which ones? Read the article at Prensa Latina

BOOKLIST
[1.10.2007]—The Long Silence of Mario Salviati: A Novel by Etienne van Heerden (Regan, 2003)—"In the rich magic-realism tradition of One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Long Silence of Mario Salviati is an unforgettable journey toward understanding and inspiration."—PaperBackSwap.com

[1.09.2007]—Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan (Del Rey: 2006)—From the blog, NethSpace: "With a mix of science fiction and fantasy that grows into a kind of magical realism, Vellum transcends typical genre classification. It’s simply amazing that such a complete novel is Duncan’s first."

[1.09.2007]—The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El Dia Que Nevaron Tortillas, Folktales told in Spanish and English by Joe Hayes (Cinco Puntos Press, 2003)—From the review in La Bloga: "In the title story, a clever woman saves her husband from a bunch of bandits by making him believe that it snowed tortillas during the night." Primarily folktales, but the collection also includes a retelling of the La Llorona (Weeping Woman) legend.

[1.07.2007]—Casablanca and Other Stories by Edgar Brau, translated from the Spanish by Andrea G. Labinger, Joanne M. Yates and Donald A. Yates (Michigan State University Press: 2006)—Michael Dirdin, for The Washington Post, writes: "For an Argentine writer, the influence of Borges must be hard to resist, and many of the pages in Casablanca call to mind the epistemological vertigo, that mix of the real and fantastic, so characteristic of the older master. Brau's stories, though, don't feel like imitations so much as further explorations of the same geography of the imagination."

NEXT NEWS POST: 1.19.2007; skipping the 1.26.2007 post to prepare for launch of MRCentral.net.

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Tree Jesus?; deToro Q&A; end of year MR bestsellers; Rutkowski news; Steckel news; Gabo trivia; What the Moon Saw; Borges on BBC; Croaking Marley

2007-01-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
1.05—Umberto Eco
1.07—Zora Neale Hurston
1.09—Karel Capek

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[1.03.2007]—"Fla. Residents See Jesus Image In Tree" (here at New York Press.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[12.31.2006]—The following magical realist/speculative titles were the bestselling titles at member bookstores of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance during the week ended Sunday, December 31, as reported to Book Sense: Paperback Nonfiction: #8. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, 2006); #9. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, 2005); #11. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin, 2005); #12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1998 original copyright). Children's Titles: #2. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins, 2006).

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[1.05.2007]—Writer's Rainbow Literary Services, LLC offers a variety of services for writers. Operated by Margin founder and editor Tamara Kaye Sellman, Writer's Rainbow services are of particular value to writers of magical realism and speculative fiction.
Writer's Rainbow LLC, 321 High School Road NE, Ste D3, PMB 204, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. E-mail

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[1.01.2007]—Check out Thad Rutkowski's prose poem, "Coming Topside," at 2nd Avenue Poetry. Other Thad news: His novel, Tetched: A Novel was a finalist for the Members' Choice of the Asian American Literary Awards; his story, "Calling Out," was nominated by Phantasmagoria magazine for a Pushcart Prize; he also won the Syracuse poetry slam for the week of Dec. 18.

[12.29.2006]—Contributor Jan Steckel's poem, "Tiresias", was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Triplopia. Steckel also announces: "FREE VIDEO PODCAST: John Rhodes has been kind enough to put online his video of my Nov. 6 reading at the All Poets Welcome Series at the Gallery Café in San Francisco." Get the Vodcast (or video podcast) here. Click on Podcast #27.

DID YOU KNOW?
[1.2.2007]—Gabriel García Márquez was once a Montessori student.

BOOKLIST
[12.18.2006]—What the Moon Saw by Laura Resau (Random House: Sept 2006)—Writes Kristen McLean for pixie stix kids pix: Thoughts, Observations, and Ideas About Children's Books: "Lovely lyrical writing; good use of magical realism."

MIXED MEDIA
[1.04.2007]—"In Our Time" [BBC Radio] considers Borges—Click MetaxuCafe, where they've taken Against the Day to the roundtable.

[12.29.2006]—Croaking Marley offers this personal discussion related to Francine Prose, Franz Kafka and Absurdistan.

[12.29.2006]—DebR at Red Show Ramblings writes this about Robert McCammon's Boy's Life: "This one… is hard to describe. It’s southern fiction, it’s a coming of age tale, it’s a mystery, it has parts that wander into the realm of magic realism. It shouldn’t work. It should be a big ol’ mess. But it isn’t a mess and it does work—beautifully."

NEXT NEWS POST: 1.12.2007

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MR Memes for 2006

2006-12-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

Dabble in MR; Dubai MR; Making "Love"; Tokillya; Murakami debates; Borges hides behind Mapplethorpe?; We Three; Meena; Pan's Labyrinth; 398; Perfume

2006-12-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[12.28]—Manuel Puig; Rod Serling.

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[12.27.2006]—Why not dabble in a short story written by a famous MRist like Dabbler did here? Pull a short piece from Eyes of a Blue Dog (García Márquez), Ficciones (Borges), The Complete Stories (Kafka) or The Street of Crocodiles (Schulz) and deconstruct. Maybe make it a party game for New Year's Eve, should you be gathering with your most favorite literary intellectuals.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[12.21.2006]—Two short films winning awards at the recent Dubai International Film Festival could be said to fall inside the sphere of magical realism: Hakim Belabbes's Why O'Sea? and Falafel from Lebanese writer-director Michel Kammoun. Reported in The Daily Star.

[12.21.2006]—Joshua Goodwin reports on the challenges director Mike Newell is facing while filming Gabo's classic, Love in the Time of Cholera, in Cartagena, for SFGate.com.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[12.23.2006]—Here's the latest from Sandra Schwayder Sanchez, whose short novel, Stillbird, we reviewed in May 2006: a short story, "Tokillya", in Storyglossia.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[12.17.2006]—"Scholars discuss Murakami's Asian impact"—The Daily Yomiuri Online

[12.18.2006]—"Japan's Murakami Problem"—Conversational Reading

BOOKLIST
[12.24.2006]—The Last Song of Love by Siddharth Dhanvant Sanghvi (Penguin India: 2006)—"It is a story of restlessness, with syringe-size portions of magic realism. A world of manicured lawns, maniacally abusive parrots, one-toothed, Machiavellian mothers-in-law and exotic artists making love to exquisite painters."—Kerala Online

[12.21.2006]—The World to Come by Dara Horn (W. W. Norton & Company: Oct 2006)—In reference to this novel, blogster Jesse Berrett writes: "We need a better name … for books that contain a) Tsarist-era shtetl suffering b) real or metaphorical Holocaust allusions c) magic-realist folkloric invocations seen as a counterpoint to a) and a link to d) bloody, groiny contemporary urban-Jewish comedic angst that contrasts ironically/bathetically with all of the above—a list that would contain Everything Is Illuminated, Steve Stern's Angel of Forgetfulness, …Nathan Englander, Mark Helprin, Kavalier & Clay, and Judy Budnitz—also, from descriptions, people like Bukiet and Thane Rosenbaum; I suppose Cynthia Ozick invented it, if anyone can be said to have invented anything after I.B. Singer, whose "A Wedding in Brownsville" is maybe the defining story of the genre. Maybe the difference is generational, between Singer, who lived these changes himself and was his own magic-realist creation, and people born in the 60s and 70s, for whom all of this is history and therefore willed and imagined rather than lived. Shteyngart doesn't do the mag-realist tricks but is otherwise kin.)"

[12.21.2006]—The River of Dead Trees by Andree A. Michaud (Coach House Books: Jan 2006)—from the book description at SPD: "Middle-aged and short on prospects, Charles Wilson returns to Trempes, the village of his childhood, and discovers the body of his childhood friend, Paul Faber, hanging from a tree in the clearing where they played as boys. Thus begins Wilson's obsessive quest to exhume the secrets of his past and to understand the reasons for his friend's death. But memories shift, people change and things are never as they seem. Soon Wilson finds himself caught up in a delusory spiral that threatens his very existence."

[12.20.2006]—Erzulie's Skirt by Ana-Maurine Lara (Redbone Press: Oct 2006)—"Think magic realism with an African Diaspora flavor, mixed with a heavy dose of survivor instinct and the desire to not accept the status quo."—Suzanne Corson for Books To Watch Out For

[12.19.2006]—Fireproof by Raj Kamal Jha (Picador: 2006)—Writes Harsh Mander for The Hindustan Times : "…Jha chooses to use an ambitious and extravagant, self-consciously strange mix of allegory, magic realism, grotesque metaphor interspersed with occasional snatches of conventional reportage, to evoke the odium but more so the moral collapse of the massacre [in Gujarat in 2002]."

[12.19.2006]—Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler (Sept 2006)—"There is frequently a level of Magic Realism in Bowler's books and some readers may find this off putting. I think it allows him to explore really difficult situations at just enough remove to enable his teenage audience to grapple with them without having to identify so closely that they are threatened."—Patternings

VINTAGE MR
[12.12.2006]—Borges found hiding behind Mapplethorpe? Read about lost, then found, manuscripts from the Argentinian master.

RELATED READING
[12.20.2006]—We Three: The Mythology of Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters by Laura Shamas (Peter Lang USA: Jan 2007)—from the publisher: "The Weird Sisters, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, are the most famous trio of witches in English literature. Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters are a complex trinitarian construction—a unique amalgamation of classical, folkloric, and socio-political elements. This book is an archetypal exploration of the Weird Sisters."

MIXED MEDIA
[12.27.2006]—Meena: A Bilingual Journal of Art & Letters. Al-Ahram Weekly takes a comprehensive look at this new journal edited by two poets: Andy Young of New Orleans and Alexandria, Egypt's Khaled Hegazzi. While the magazine isn't a wholesale conveyance of magical realism, it honors some of the Middle East's finer practitioners of the form, including such international heavyweights as Lawrence Durrell, Yusef Komunyakaa, Charles Simic, Naguib Mahfouz and Martín Espada.

[12.26.2006]—Pan's Labyrinth (indy film)—Writes J. Hoberman for the Village Voice: "Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth is something alchemical. To an astonishing degree, the 42-year-old Mexican filmmaker best known for his contribution to the Blade and Hellboy franchises has transformed the horror of mid-20th-century European history into a boldly fanciful example of what surrealists would call le merveilleux."

[12.23.2006]—398: 8 [zine]. According to this review at Fall of Autumn Press: "398 is the most imaginative zine I've read this past year. Elizabeth's 398 is a zine of fairy tales."

[12.21.2006]—Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [feature film, London]—Writes Derek Malcolm for This is London—"The finale, which I won't give away, progresses from a bit of an admittedly handsome plod into a kind of magic realism that, among contemporary directors, perhaps only the brilliant Mexican Guillermo Del Toro could accomplish. [Director Tom] Tykwer simply can't, even though he tries desperately hard." Cast: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood. [Here's another review of the film from blogster Maria Alexander, The Handless Poet.]

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[12.22.2006]—From blogster Normandus, overviews of Juan Rulfo (Pedro Paramo), Ambrose
Bierce ("Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge") and Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach)

[12.20.2006]—From blogster Xterminal about the film, Twin Falls Idaho: "[Michael] Polish wanders off into little symbolic, almost magic-realist scenes every once in a while to complement the subtle symbolism contained in the rest of the film, but he never overdoes it; a couple of the scenes get perilously close to cheesily sentimental, but never quite cross the line. (This, though, is the most heavily-debated opinion about the movie, specifically in relation to the bicycle scene—if you liked that, then you're probably going to love the movie.)"

NEXT NEWS POST: 1.05.2007

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GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

MRCENTRAL LAUNCH: Our interactive community is slated for launch Feb 1, 2007. Stay tuned!

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Gordimer on witnessLit; MR Radio?; Bizarro fiction; Allende QA in Italian; Ursula on fantasy; Mutis "bombs"; Shakira/Gabo collab; IBSinger not Polish!

2006-12-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

NEXT NEWS POST: 12.28.2006

IN MEMORIUM
Remembering Naguib Mahfouz through the literature of witness: Nadine Gordimer's lecture, first in the Naguib Mahfouz Memorial Lecture series, was delivered Dec 3 at the American University in Cairo. An excerpt: "Julio Cortazar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, Kenzaburo Oe, Octavio Paz, Jose Saramago, Gunter Grass, Naguib Mahfouz...these are writers who discovered it [the literature of witness] unsurpassably for their own people, own countries, and by the boundlessness of great writing, for the rest of us who see the same responsibility of discovery to be pursued in our own countries." The text can be found here (cached version only; the original links at Al-Ahram Weekly seem to be down) Update: Here's the original link, currently working from my machine

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[12.20]—Nalo Hopkinson
[12.26]—Alejo Carpentier

HOLIDAY SHOPPING
Southern Revival: Deep Magic for Hurricane Relief makes a terrific stocking stuffer or book exchange gift, especially for those loved ones affected in some way by the 2005 hurricane season. Remember, 100% of all proceeds benefit Book Relief, First Book's effort to restore Southern libraries. From the Book Relief website:

"Book Relief is an unparalleled publishing industry-wide initiative to get at
least five million new books to children, adults, communities and institutions
affected by the storms. Publishers have committed more than four million books
to the effort thus far. In addition, the United States Coast Guard and many
private companies have donated warehouse space, enabling First Book to store and
distribute books from facilities conveniently located near many of the areas
devastated by the storms. Book Relief has held 18 book distributions in just 13
months."

The literacy initiative has cemented plans to continue their efforts well into 2007. Why not help them out by buying one or more of the remaining copies of the limited edition, Southern Revival? Not only will it help restore libraries, but it will give fans of Southern literature peace of mind knowing their needs have not been forgotten. And who isn't interested in limited edition literaria?

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[12.18.2006]—Download and listen to podcasts from RadioLab, which Public Radio Exchange describes in this fashion: "Radio Lab walks the seam between science and the humantities, not quite `culture' and definitely not just 'news', but rather something of a survey of big ideas in ways that are odd, surprising, and often dreamy. Full of stories, conversation and vivid places, we like to think of it as magical realism for the radio."

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[12.17.2006]—From Naomi Ayala: "The North Country Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color invites applications for its Fourth Annual Summer Writers' Institute and Retreat, to be held July 8-14, 2007, at the Valcour Education and Conference Center on the shores of Lake Champlain." Faculty mentors include Chris Abani (fiction), Kimiko Hahn (poetry) and Jimmy Santiago Baca (memoir). More info

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[12.16.2006]—Margin's consulting editor, Bruce Taylor (aka Mr. Magic Realism), gets a nice write-up about his contribution to the recently released story collection, The Bizarro Starter Kit (Eraserhead Press: 2006), reviewed by Susan Tomaselli for 3:AM Magazine: "(Taylor's 'The Breath Amidst the Stones' has inanimate objects talking to him and 'A Little Spider Shop Talk', a conversation with a spider; both are treats)." More about Bizarro fiction; plus, check out Eraserhead Press.

[12.11.2006]—DataNews will be translating Carol Zapata Whelan's interview with Isabel Allende, "The Difference between Fantasy and Imagination: A conversation with Isabel Allende" in Italian for publication in a forthcoming text.

[12.10.2006]—Contributor Bruce Holland Rogers will be teaching The Creativity Check-up and Recharge Workshop on Jan 6 in Coupleville, WA. "Open to artists of all kinds," he writes.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[12.18.2006]—Ursula K. LeGuin discusses the greater psychological and intellectual values in reading fantastical literature of every variety in The New Statesman.

[12.16.2006]—Here's an interview from Bomb with author Alvaro Mutís, creator of the infamous adventurer Maqroll. "The world of Maqroll—though not confined to any one place—is as unique and whole a creation, as much a region of the imagination, as the Macondo of Gabriel García Márquez," writes the authors of SPLALit (Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Literature and Culture)

[12.15.2006]—The recent annual Havana film festival honored the 20th birthday of the Cuban Film Institute co-founded by Gabriel García Márquez.

[12.14.2006]—Reported in the Post Chronicle: "Pop star Shakira joined forces with fellow famous Colombian, author Gabriel García Márquez, in Panama City on Tuesday (12Dec06) to launch a child poverty foundation.… The Hips Don't Lie singer and 100 Years Of Solitude writer launched ALAS [America Latina en Accion Solidaria (Latin America in Solidarity Action)], which aims to fight child poverty in South America.

BOOKLIST
[12.17.2006]—The Texicans by Nina Vida (Soho Press: 2006)—Writes John Pate, special to the El Paso Times: "In the book, a character who can cure cholera, divine the future and bring down the wrath of the weather on intrepid Indian chiefs is portrayed—and sees herself—as nothing extraordinary."

[12.15.2006]—One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown: 2006)—Writes Mickey Pearlman, special to the Star Tribune: "When Kate Atkinson knocked off Salman Rushdie in 1995 by winning the Whitbread Award for her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, the literati in the know almost dropped their martini glasses and choked on their crudités. How could someone living in Yorkshire and working as "home help" (translation: cleaning lady) write a better book than Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh?…Since this remarkable turn of events, Atkinson has published four more novels, a play and a collection of short stories, and her mop is permanently in the closet. Now she's typically called everything from a comic novelist to a detective fiction writer and magical realist."

[12.11.2006]—Philippine Speculative Fiction, Volume 2, ed. Dean Francis Alfar (Booktopia: 2006)—About the editor (from Booktopia.com): "Editor Dean Francis Alfar is an advocate of the literature of the fantastic. His plays have been performed in venues across the Philippines, while his fiction has been published in national (Philippines Free Press, Story Philippines, Manual, Digest of Philippine Genre Stories) and international markets (Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit: Menagerie and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror). His writing awards include nine Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including the Grand Prize for Novel in 2005 for Salamanca (Ateneo Press, 2006). He was the recipient of the National Book Award for the graphic novels Siglo: Freedom and Siglo: Passion. His first collection of short fiction, The Kite of Stars and other stories, is scheduled by Anvil Publishing for release in 2007." [Editor's note: We don't often run across a lot of Filipino MR, so this anthology's definitely worth checking out.]

MIXED MEDIA
[12.15.2006]—Sloth [graphic novel] by Gilbert Hernandez [Vertigo/DC Comics: 2006]—"As in his Palomar stories, Hernandez imbues seeming banality with empathetic specificity and magical realism, transcending mere character study and breaking our hearts a bit along the way."—Cindy Widner for The Austin Chronicle

[12.11.2006]—The Lost Room [mini-series, The SciFi Channel]—According to this report in TV Guide, "Sci Fi Channel has big hopes for the mini (there's already talk of a weekly series). 'We want to get away from space operas and move more toward magical realism, material that is earthbound and contemporary,' says Sci Fi exec Nora O'Brien. 'The Lost Room fits that need perfectly.'

[12.06.2006]—HBO has decided to turn the 70-issue series of the comic, Preacher, into a weekly drama. [Editor's note: Interesting…their last quality program featuring a preacherman was Carnivále, and that got cut prematurely after the second season with rumors it would be picked up as a comic by Marvel. Yin and yang of the MR world?]

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[12.14.2006]—From Reading Matters, a review of Candle Life by Venero Armanno [Vintage: 2006]: "Armanno's writing is very assured, at times almost dreamlike, lulling the reader into a kind of trance. I've not read any magic realism before, but I imagine that parts of the story fall into this genre, although I think it would be unfair to label the entire book as such, because much of it is incredibly lucid and down-to-earth and very, very accessible."

[12.10.2006]—Marty Peretz (The Spine) talks about a party thrown for Isaab Bashevis Singer back in 1978 in which Singer lamented he'd been identified as a Polish writer. "Didn't you see the Times? On the front page they called me a Polish writer. You know I am not Polish, and I am certainly not a Polish writer. When I lived in Poland, the Poles didn't think of me as Polish. And I, as a Jew, also didn't think of myself as Polish."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

RE: MR from Greece, Eastern Europe, Poland, South Africa; Carpentier tribute; Malaysia's book banning

2006-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[12.10]—Clarice Lispector
[12.11]—Naguib Mahfouz
[12.12]—Gustave Flaubert
[12.13]—Kenneth Patchen

HOLIDAY SHOPPING
Southern Revival: Deep Magic for Hurricane Relief makes a terrific stocking stuffer or book exchange gift, especially for those loved ones affected in some way by the 2005 hurricane season. Remember, 100% of all proceeds benefit Book Relief, First Book 's initiative to restore Southern libraries. From the Book Relief website:

"Book Relief is an unparalleled publishing industry-wide initiative to get at
least five million new books to children, adults, communities and institutions
affected by the storms. Publishers have committed more than four million books
to the effort thus far. In addition, the United States Coast Guard and many
private companies have donated warehouse space, enabling First Book to store and
distribute books from facilities conveniently located near many of the areas
devastated by the storms. Book Relief has held 18 book distributions in just 13
months."

NEXT NEWS POST: 12.19.2006

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! Click on our Feed button in the right column to automatically receive either our RSS or XML feed.

Magical Gift; mugged by MR?; 2006 Best Books; Rosko is looking…; Pushcart noms; Olivas×2; Manguel's library

2006-12-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[12.02]—Ann Patchett
[12.04]—Rainer Maria Rilke

HOLIDAY SHOPPING
Southern Revival: Deep Magic for Hurricane Relief makes a terrific stocking stuffer or book exchange gift, especially for those loved ones affected in some way by the 2005 hurricane season. Remember, 100% of all proceeds benefit Book Relief, First Book 's effort to restore Southern libraries. From the Book Relief website:

"Book Relief is an unparalleled publishing industry-wide initiative to get at
least five million new books to children, adults, communities and institutions
affected by the storms. Publishers have committed more than four million books
to the effort thus far. In addition, the United States Coast Guard and many
private companies have donated warehouse space, enabling First Book to store and
distribute books from facilities conveniently located near many of the areas
devastated by the storms. Book Relief has held 18 book distributions in just 13
months."

All Aunt Hagar's Children [stories] by Edward P. Jones
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman [stories] by Haruki Murakami
Cellophane [novel] by Marie Arana
The Ladies of Grace Adieu [stories] by Susanna Clarke
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane [children's novel] by Kate
DiCamillo
Monologue of a Dog [poems] by Wislawa Szymborska

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[12.01.2006]—Looking for a gift idea for a treasured friend who writes MR? Consider prepaid literary services from Writer's Rainbow. It's director, Tamara Kaye Sellman, is also the editor and publisher of Margin: she's got a sensibility and affinity for MR that makes her an excellent resource for writers wishing to excel in the form.

[12.01.2006]—New Market: Rosko Was Thinking…

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[12.01.2006]—Margin is proud to announce this year's nominees for the Pushcart Prize and wish the following contributors the best of luck!

"Conception," an original poem by Amy Ratto (Margin, January 2006)
"Alphabet Rising," an original poem by Kelly Lenox Allan (Margin, March 2006)
"Grassland," an original poem by Sarah Sloat (Margin, May 2006)
"untitled," an original poem by Simon Perchik (Margin, March 2006)
"Wind Shift," an original flash fiction/prose poem by Jan C. Snow (Margin, March 2006)
"Heart Postcard," an original prose poem by Allison deFreese (Margin, January 2006)

[12.01.2006]—Contributor Daniel Olivas offers this Q&A with author Salvador Plascencia at The Elegant Variation.

[11.27.2006]—And speaking of Olivas, he was listed among LatinoStories.com's 2007 Top Ten "New" Latino Authors to Watch (and Read). (Yeah, we knew that one already, right?)

BOOKLIST
[12.01.2006]—The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Atria: Jan 2007)—New hardback version of the 2006 edition to be released. Writes Erin Collazo Miller for About: Bestsellers: "The Thirteenth Tale is a book lover's book, with much of the action taking place in libraries and book stores, and the line between fact and fiction constantly blurred."

VINTAGE MR
[11.27.2006]—Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari [1734-1809] (Columbia University Press: 2006)—Originally published in 1776. The English translator of this edition, Anthony H. Chambers, calls this "the most celebrated example in Japan of the literature of the strange and marvelous."

RELATED READING
[11.27.2006]—For the love of Borgesian bibliophilia… here's a terrific discussion about Alberto Manguel's gi-normous library of books at the MetaxuCafe.

MIXED MEDIA
[11.28.2006]—The Nativity Story [feature film]—Director Catherine Hardwicke on whether the movie exists just for people who believe in Christianity: "I think you can look at it from a secular point of view; magic realism. We love those beautiful, Latin American stories where there is an element that's more mysterious and wonderful. I think as a child a lot of us love the idea of the star and more of the supernatural elements. You could look at it that way too or as just an important, historical event that kind of changed time. Or, changed our way of marking time, maybe?" Interview with MovieWeb .

[11.22.2006]—Opal Dream [limited release feature film]—From the film blurb: "To escape the boredom of living in the Australian Outback, little Kellyanne (Sapphire Boyce) dreams up two imaginary friends to keep her company — despite being ridiculed by everybody in town for having them. But when Kellyanne claims her invisible pals have run away, her friends and neighbors surprisingly band together to help her find them."

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[11.30.2006]—Like to analyze magical realist film and literature? Why not visit Magic & Realism: Latin American Fictions, a blog specifically devoted to the topic as it pertains to the works of Latin American authors. It looks to be a study group by the looks of it, but there's certainly plenty to muse about.

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE: MR News will run on 12.08, 12.19, 12.28 and 1.05 and will return to a weekly Friday schedule thereafter.

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
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Charitable Magic; Link×2; Rulfo Prize; Bush lauds Rabassa; Ngugi wa Thiong’o slurred; Gabo robbed!; Takashi Miike; Rabassa's memoir

2006-11-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[11.26]—Luisa Valenzuela
[12.01]—Woody Allen

HOLIDAY SHOPPING
Southern Revival: Deep Magic for Hurricane Relief makes a terrific stocking stuffer or book exchange gift, especially for those loved ones affected in some way by the 2005 hurricane season. Remember, 100% of all proceeds benefit Book Relief, First Book's effort to restore Southern libraries. From the Book Relief website:

"Book Relief is an unparalleled publishing industry-wide initiative to get at least five million new books to children, adults, communities and institutions affected by the storms. Publishers have committed more than four million books to the effort thus far. In addition, the United States Coast Guard and many private companies have donated warehouse space, enabling First Book to store and distribute books from facilities conveniently located near many of the areas devastated by the storms. Book Relief has held 18 book distributions in just 13 months."

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (Knopf)
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (Nan Talese)
Winkie by Clifford Chase (Grove Atlantic)

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[11.27.2006]—"How can magic realism inform interactive narrative?" asks Kirsten Johnson in New Media Narratives, part of the site, Post Traditional Media. Visit and click on the + sign next to Kirsten's name to explore her analysis of the subject.

[11.24.2006]—"I wonder if the stream-of-conciousness technique and magical realism can be combined," writes Indian blogger Sayak Dasgupta at LiveJournal under the profile name, primordiallogus. Have a thought on the subject? Comment here

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[11.25.2006]—Nobel Prize laureates José Saramago and Gabriel García Márquez celebrated Carlos Monsivais's receipt of the Juan Rulfo Literary Prize and its $100,000 purse at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico.

[11.25.2006]—The following paragraphs by Gabo were recently noted in Histomat as being used to introduce the chapter, 'Imperialism Unlimited: Marxisms,' in Eco-Marxist Derek Wall's book, Babylon and Beyond: the economics of anti-capitalist, anti-globalist and radical green movements:

"Captain Samaritano had an almost maternal affection for the manatees, because they seemed to him like ladies damned by some extravagant love, and he believed the truth of the legend that they were the only females in the animal kingdom that had no mates. He had always opposed shooting at them from the ship, which was the custom despite the laws prohibiting it. Once, a hunter from North Carolina, his papers in order, had disobeyed him, and with a well-aimed bullet from his Springfield rifle had shattered the head of a manatee mother whose baby became frantic with grief as it wailed over the fallen body. The Captain had the orphan brought on board so that he could care for it, and left the hunter behind on the deserted bank, next to the corpse of the murdered mother. He spent six months in prison as the result of diplomatic protests and almost lost his navigator’s licence, but he came out prepared to do it again, as often as the need arose. Still, that had been a historic episode: the orphaned manatee, which grew up and lived for many years in the rare-animal zoo in San Nicolas de las Barrancas, was the last of its kind seen along the river.

‘Each time I pass that bank,’ he said, ‘I pray to God that the gringo will board my ship so that I can leave him behind all over again.’ " (from Love in the Time of Cholera)

[11.21.2006]—From The Dartmouth Online: "President George W. Bush recently awarded Gregory Rabassa '44, a noted translator of Gabriel García Márquez, Cortázar and Vargas Llosa, with the 2006 National Medal in the Arts and Humanities. …Rabassa, 84, is best known for his translation of García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He is credited with bringing a large number of Latin American contemporary fiction works to English speakers and has completed more than 30 translations from Spanish and Portuguese. Rabassa recently published his own full-length book entitled, If This Be Treason: Translation and its Dyscontents."

[11.18.2006]—In an article in The Standard (Nairobi, Kenya), it was reported that celebrated African author Ngugi wa Thiong’o (The Wizard of the Crow) was "embarrassed in a racist confrontation" at a San Francisco hotel, where he was asked to leave.

[11.17.2006]—Gabriel Garcia Marquez's home in the historic Caribbean city of Cartagena de Indias was robbed recently while uninhabited. The thieves stole a safe empty of any valuables, while leaving behind a number of expensive paintings.

[11.17.2006]—Here's an excellent overview of Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike's œuvre, much of it focusing on elements of magical realism and surrealism, written by Ian Grey for the Orlando Weekly.

BOOKLIST
[11.26.2006]—Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann—Writes Ron Charles for The Washington Post—"Humboldt's enthusiasm endows him with an armor of naiveté that protects him from cannibals, crocodiles and shipwreck, and his outrageously dangerous travels are the perfect subject for Kehlmann's lightly surreal style, a mixture of comedy, romance and the macabre, with flashes of magical realism that read like Borges in the Black Forest."

[11.20.2006]—The Whale Caller by Zakes Mda (Picador, 2006)—New York Times Book Review summarized in the Chronicle Herald: "Mda’s dreamlike novel is set in a coastal village in South Africa and concerns the unlikely love triangle that develops when a man known only as the Whale Caller becomes enthralled by two creatures: Saluni, an enigmatic town drunk; and Sharisha, a southern right she-whale whose seasonal comings and goings set the rhythm of his life."

[11.20.2006]—If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents: A Memoir by Gregory Rabassa (New Directions, 2006)—New York Times Book Review summarized in the Chronicle Herald: "Over four decades, Rabassa has translated nearly 60 works by some 30 writers, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. His modest, charming memoir discusses his remarkable career (born to a Cuban father and an American mother, he also served as a cryptographer in the Second World War) and lays out his views on the art of translation."

CLASSICS
[11.21.2006]—Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)—Analyzed at The Complete Review.

MIXED MEDIA
[11.24.2006]—The Movie Hero [indy film on DVD]—RJ Carter offers a glowing review of this production for The Trades.

[11.23.2006]—The Lives of the Saints [film]—"The big selling point here is the unique and unexpectedly poetic script, which has a very theatrical, almost Shakespearean, sound to it. Alongside the artistic cinematography this gives the film its seductive magical realist tone, characterising London as a mysterious, vibrating portal to an alternative world," writes reviewer Kat Halstead for Entertainmentwise.com.

[11.23.2006]—Ang Pamana (The Inheritance) [Philippino film]—"According to its director, Romeo Candido, 'We embarked on creating a modern Filipino folktale, the kind of bedtime story our lolas would tell us of the homeland in the safe bedrooms of our childhood in Canada. The Philippines had magic realist stories before there was even a term for it.' "

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE
[11.26.2006]—Abigail Nussbaum discusses the surrealism in Kelly Link's latest writing at the blog Occasional Fish.

[11.24.2006]—I finally joined Oprah's book club. The blogger at twenty four and two forty heaps praise on the now-defunct book club's choice to review the magical realist classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Did you miss it back in 2004? Check it out here. Tamara Kaye Sellman and Susan Deefholts of Margin contributed a great deal of material to Oprah's overarching analyses. [FREE REGISTRATION REQUIRED]

[11.21.2006]—Fans of Ben Okri's The Famished Road might enjoy this discussion of animals in the African writer's magical realist classic, published at the blog, Compass Journey Page.

NEXT NEWS UPDATE: 12.01.2006

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

Pynchon Week! Holiday schedule update

2006-11-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

Fans of Thomas Pynchon can visit The Elegant Variation all week long for its dedication to the author and the release of his latest, long-time-coming title: Against the Day.

Readers, please note: due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, MRNews will not post this Friday as usual, but will appear next Monday, the 27th of November. With apologies to my international readers, but I will be at a location where there isn't Internet service and thus will not be able to post until my return.

Homework for independent scholars!; call for screenwriters; Litten and Gabo in the news; Pynchon's latest; MR in the blogosphere

2006-11-17T10:11:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[11.23]—Paul Celan

YOUR INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEKEND…
[11.17.2006]—Which medium works better for magical realism: book or film? Blogger Blanco_Emma poses the question. Your comments and responses invited.

[11.14.2006]—Blogger Bookish writes: "Come December, I am planning on rewarding myself with a Magic Realism marathon. What books, in your opinion, simply have to be on this marathon's to-read list?" Please tell them what you think!

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[11.16.2006]—Call for magical realist screenwriters! Elite Casting Network has posted this call: "Screenwriter needed to develop story for a first feature by a First time filmmaker. The story is set in a post industrial tropical town and incorporates supernatural and psychological elements. The ideal person must be familiar with Latin American Magic Realism as well as contemporary Latin American Cinema. Must also have a strong visual sensibility." Must respond by Dec 14, 2006.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[11.12.2006]—Miguel Littin, whose undercover foray into Chile during the days of Pinochet was chronicled by Gabriel García Márquez in the book, Clandestine in Chile, is presenting his latest film at the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival. It's reported that some 15,000 copies of Clandestine in Chile were burned by Pinochet’s regime.

[11.10.2006]—Look who's going to Tehran…The Mehr News Agency reports that Gabriel García Márquez will be paying Iran a visit sometime during the month of April.

BOOKLIST
[11.15.2006]—Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon [2006: Penguin]—How does the much-awaited tome from Pynchon stand up to the earliest reviewers? The Complete Review gives it a B+ ("impressive in its parts, but near confounding as a whole").

[11.14.2006]—People I Wanted to Be by Gina Ochsner [2005: Houghton Mifflin]—"Ochsner really seems to like her characters, so when they see ghosts or become ghosts, she’s more interested in the drama than in showing us the dazzle of her own craft. It’s not 'hey, look, I made you believe in a ghost,' but 'this ghost is really coming at a bad time in the narrator’s marriage.'"—Anne for MetaxuCafe

[11.12.2006]—The Lives of Rocks by Rick Bass [2006: Houghton Mifflin]—"Its imagery—one of Bass' strengths—is often breathtaking, both for its ability to evoke a strong sense of place and for its magical realist surprises. Strange things happen in Bass' fiction, and they can be powerfully transporting."—Doug Childers for the Virginia Times-Dispatch

BLOGOSPHERE
[11.13.2006]—Gabriel García Márquez's essay, "The Fidel Castro Whom I Know," was recently published at the blog, Cafecito Cubano.

[11.12.2006]—"juanaquito" poses the question, "Why would Borges not use his podium to speak out against any number of injustices in Argentina and the rest of Latin America?" at the blog, Literary Labyrinth.

[11.11.2006]—AJ Vanderhorst offers this flash review of Cortázar's collection of short stories, Blow-Up & Other Stories, at the blog, BitterSweetLife.

MIXED MEDIA
[11.13.2006]—Disappearances [indy film]—Writes Sheri Linden for the Hollywood Reporter: "Craven explores matters of character, family and fate with a wise restraint; even the film's passages of magic-realism are subdued."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

CORRECTION: We cited the wrong publishing house for the book, Pick Up Stick City, in the 9.08.2006 version of MRNews: The Week in Review. The correct publisher is River's Bend Press, PO Box 606, Stillwater, MN 55082. We regret the error.

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

Unanswered prayers?; Phantasmagoria; MR blooks; Emergence-See!; World Fantasy Awards; NaNoWriMo MRists!; Tejuca art; Borges Finalmente!; MR media

2006-11-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

IN MEMORIUM
[11.06.2006]—Leonard Schrader. Schrader received an Oscar nomination for adapting Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[11.10]—Friedrich Schiller; Neil Gaiman.
[11.11]—Carlos Fuentes.
[11.15]—Joe Benevento.
[11.16]—Jose Saramago.

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[11.07.2006]—Talk about unanswered prayers: This man found 300 of them and almost sold them on eBay.

[11.05.2006]—"A bottlenose dolphin captured last month off western Japan has an extra set of fins, providing further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once had four legs and lived on land, Japanese researchers said Sunday."

[11.02.2006]—"White dots caught by security camera led to discovery of corpses."—The Raw Story

CALENDAR
[showing through 11.12.2006]—Emergence-See!, starring Daniel Beatty. The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., New York. Sat/8p; Sun/3p. $50; for more info, call: 212-967-7555

[deadline: 11.13.2006]—submissions to Gastronomican II(nonAustralian writers query first)

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[11.10.2006]—From the editor: Thank Heaven for the blessing of local library branches. Today, as I researched part of a novel I'm attempting for NaNoWriMo at the Blaine, WA branch of the Whatcom County Library System, I discovered a display of familiar titles circled by lavender bookmarks which read "Magical Realism" and listed many terrific titles. My applause goes out to you and to all the corner libraries in small town America who are smart enough to feature magical realism as a theme!

[11.05.2006]—The World Fantasy Awards winners were announced last Sunday, and here are a few winners whose names and work may resonate well with fans of magical realism:

Best Novel: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Best Short Fiction: "CommComm" by George Saunders
Best Collection: The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers

Other work that made the short list:

for Best Novel: Graham Joyce, The Limits of Enchantment
for Best Novella: Kelly Link, "Magic for Beginners"
for Best Anthology: Polyphony 5 ed. Deborah Layne and Jay Lake (Wheatland
Press)
for Best Collection: Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[11.10.2006]—Anthologies open to magical realist work:
Class of 1994
Homicide-Colored Mirror Train Music (deadline 2.2007)
Tesseracts 11 (Canadian magical realists)
That Mysterious Door: Maine Tales of Fantasy and Speculation (deadline 4.14.2007)

[11.07.2006]—Here's an interesting resource for writers who'd like to peer inside the mechanisms of fantasia: Phantasmagoria by Marina Warner (Oxford University Press: 2006). The author is a well-known British historian and fiction writer who loves to delve into mythos and the fantastic, especially as these intersect with feminism. She is also the author of Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds : Ways of Telling the Self, which chronicles the history of metaphoric and other kinds of human transformation.

[11.06.2006]—There's that term again: New Wave Fabulism.

[11.03.2006]—NaNoWriMo writers, check out this offer: if you are participating in this month's challenge and have registered, you may be interested in taking advantage of this offer from Writer's Rainbow: 25% off Manuscript Critiquing services for those who complete their first drafts by Nov 30! Offer expires Dec 15. More info

[10.27.2006]—Meadowhawk Press is interested in novel-length speculative fiction, teen readers to adult. Speculative fiction includes: science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, alternate history, magic realism, or any combination thereof, including stories that are difficult to define. They do not read submissions for screenplays, poetry, mysteries, thrillers, children's, chick lit or nonfiction. Open to new and/or un-agented writers.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[11.06.2006]—Armando Tejuca, whose extraordinary painting of Don Quixote graced Margin's special edition of the Man of La Mancha's anniversary in spring 2005, will be showing his work, entitled "Siguiendo at Saxo," at Little Rock Central High School during the 50th anniversary of its class of 1957, which may not seem like such a big deal except that both President Bush and President Clinton will be attending. Congratulations, Armando!

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[11.10.2006]—Today's Seattle Times features the newly re-released Gabo story collection, Strange Pilgrims.

[11.09.2006]—Carlos Fuentes' novel, The Eagle's Throne, passes muster with this doubtful reader. Third time's a charm?

[11.06.2006]—Finalmente! Borges by Adolfo Bioy Casares (Ediciones Destino: 2006) offers 1664 pages of collaborative notebook entries to delight fans of the late fantasist. It's Spanish-language only, but an English edition is certain to be around the corner, if his controlling widow, María Kodama, doesn't ban it first (after all, she's condemned the newly released Spanish version).

BOOKLIST
[11.01.2006]—V by Jennifer Natalya Fink (She Devil Press: 2006)—The Brooklyn Rail runs a nicely written review of this book, which incorporates the author's experiences traveling between Lithuania, Brazil and the United States.

[11.10.2006]—Self by Yann Martel (Faber and Faber: 2003)—Described as "a fictional autobiography written in the magical realism genre" by BellaOnline's Creativity Editor, Elsa Neal.

[11.04.2006]—Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow: 2006)—Recently discussed in Bookreporter.com. "Gaiman is not about sword-swinging, dragon dueling epics, though he could probably pull it off with great flair. His work is about legend, myth and the spaces in between, about relationships and dreams and the magical realism that also can be found in a magician's sleight-of-hand trick," writes Stephen Hubbard.

[11.02.2006]—The titles Silk (Vintage: 2007) and Ocean Sea (Knopf: 1999), both written by Alessandro Baricco, received raves from blogsters Lisa and Tom Dowling for Fall in Roma 2006.

MIXED MEDIA
[11.10.2006]—from writer Sandino Milkantas for the blog, Pachacaravana, comes this little piece of writing worth contemplating: "A true story, told by Yvette."

[11.07.2006]—Mystrella [blook: serialized novel on a blog]—Tagged by writer Will Shetterly as
magical realist and written for this month's NaNoWriMo challenge. Open to critical feedback.

[11.06.2006]—Sangian [blook: serialized novel on a blog]—Tagged by British Columbian writer Alan Craik as "Mystery, Magic Realism, Literary, Fiction." Here's Alan's original blog, Magic Realism and…

[11.05.2006]—Volver [independent film]—"Featuring three generations of the women in one family, Volver (Return) is an ebullient tragicomedy liberally inflected with betrayal and death. In it [Carmen] Maura plays Abuela Irene, who is both a granny and a ghost—and not your usual ectoplasmic apparition, but a small, trim ghost with Betty Boop eyes who wears flowered aprons and stockings that stop below the knees."—Karen Durbin, The New York Times

[11.03.2006]—Emergence-See! [one-man play]—"Beatty's magical realist fantasy is the story of a phantom slave ship rising out of the Hudson and its impact on the city, and in particular one family whose mentally disturbed father has swum out and climbed aboard while his sons try to rescue him in time to get to a poetry slam."—Christopher Byrne, Gay City News

[11.03.2006]—Lovers of the Arctic Forest [DVD] has been rated as #45 on PressDisplay.com's list of 100 Greatest Films To Build Your DVD Library.

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.
ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.
GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

Fordlandia; Santos; Murakami meets Kafka; Aimee B; 1001 books; Teen MRists; Romanian blog; Martone et Jeter; Lit-lympics; Cobweb Forest; Ngugi talks

2006-11-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[11.05]—Sam Rockwell
[11.08]—Kazuo Ishiguro

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[11.03.2006]—In honor of All Saints Day, discover the story behind your patron saint.

[10.27.2006]—"When truth is stranger than fiction": This MetaxuCafe essay is interesting food for thought: "I find it most uncanny of all how the extreme scenarios of fictive imagination gradually become true."

CALENDAR
[opening 11.03.2006]—The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow [play]—"The postmodern charm of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow extends well beyond the first familiar ding of an instant message being received by Jennifer Marcus, the play’s protagonist. This is a play, after all, that blends magic realism with virtual reality."—Chris Page, East Valley Tribune. Now showing through Nov 12 at the Herberger Theater Center on 222 E. Monroe St. in Phoenix. More info

[11.05.2006]—Aimee Bender will be giving at reading of her work at the Richard Hugo House in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Seattle, at 3p. More info

[11.06.2006]—Jan Steckel will be featured with David Gollub at Steve Berry at the All Poets Welcome Reading Series 7p at the Gallery Café,1200 Mason St. at Washington, San Francisco, CA. Open mic to follow. For more info: 415-296-9932.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[11.01.2006]—Blogster Muscatlove posted a list of "1001 books to read before you die" and there are so many magical realist titles on it I can't cite them all here. Check it out!

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[11.03.2006]—NaNoWriMo writers (especially magical realist writers!), check out this offer: if you are participating in this month's challenge and have registered, you may be interested in taking advantage of this offer from Writer's Rainbow: 25% off Manuscript Critiquing services for those who complete their first drafts by Nov 30! Offer expires Dec 15. More info

[11.01.2006]—Literature Olympics, which was posted at the blog, Fear and Loathing in St. Albans. I'm not sure why the Olympics committee awarded Spain the medal earned by Gabriel García Márquez (instead of Colombia?), but I am sure of one thing: magical realism has earned itself a solid footing in literary history, if this list of Olympic-sized literary achievements is an accurate portrayal (however Western-gazing) of world lit's timeline.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[11.03.2006]—Attention Puget Sound teen writers! Contributor Katherine Grace Bond has a popular lineup of offerings to tend to the needs of blossoming teen novelists and poets. She's quite open to styles and forms (including magical realism) and an excellent, compassionate, funny teacher, to boot. Parents of teen writers might consider purchasing classes for their kids as holiday gifts. More info

[10.31.2006]—MetaxuCafe offers this terrific interview with Brian Evenson, one of America's most talented and controversial contemporary writers of nonrealistic fiction.

[10.29.2006]—Naomi Ayala announces she'll be teaching poetry workshops at The Solstice Summer Writers' Conference next June in Chestnut Hill, MA.

[10.04.2006]—Laura Loomis's short story, "Cecelia," which we honored with first prize in a previous short fiction contest at Margin, will become part of the 9th grade literature curriculum at Northwood High School in Montgomery County, MD, where teacher Daryl Alston plans to use it in discussions revolving around mercy killing.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[11.04.2006]—Ken Olende for for the Socialist Worker Online offers this interesting interview with Ngugi wa Thiong’o, author of Wizard Of The Crow, who pays credit to African oral traditions and folk tales and the work of the master, Gabriel García Márquez, for his inspirations.

[11.01.2006]—Gabo Movie Buzz! Is it true I wasn't aware that Love in the Time of Cholera is currently being made into a movie? Can't believe I missed the news on that one.

[11.01.2006]—Here's a poem by Mukul Dahal starring Gabo. An interesting rumination on the times, if not directly connected to magical realism.

[11.01.2006]—Michael Martone's latest short work is getting raves at Esquire. Check it out

[10.30.2006]—Japanese author Haruki Murakami receive the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize in Prague this week. According to the Franz Kafka Society, the prize is awarded to "authors whose works of exceptional artistic qualities are found to appeal to readers regardless of their origin, nationality and culture, just as the works of Franz Kafka." Murakami's works have been translated into some 35 languages, including Czech.

BOOKLIST
[11.02.2006]—The Gaze by Elif Shafak (Marion Boyars: 2006)—Writes Romie Stott for Reflection's Edge: "The Gaze spends equal time grappling with broad social issues and evocative side stories; it similarly strikes a comfortable balance between mysticism and realism."

[11.01.2006]—Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel by Kate Atkinson (Picador:1999)—Recently described in LA Weekly as "postmodern fiction densely packed with witty observations, all manner of references from classical to pop, shifts in time and unexpected detours into magic realism."

[10.30.2006]—Days Between Stations by Steve Erickson (Quartet Books: 1997)—Reviewed by Constitution Hill: "I read a book that made me cry last night… Those pages are the finest example of pomo magical realism I’ve ever read."

MIXED MEDIA
[11.03.2006]—Check out this wonderful painterly homage to Gabo from Mary Lozano, a Colombian painter [online art gallery] Editor's note: My favorites? "Flying Carpet" and all of the Remedios images. I recommend you view the entire slide show.

[10.30.2006]—The 1900 [DVD]—Writes Rich Seibert for Rich's Site: "This gorgeously filmed story is magical realism, and requires that you suspend your beliefs and just go along with the touching story." Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore of Cinema Paradiso fame.

[10.31.2006]—Cobweb Forest [mixed media]—Artists Lisa Stock and Connie Toebe collaborated to create this on-line journey of words and images, "a breathtaking drama of classical love and mystical dreams told through flash animations, artwork, and poetic letters" which their press release promises will "make a magic realist journey of self discovery."

[10.04.2006]—[live reading] Celebrated short story writer Aimee Bender recently read at the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University as part of the Virginia Commonwealth University English Department's Visiting Writers Series. Click here to listen to a recording of that event.

[10.04.2006]—Celine and Julie Go Boating [French film]—Writes Laurence Boyce for Netribution: "Utilising a twisting storyline and a ‘film within a film' scenario it's a magical realist tale of a magician and a librarian whose adventures combine the spirit of Lewis Carroll with a joyful lack of respect for established cinematic rules."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

Halloween MR; brain injuries; Oliva WIR; Thad's back; MRCentral.net update; Kundera in Czech; old v. new MR; workshops; Wolfproof; books/foreign film

2006-10-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

SPOOKY HALLOWEEN FUN!
[10.25.2006]—Cinema Panopticum [graphic story collection] by Thomas Ott (Fantagraphics: 2006)—Writes critic Andy Warner: "With whiffs of the Twilight Zone and early-20th-century woodcuts, Thomas Ott's collection of obsessively detailed, wordless, scratchboard comics is a creepy delight. … The eponymous Cinema Panopticum is a penny arcade in a forlorn carnival."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[10.27] Albert Wendt; Maxine Hong Kingston.
[10.30] Rudolfo Anaya
[11.02] Michelle Cliff

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[10.23.2006]—"People suffering from cranial injuries develop extraordinary abilities." From Pravda

CALENDAR
[11.01.2006]—Peter Oliva, the Nan Boothby’s writer-in-residence for 2006/07 and the award-winning author of Drowning in Darkness and City of Yes, begins his writer-in-residence commitment with a gala welcome reading at the Cochrane, Alberta library at 7p. Local writers will be interested to know that he will beteaching four evening workshops during his residency, one of which focuses on Magical Realism.

[11.03.2006]—Coming Up: Behler Publications authors (including Margin contributor Thad Rutkowski, will be reading at the West Side YMCA on 63rd St. in Manhattan at 7:30p. Free admission and free wine. More info, or call (212) 875-4124.

MARGIN NEWS
[10.28.2006]—Launch Delay for MRCentral.net
Subscribers signed up before January 31, 2007 will receive FREE membership into Margin's interactive network, MRCentral.net, slated for launch in February 2007.

NOTE THIS IS A CHANGE FROM OUR PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED LAUNCH DATE OF NOVEMBER 1, 2006. As we continue to expand the interactive community, we find more and better ways which require learning new technology and streamlining established features. Thanks for your patience as we build the best web community for magical realism EVER!

After February 1, 2007, Margin will become primarily an interactive community; memberships after that date will require a small, one-time membership fee. Membership will include:

• automatic receipt of Margin's monthly email dispatch (beginning Feb 2007)
• access to NEW interactive chat/forum services
• eligibility for future mentorship programs and online workshops
• discounts on future products, publications and literary services

Sign up now to keep connected with Margin's exciting interactive future!

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[10.25.2006]—Here's an interesting tidbit from The Literary Saloon: "Milan Kundera wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Czech (Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) back in 1982 (when he was still writing in Czech—the most recent works have been penned in French), and it did appear in its original form in 1985—published by Josef Skvorecky's Sixty-Eight Publishers in Canada. Amazingly, it's never been published in Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic—until now. But now, as Linda Mastalir reports, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being finally released in Czech Republic: Why the ridiculous delay? Jiri Srstka, Kundera's Czech literary agent, feebly explains: At first glance this doesn't appear to be a big deal, but in the case of Milan Kundera, who is known for his perfectionism, this is a huge job. Also because the Toronto edition was published under difficult circumstances, and therefore Kundera had to read the entire book again, re-write sections, make additions, and edit the entire text. So given his perfectionism, this is was a long-term job, but now readers will get the book that Milan Kundera thinks should exist."

[10.15.2006]—Myla Goldberg makes some interesting comparisons between Old School magical realists and contemporary practitioners in this New York Times review of Chris Adrian's The Children's Hospital.

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[10.28.2006]—MRCentral.net hostess Tamara Kaye Sellman is now developing online writing workshops for writers for the 2007 calendar year. She's interested in readers' suggestions at this time. Workshops will be divided between specific aspects of craft in magical realist writing and close readings of classic magical realist works with companion writing assignments to generate new work.

Have a favorite author you'd like to dissect? Is there a convention is magical realism you simply haven't mastered, but would like to? Send in your ideas!

[10.28.2006]—Attention libraries, junior colleges, arts councils, Continued Ed organizers, conference planners, literary associations, and writing organizations in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia
Writer's Rainbow now offers two tracks specifically focused on the needs of writers on nonRealism:

"When You’re Strange…” (developing extra-ordinary stories)
“Magical Realism 101” (introduction to writing magical realism)

Both programs can be taught in 1-2 hours for a class minimum of 4 students (no class maximum) and can also be repeated in a weekly workshop setting for 4-6 students over 4-6 weeks.

"When You're Strange…" is also suitable for mini-retreats as a multifaceted workshop suitable for weekend scheduling. Lots of fun! Rates are negotiable. Contact Writer's Rainbow for more information.

CONTRIBUTORS' NEWS
[10.16.2006]—Writes contributor Maureen McQuerry: "My new YA fantasy novel, Wolfproof, was released last week by Idylls Press. It's the story of three middle school students who find their lives invaded by characters from Celtic and British mythology, and find themselves in a battle against a great mythic evil. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, 'Fairy stories matter, not because they tell us there are dragons, but because they tell us dragons can be defeated.' I think we all want to believe that we are more than meets the eye and that we can defeat the dragons in our lives. Wolfproof is the first in the Wolfproof trilogy to be followed next year by The Travelers' Market. For more information check out my website."

BOOKLIST
[10.28.2006]—The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett (Scholastic: 2006)—Described in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: "Secret codes, hidden objects, and an intriguing mix of coincidence and magic realism, make Balliett's sequel to the award winning Chasing Vermeer an intelligent mystery which ages nine-12 will enjoy."

[10.27.2006]—Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni, tr. Anthony Shugaar (Europa Editions: 2006)—Writes Elsbeth Lindner for SFGate: "[Benni's] short, irregularly paced and sometimes inconsequential fantasy dances to its own beat, whether making scatological observations about Margherita's dog Sleepy or inventing magical realist nonsense, such as her grandfather's occupation ("oasis salesman") and tango dancing partner (Dona Lupinda de Camarones Gutierrez, who died in 1854)."

[10.26.2006]—Awake in the Dark by Shira Nayman (Scribner: 2006)—Writes Mark Oppenheimer for The Jewish Daily Forward: "Nayman seems well studied in the canon of American, and international, short fiction. There are magical realist touches, episodes of close observation in the Alice Munro style, the use of multiple narrators within one story. And each story works, in its own way: The plots are satisfying — the reader pushes through to find interesting twists at the end — but the effect is derivative."

[10.23.2006]—Sideshow by Sidney Thompson (River City Publishing: 2006)—Writes "asheresque" for The Lit-Blog Co-op: "'The Man Who Never Dies' " is the kickoff short story in Sidney Thompson's collection, Sideshow, and it's also the apparent source of the book's title. Life is definitely a parade of carnival characters in Sidney Thompson's world." More about the book at the blog

[10.22.2006]—Nothing in the World: A Novella by Roy Kesey (Bullfight Media: 2006)—Writes Daniel Olivas for The El Paso Times: "Kesey seamlessly weaves the gruesomeness of battle with a dreamlike, almost fabulist style as we follow Josko in his transformation from hero—he is a brilliant sniper—to physically and emotionally wounded fighter who abandons the war to find Klara. Josko wanders from town to town, each ripped apart by battle, the few remaining inhabitants numb to violence. He encounters near starvation, exhaustion and hallucinations. He hears a girl's voice, calling him, leading him, somewhere, perhaps to Klara, guiding him on his quest: 'She sang ballads and folk songs and at times only his name, and he wondered if she was beautiful.'"

[10.21.2006]—The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury: 2006)—Writes Lucy Hughes-Hallett for The Guardian Unlimited: "Susanna Clarke blends fact with fairytale in her collection of offcuts from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell."

MIXED MEDIA
[10.23.2006]—Son of Man [South African film] by Mark Dornford-May—Writes Laura Kelly for the Sun-Sentinel: "This bloody drama updates the story of Jesus' birth, life and crucifixion. A visually charged mixture of song, dance and magic realism is set against the genocidal violence of a modern-day African government led by a Pontius Pilate-type leader." Shown recently at the 21st Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. For more info

[10.19.2006]—The Late Henry Moss [Czech film] by Michal Lang, featuring core Švandovo players—Writes Steffen Silvis for the Prague Post Online: "The Late Henry Moss is true [Sam] Shepard territory. There's the trailer-as-shack existence on some forgotten desert fringe, the stink of sun-baked death in the air and two brothers circling each other around a kitchen table like two feral toms. Loneliness becomes a geographical reality in Shepard's world. But there's also a metaphysical element juxtaposed with the punishing physical world, creating something like a dirty magic realism." Shown recently at Švandovo divadlo in Prague, CZ.

[10.21.2006]—Jaanemann [Bollywood film] by Shirish Kunder—Writes N. K. Deoshi for ApunKaChoice.com: "Shirish Kunder’s directorial debut …uses a style of storytelling that has never been seen in Bollywood before. …Kunder fuses fantasy and reality together, using visual images as metaphors."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is free and easy and the feed reader is customizable.

MR film from Ireland and Poland; MRCentral.net 1.0; MR writer's workshops!; giant fish, carnivals and medical MR; Jan Jacub Kolski

2006-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[10.27] Albert Wendt; Maxine Hong Kingston.

CALENDAR
[10.21.2006]—Cine Gael Montreal Irish Film Series screening of the Gabriel Byrne magical realist film, Into the West, at the DeSeve Cinema in Montreal (1400 de Maissoneuve W). Screening time: 7p. $10 admission. More info

[10.20.2006]—Starting tonight: Screening of the Jan Jacub Kolski magical realist film, Jasminum (Jasmine), at the Polish Film Festival, held at the Midtown Cinema in downtown Harrisburg, PA. Screening times: 3p and 8p tonight; 3p and 9p Sat Oct 21; 7p Sun Oct 22; 3p Mon Oct 23; 7p Tues Oct 24; 7p Wed Oct 25; 3p Thurs Oct. 26. More info

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[10.20.2006]—Margin's cutover to the fabulous new interactive service, MRCentral.net, has been delayed and here's the reason: the more research I do regarding interactive media, the more I want to incorporate! But it's all a learning curve for me, and that takes time. I'm still polishing up the various features that will make MRCentral.net a wonderful service to its subscribers, but have decided to delay its full-on release ("MRCentral.net 1.0") until Jan 31, 2007. That's 3 more months for me to work out the kinks, add all the extras, and develop some custom products and services. Thanks for your patience as I continue streamlining this exciting project!

Note: An additional bonus: If you are not yet a member of the Margin/MRCentral.net 1.0 community, the date to acquire your FREE membership has been extended from Oct 31, 2006 to Jan 31, 2007! Starting Feb 1, 2007, memberships will require payment of nominal, lifetime membership dues of $20. Sign up before then and your membership is free!

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[10.20.2006]—With the delay of the launch of MRCentral.net 1.0, some additional time has been budgeted toward developing online writing workshops specifically tailored to the needs of magical realist writers. Now is the time to speak up about your interests! What element of craft or technique particular to magical realism are you interested in developing? Let me know: I'm happy to customize the MRCentral.net 1.0 online workshops to meet your needs!

BOOKLIST
[10.19.2006]—Goodnight, Texas by William J. Cobb (Unbridled Books: Sept 2006)—The author is quoted in The Daily Collegian (Penn State) as describing his book as "a novel about a giant fish with a horse in its mouth."

[10.19.2006]—Rain Village by Carolyn Turgeon (Unbridled Books: Oct 2006)—The author is quoted in The Daily Collegian (Penn State) as saying that her novel, about misfit girl living in an early 20th century farming community, "can also be considered magical realism," likely due to a range of carnivalesque elements the author explores in her plot.

[10.15.2006]—The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian (McSweeney's: 2006)—Writes Edith Pearlman for The Boston Globe: "Adrian's prose here is writing at its best—medical magical realism, you might call it."

MIXED MEDIA
[10.19.2006]—Jasminum (Jasmine) [foreign film]—Li Wing for The Patriot-News describes this film, which opens for the Polish film festival in Harrisburg, PA Friday, as "steeped in magical realism." It features veteran film director Jan Jacub Kolski (considered to be the father of magical realism in Polish cinema). See CALENDAR for screening dates/times.

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING

GOT NEWS?
Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS:
Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED!
If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER:
Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pumpkin carving, novel revision, Oktoberfest or bonfires.

MRCentral.net, Best Enemies, Kelly Link, MR writers' special, Sellman/ Hettich/Lindquist, RushdieX2, MRist Pamuk, IBSinger, Coelho-blog, new books

2006-10-16T14:42:00.001-07:00

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Margin's upcoming launch of MRCentral.net has been delayed due to scheduling conflicts and a desire to improve current site navigation and utilize other technologies.

The original plan was to launch MRCentral on Nov 1. However, it will be launched instead in Jan 2007, the actual date yet to be determined.

NOTE: the deadline for free membership to Margin's interactive community has been moved from Oct 31 to Dec 31.

Thanks for your patience as we take a little extra time to put together all the pieces that promise to move this new interactive community into a league all its own!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[10.15]—Italo Calvino
[10.16]—Dino Buzzati; Gunter Grass
[10.19]—Miguel Angel Asturias

CALENDAR
[thru 10.22.2006]—Best Enemies [theater] "Best Enemies veers toward magic realism, a genre of heightened realism in art and literature where fantastic elements appear unquestioned and unexplained alongside the very ordinary, and viewers are asked to suspend not only their disbelief, but their logic."—Seacoast Online review. Now showing at The Player's Ring in Portsmouth, 105 Marcy St., beside the Prescott Park flower garden. Fri and Sat shows at 8p, Sun shows at 7p. More info

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[10.08.2006]—Kelly Link's latest book, Magic for Beginners, gets a reassignment in category from The Boston Globe [but we still think it's magical realism].

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[10.16.2006] Of particular interest to writers of MR is this Opening Day special offered by Writer's Rainbow: Buy one manuscript critique, get one free. Of particular use to writers of magical realism. Offer ends 10.31.2006. Details

CONTRIBUTOR'S NEWS
[10.16.2006]—Margin founder Tamara Kaye Sellman launches her new literary services business, Writer's Rainbow LLC, today. See Writer's Resource, above, for Opening Day special for writers.

[10.13.2006]—The Metaxu Cafe recently asked Margin contributor Michael Hettich five questions.

[10.13.2006]—Margin contributor Ellen Lindquist recently announced the appearance of her work ("The 200-Channel Panda") in The Kennesaw Review.

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[10.16.2006]—Alan Miller offers this account of Salman Rushdie's latest talk about free speech for The Huffington Post.

[10.13.2006]—Nobel Prize winner for Literature Orhan Pamuk is featured in a New York Times article written by Charles MacGrath, who discusses Pamuk's use of postmodernist devices ("narratives within narratives, texts that come alive, labyrinths of signs and symbols, more doubleness and identity swapping") throughout his career.

[10.08.2006]—Megan Harlan dissects the "deeply divided Yiddish author Isaac Singer" in The San Francisco Chronicle with this review of critic Florence Noiville's biography of the famous Jewish storyteller entitled A Life.

[10.07.2006]—That Salman Rushdie is ever the busy man. Here's a wonderful discussion about the dark side of the legend of Scheherazade.

[10.06.2006]—Check out Paulo Coehlo's new blog

BOOKLIST
[10.13.2006]—The End by Lemony Snicket (HarperCollins: 2006)—Patricia Leigh Brown reports in The New York Times that the author wrote the series, with The End in mind, based upon Dino Buzzati's "odd 1947 tale," The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, in which a family of bears descends from the mountains "only to realize their lives have been corrupted by humans" living in the city below.

[10.12.2006]—Panda Diaries by Alex Kuo (University of Indianapolis Press: 2006)—Writes Lucas Klein for Rain Taxi Online: "…the conceit of Panda Diaries is Kuo's greatest flash of brilliance: a mail-delivering panda becomes the only friend to an honest and alienated government bureaucrat wrestling with his political past and his desire to reconnect with his family."

[10.10.2006]—Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (Penguin: 2006)—Amazon reviewer Friederike Knabe writes: "'Taking the Three Day Road,' the traditional Cree reference to dying, takes on new meaning here, both literally and spiritually."

[10.08.2006]—Coventry by Joseph Bathanti (Novello Festival Press: 2006)—Ben Steelman for StarNewsOnline writes: "…as Cal passes through a near-dream state, the narration takes on qualities of magic realism. Cal's dead mother hovers through from time to time, adding her own cryptic commentary. The blue eye patch and the dead bat that pops up are just a couple of the off-key, bizarre details that slip into the edges of the action."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed. Writers needing professional critiques of their magical realist manuscripts are welcome to check out Writer's Rainbow's Opening Day special (see Writer's Resource, above)

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER: Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pumpkin carving, novel revision, Oktoberfest or bonfires.

Newsblog returns MON Oct 16

2006-10-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

We're having connectivity issues. See you next Monday.

MR WEEK IN REVIEW: Virgin Mary shrine, Lake Catemaco, Milarepa, El-Harafish, Urrea's task, Hispanic Heritage Mo, uncanny, Rushdie @ Emory, books/film

2006-10-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[10.10.06]—RK Narayan & Jorge Amado.

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[10.06.06]—City tears down Virgin Mary shrine.

[10.01.06]—Take a virtual trip to Lake Catemaco, a charmed place where Mexicans come for boating, fishing, bird-watching and spiritual cleansing.

CALENDAR
[10.08-09.06]—Milarepa plays at the Granville 7 in downtown Vancouver, BC. Runs 7p on the 8th, then 1p on the 9th. See MIXED MEDIA below for details.

INDUSTRY REPORTS
[10.06.06]—In Manal el-Jesri's recent retrospective about the Arab writer Naguib Mahfouz, he points out how literary critic Ragaa El-Naqqash discusses the magical realism within Mahfouz's epic work of 1977, El-Harafish, as a compass point for discussing the magical realist tradition in Arab writing. "[El-Harafish]… reveals a form of magical realism that is purely Egyptian, at a time when magical realism was still taking its first steps in South America. … [Magical realism] actually draws from eastern and Arab roots, which go back to A Thousand and One Nights, which is the first example of magical realism in the world,” argued El-Naqqash. [read the entire article in Egypt Today]

[10.03.06]—Midori Snyder for The Endicott Studio reports on Luis Urrea's recent two-week production of the text of his magical realist novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter. The audio version is now available as a free download through Audible.com.

RELATED READING
[09.27.06]
—"Rich and varied 'Hispanic heritage' not easy to define."
by Steven Winn for the San Francisco Chronicle
from the article: "As the Senate mulls a House-passed bill mandating a 700-mile Mexican border fence that Kafka or Calvino might have dreamed up in one of their absurdist fictions, partisan divisions have all but doomed any meaningful legislation in the foreseeable future. … How fitting that this latest national stalemate should come in the heart of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through Oct. 15."

WRITER'S RESOURCE
[10.06.06]
—from Tales from the Reading Room
Here's a fun discussion on the meaning of the term 'uncanny.'

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[10.06.06]—According to reports in The Emory Wheel, Salman Rushdie has accepted a professor's position at Emory University.

BOOKLIST
[09.29.06]—The Dust Diaries by Owen Sheers (Faber: 2004)—Reports Percy Zvomuya for The Mail & Guardian Online: "The Dust Diaries… is an odd mixture of myth, fact and reality. There is an episode where Cripps, who was also seen as a powerful rain spirit, controls and sends bees to stop a car. 'I am more comfortable using fictionalised techniques than using historical facts,' says Sheers. Consequently, his work sometimes strays into the realm of magical realism."

[09.29.06]—Jose Builds A Woman by Jan Baross (Ooligan Press: 2006)—Writes Jeff Baker for The Oregonian: "[Jose Builds A Woman is] a magical realist fable about a woman named Totugina, an octopus diver named Gabito, and their son, Jose."

[09.28.06]—Baby Khaki's Wings by Anar Ali (Viking Canada: 2006)—Writes John Burns for The Georgia Straight: "There’s an unusual brand of magic realism at work in this debut story collection by UBC creative-writing grad Anar Ali." Editor's note: I've read the title story and it's spectacular.

MIXED MEDIA
[09.29.06]—A New Day in Old Sana'a [film]—Harvey F. Chartrand for GreenCine writes: "Bader Ben Hirsi is the talented British-Yemeni writer/director of A New Day in Old Sana'a , a tale of magic realism set in Yemen's ancient capital and the first full-length feature film to come out of that Middle Eastern country."

[09.28.06]—Milarepa [film]—The Georgia Straight, Vancouver's arts newspaper, discusses this Bhutanese production among the many independent films currently featured at the Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs through mid-Oct. From their synopsis—"In the magic-realist tradition of Travellers & Magicians, filmmaker (and lama) Neten Chokling combines an ancient Tibetan Buddhist story with glossy production values and digital effects. The first in a two-part saga, it’s the story of a famous 12th-century saint named Milarepa: when his widowed mother is shamed and robbed by her in-laws, she sends him to a sorcery school to take revenge. Some of the characterizations are a little broad, but the scenery on the wide Tibetan plain makes a suitably surreal setting for a supernatural legend, and the arcane morality may reel you in if you let it."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER: Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pumpkin carving, novel revision, Oktoberfest or bonfires.

Sweating glass?; Southern-fried MR; MR theater galore; El Doctor; BAFAB; vintage MR; Soyinka/Murakami/Allende/Coelho/Barnes/Kafka; new books

2006-09-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[10.01]—Tim O'Brien.
[10.05]—Jose Donoso.

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[9.21.06]—"In what seems to be a bizarre case that has baffled medical practitioners, a young girl in the district of Kailai, far western Nepal, has been emitting transparent solid objects, purported to be glass pieces, from her forehead." Go to the EKantipur.com article to read more.

CALENDAR
Television
[9.30.06]—The Green Mile shows on channel FX at 8pm. The New York Daily News describes this 1999 Stephen King film as "southern-fried magical realism."

Film
[10.03.06, one night only]—Suzan Pitt's Surreal Landscapes. Features her animated short, "El Doctor," described by Robert Abele for The Los Angeles Times as a "trippy, magic-realist expedition through the mind of a pickled old Mexican doctor on his regret-filled last day on Earth [which] makes rich use of Pitt's hand-drawn movement technique." Playing at The Redcat, Disney Hall, 2nd and Hope Sts., Los Angeles. Info: (213) 237-2800.

Theater
[now showing through 9.30.06]—Ay Carmela! "…[T]his is a play not only serious in intent—why can’t the living learn from the dead?—but [it aims] for gallows humour, and is cast in the flexible mould of magic realism where the dead return to talk, remember and eat sweet quinces with the living."—Times Online. Playing at The Theatre Royal, St. Leonard's Place, York, New Yorkshire, England.

[now showing through 10.07.06]—Louis Slotin Sonata. This play, described as "weaving past, present and future in a phantasma-goric dreamscape" by The Everett Herald, centers on the life of the chief bomb builder at Los Alamos. Playing at The Empty Space Theatre, 901 12th Ave., Seattle. Info: 206-547-7500.

[now showing through 10.08.06]—Tiny Dynamite. "What's happening in the play isn't always easy to decipher, and that challenge and investigation is thrilling for me. … What I do know is that it's a piece about lonely people trying to make connections with others, and that it sits—this is part of its excitement—in a naturalistic world containing magical elements that offer hope to the characters," says director Ashlie Corcoran in an article in NOW Magazine, which continues: "That magic realism includes the fact that Anthony, struck by lightning as a child, now attracts bees and fireflies." Playing at Theatre Smash at the Tarragon Extra Space, 30 Bridgman, Toronto. Info: 416-531-1827.

[now showing through 10.08.06]—Tale of 2Cities (An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks). "There's a lot of magical realism to [director Heather Woodbury's] work, but in this case, it's not so heavily weighted to the playful side," says the plays director, Dudley Saunders. "A lot of people in the play are dealing with how you survive disaster. Some manage to make new lives, and some try to dig after the past. Some people just get caught between the old and new, caught in stasis."—The Daily Bulletin. Playing at Freud Playhouse, in Macgowan Hall on the UCLA campus, Westwood, CA. Info: (310) 825-2101.

[now showing through 10.22.06]—Another Part of the House. "One of the iconic works in the trilogy of 'Andalusian tragedies' by Federico Garcia Lorca, widely considered the greatest Spanish playwright and poet of the 20th century, House is a supremely difficult drama to carry off with any degree of success, whether in its stark original form or in Cruz's quirky, at times oddly comic, 'magic realism-infused' version."—Chicago Sun-Times Online. Playing at Teatro Vista at Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division, Chicago. Info: (312) 494-5767.

Other
[10.01-07.06]—Coming Up: BAFAB! Buy a Friend a Book week. From the organization: "The rules are simple Just get yourself to a real-life or virtual book store during Buy a Friend a Book Week (the first weeks of January, April, July, and October) and, well, buy a friend a book (or e-book)!"

VINTAGE MR
[Sept 1998]—Available online: Essay, "Seducing the Male-Reader: Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch and the Pleasure of Losing," by Michael Hardin [University of Houston].

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT
[9.28.06]—Wole Soyinka, author of You Must Set Forth at Dawn, discussed his work with KCRW's Bookworm. The program characterized the Nobel prize-winning playwright as a writer who "explores the myths of exile and return" and who "contrasts European and African cosmologies, and describes his passionate activism as a quest influenced by the gods."

[9.25.06]—Haruki Murakami has won the second Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (and €35,000 in spoils) for his third short-story collection, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.

[9.23.06]— The Telegraph recently posted this terrific, comprehensive study of Julian Barnes, famously known for writing Flaubert's Parrot.

[9.23.06]—Fans of Franz Kafka can visit his hometown of Prague using this travel guide from Toby Saltzman for The Globe and Mail.

[9.22.06]—Isabel Allende and Paolo Coelho represented the larger worldview of magical realism as a tool for change at this year's Waldzell Conference, a gathering held Sept 8-10 in which global intellectuals tossed around the topic, "The challenge of change: Can individuals change the world?" The annual “Waldzell Meetings/ Global Dialogs for Inspiration” are held at Melk Abbey for the purpose of addressing those people who want to be proactive about promoting positive change in global culture but who are not satisfied with existing paradigms and solutions. The organization believes that individuals are capable of lending positive influence to the future; its intent is to encourage this belief.

BOOKLIST
The Hidden Star by K. Sello Duiker (Umuzi: 2006)—Writes Kate Davies for Cape Times: "Right from the book's first moments, [Duiker] signals a magical realism that permeates the whole work."

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (Harvest/Harcourt: 2006)—Writes Ihsan Taylor for The New York Times: "Link’s second collection of stories is a potent blend of horror, magic realism and postmodern absurdism."

The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos (Akashic: 2006)—From James Sallis for The Los Angeles Times/Calendarline.com: "Taibo and Marcos are such small heroes, and they offer just such connections. I once wrote that Taibo pulls real rabbits out of imaginary hats. Now I wonder. Maybe there is no Paco Taibo, maybe it's just been the rabbit all along, pulling itself, and the occasional Paco Taibo novel, out of that hat."

Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender (Anchor: 2006)—Writes Ihsan Taylor for The New York Times: "The contemporary fairy tales in Bender’s second collection alternate between zany scenarios imbued with human pathos and apparently ordinary stories pitched at oblique angles."

CONTRIBUTORS' UPDATES:
[9.27.06]—Jan Steckel [Margin, 2004] was recently interviewed by California Poet Laureate Cynthia Bryant for the internet radio show Poets Lane.

[10.14.06]—M. Eliza Hamilton Abuégundé [Margin, 2004] opens the meditations for the upcoming Jane's Stories Fall Retreat in Northbrook, Illinois. Registration open through October 6. Register online

A L I T T L E L I G H T H O U S E K E E P I N G…

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER: Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pumpkin carving, novel revision, Oktoberfest or bonfires.

Banned MR, shapechanging in the news, Sellman appears, Crowley's Little-Big 25, $aunder$, Chavez's lit lights, books/film/stage

2006-09-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

CALENDAR
[09.23-30]—Tomorrow launches Banned Books Week. Believe it or not, books are still regularly challenged; attempts to ban them outright remain a constant in American society. The 100 most-banned books of the 1990s are listed at the American Library Association website, to which they sidebar this scary disclaimer: "Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported." Google has listed 42 of the most-banned works of literature in our history, including some MR standards, such as Bless Me Ultima by Ruldofo Anaya, Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate, both Beloved and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Now, that's blasphemy!

EVERYDAY MARVELS
[09.15.06]—From Yahoo! News comes this bit of real-world magical realism: "A Nigerian murder suspect accused of killing his brother with an axe told police investigators he actually attacked a goat, which was only later magically transformed into his sibling's corpse, officials said Thursday."

WRITING NEWS
[09.22-24.06]—Margin publisher and MRCentral.net director Tamara Sellman appears this weekend at Seattle's Foolscap VIII convention. Check out her 2-hour writer's workshop, "Flattery Might Get You Somewhere," which begins at 4:30p today (students must be registered; limit of 8 students). At 9:30p tonight, she addresses the subject, "When Writing Isn't Your Day Job." On Sat Sept 23 at 4:30p, she discusses Margie Piercy's novel, Woman on the Edge of Time. Finally, at 3p on Sun Sept 24, she joins in the discussion, "It's All About Me," a writer's self-promotion discussion panel.

[09.19.06]—The publisher of John Crowley's popular novel, Little, Big, celebrates the book's 25th anniversary this year. Incunabula Press plans to release a special anniversary edition illustrated by Peter Milton which will include critical commentary from Harold Bloom. Click here to reserve your copy (release date is spring 2007, but don't wait!). You might also want to step into Crowley's parlor and wish the author and his book a happy anniversary yourself.

CELEBRITY NEWS
[09.18.06]—Author George Saunders, whose second story collection, Pastoralia, was reviewed previously in Margin, was awarded a $500,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation last Monday.

[09.17.06]—Not surprisingly, some of Hugo Chavez's favorite novelists are Gabo and Cervantes. Read about it here

BOOKS
[09.22.06]—Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by Alan Shapiro (Small Beer Press: 2006)—Writes Caleb Wilson of Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville: "This is a great debut collection of loopy, off-the-wall, and still-somehow-packing-emotional-weight stories; DeNiro can weld words into some mighty strange configurations."

[09.18.06]—Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (Giramondo: 2006)—Writes Liam Davison for the Sydney Morning Herald: "Wright expresses what writer and critic Mudrooroo refers to as the "maban reality", a discrete, indigenous genre of Australian writing that privileges the oral tradition of storytelling and law over documented history."

[09.15.06]—The Heiress of Water by Sandra Rodriguez Barron (Rayo: 2006)—Writes Cherie Parker, special to the Star Tribune: "Rodriguez Barron favors a fanciful writing style influenced by the heady imagery of magical realism. Sometimes this is nicely effective: 'Monica hammered the tense muscle with the fleshy bottom of her fist as if she were grinding peppercorns with a pestle." And sometimes it is ridiculous: 'A sack of memories burst across her vision, and several long-forgotten moments rushed past her vision, like a stampede of baby spiders.'"

[recently reviewed in Endicott Studio]—In The Country of the Young by Lisa Carey (HarperPerennial: 2002)—Writes Terri Windling: "Carey's latest novel is multi-generational ghost story set on a small island off the coast of Maine. It's a rich, sensual, engrossing tale…and beautifully written too."

MIXED MEDIA
[09.22.06]—The Science of Sleep [film]—Writes Sheila Roberts for Movies Online—"[Director Michel] Gondry and his creative team do an impressive job of conveying visually the magical realism of the story, using mostly practical effects to reveal how quickly the thin line between dreams and reality can blur."

[09.15.06]—Hickorydickory [play]—Writes Liam Otten for Washington University in St. Louis News & Information—"Hickorydickory tells the story of Cari Lee, a young woman whose "mortal clock," a literal biological clock that tells the time and date of each individual's death, has been permanently frozen, trapping her at the age of 17 — the same age as her daughter, Dale." Runs Sept 29-Oct 23 at the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre, in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd, St. Louis, MO. For more info

A L I T T L E L I G H T H O U S E K E E P I N G…

GOT NEWS? Contact us with your Magical Realism updates! We're here to serve you.

ESPECIALLY FOR WRITERS: Our reading period is closed.

GET PINGED! If you are set up to read web feeds, simply "discover" the "MRNEWS: The Week In Review" RSS feed to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the Magical Realism Newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

GENTLE REMINDER: Margin's staff is on hiatus through mid-October 2006. Any e-mail we receive during this time will receive replies as necessary, but there may be delays due to pumpkin carving, novel revision, Oktoberfest or bonfires.

New blog addy; Bioy-Casares; Man of La Mancha; MARGIN undergoes METAMORPHOSIS!; MR writer's markets; Aunt Hagar and St. Lucy; movie links

2006-09-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

NOTE OUR NEW BLOG ADDRESS AT http://MarginNews.blogspot.com. Too many problems with our old blog service have forced this move, yet another change for the better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
[SEPT 15]—Adolfo Bioy-Casares

CALENDAR
[now showing through 9.24.06]—"Man of La Mancha," Sept. 8-24 at the Civic Light Opera, 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle. More info

WRITING NEWS
[09.15.06]—Yes, everything you've heard is true: Margin as an anthology has retired. However, in its place, writers can look forward to many opportunities for publishing and learning under the auspices of MRCentral.com. Stay tuned as we develop and launch this exciting new phase of Margin!

[09.14.06]—Here are a bevy of writer's markets for magical realist or related writing culled from the most recent edition of Ralan.com:

Allegory
Peccary
Say…
Trabuco Road

BOOKS
[09.10.06]—All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones (HarperCollins: September 2006)—Writes Jeanne L. LeBlanc for the Hartford Courant: "The style of All Aunt Hagar's Children is reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez's magical realism—not fantasy but a kind of reality that seeks no explanations."

[09.09.06]—St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf: September 2006)—Writes Alexis Smith for Powells.com: "In contemporary American publishing, fabulism seems to be the preferred term for the new lot of North American magical-realist fiction, and Russell's stories can easily be read alongside Aimee Bender, Judy Budnitz, and Kelly Link, all of whom explore the decidedly elastic boundaries between narrative realism and genres like fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction."

MIXED MEDIA
[09.15.06]—The novel, Perfume, by German author Patrick Süskind appears in its debut film version in the author's home country this week. See the German film website

[09.14.06]—People's Daily Online reports that Brazilian film director Fernando Meirelles will direct the film adaptation of Jose Saramago's novel, Blindness. Read more

[09.11.06]—Mancub—Writes Neil Cooper for the The Herald (Scotland): "This is a political statement as much as an artistic one, and, in this first show, a revival of Douglas Maxwell's magical realist exercise in adolescent growing pains, the NTS [National Theatre of Scotland] might just have found the perfect statement to put flesh on such intentions."

[09.10.06]—Half-Moon—Writes Anthony Kauffman for IndieWire—"Kurdish filmmaker Ghobadi… traces the journey of a famous elderly blind musician and his dozen sons as they try to make their way back to Iraqi Kurdistan to hold a musical concert—the first after the fall of Sadaam Hussein—despite the presence of bad omens. …filled with striking imagery—from the cockfight that begins the movie to a fabulous magical realist interlude in a city of exiled woman singers—Half Moon confirms Ghobadi as a master craftsman."

[09.10.06]—Zozo—Writes Richard von Busack for Metroactive—"This odyssey of an angelic child (Imad Creidi) begins very glossy and Spielberg-esque, making a spectacle out of the bombardment of Lebanon in 1987. The story is honeyed with heavy touches of magical realism. Hiding in a Dumpster from the bombing, Zozo has a companion, a yellow baby chick who talks to him in a gruff, world-weary voice."

A LITTLE LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING…
NOTE OUR NEW BLOG ADDRESS AT http://MarginNews.blogspot.com. If you are set up to read web feeds, simply add the feed for MRNews: The Week in Review to your reader using your web reader's tools. You'll receive automated feeds whenever we update the newsblog. If you haven't moved into the world of RSS, don't despair. It's easier than it looks. RSS means "really simple syndication." To download a freeware RSS web reader (which allows you to "get pinged"—that is, receive automatic updates of new content posted at all your favorite blogs), we recommend Active Web Reader 2.4. Set up is easy and the feed reader is customizable.

You can access all of Margin's news archives up to 9.08.06 at the old Angelfire address