By By Ammad Khan
Retriever Weekly Staff Writer
Looking beyond the claims that UMBC is a "science" school, it becomes clear to students that the university provides many opportunities for those who are more inclined towards the liberal arts and, in particular, writing. Not including the creative writing classes offered on the campus, there are several opportunities for creative writers to hone their skills. SEB-sponsored events like poetry readings in the Commons and Bartleby, the school's literary magazine, are two examples.
Writers have also come to campus to share their works and their advice. Recently, nationally-acclaimed writer C.M. Mayo visited UMBC and read from one of her books to a crowd of people. The Retriever Weekly was able to ask the author a few questions.
The Retriever Weekly: What is your next book, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, about? When will it be out and what motivated you to write it?
C.M. Mayo: It is an historical novel based on a true story set in Mexico, Paris and Washington, D.C., which takes place in the period during and just after our civil war. I like to call it "Gone with the Wind" a la mexicana, though the plot is entirely different. I expect it will be out sometime in 2008.
TRW: What advice do you have for people that want to get into travel writing?
Mayo: First, read quality travel writing not as a passive consumer, but actively, as a craftsperson. On my website, www.cmmayo.com (click on "workshop") I offer a brief (by no means exhaustive) list of recommended travel memoirs and another list of books on craft. Second, keep a notebook. Photos also help jog one's memory. Third, really pay attention to and jot down details that surround you: the
sound of a bell; the texture of a silk robe; the taste of coconut ice-cream... Fourth, keep an open heart. Do not be quick to judge.
TRW: You say that you continue to learn to write by reading regular books, as well as reading books on the craft. How or in what way do you find each of the two methods helping your writing?
Mayo: I never know what will be helpful when. I just keep at it.
TRW: You edited a book that had translated stories from Mexico. Do you feel as though translating a foreign piece takes away from the flow of the words, or the music, the original writer intended for the audience?
Mayo: That is the art of literary translation! One tries to reproduce that flow, that music, that meaning.
TRW: What do you enjoy about writing fiction and poetry? How did it feel when you saw your first piece of published work?
Mayo: I enjoy the freedom of it. It's always a delight to see something in print. But then--it is inevitable--one finds a typo.
TRW: Do you feel as though literary magazines are the best way for a writer to get into the market?
Mayo: That would depend on which "market" a writer is aiming at. For literary travel writers, literary journals are an important venue. By the way, I have an article about how to publish short stories--and the advice also applies to literary travel essays--on my webpage. For someone aiming at a career as a freelance writer, newspapers and commercial magazines, such as airline magazine, would be the way to go.
RW: When asked where you got your ideas, you said "My theory is when the brain goes into theta, consciousness expands." Could you expand on this?
Mayo: The human mind, guided by intention, can see everywhere and everywhen. I think all of us, at some point in our lives, have some intimation of this. For more about brainwaves, see Anna Wise's book, The High Performance Mind. Her webpage is www.annawise.com.
RW: What advantages do you think there are for a bilingual writer when it comes to understanding language or writing, as opposed to a writer with knowledge of one language?
Mayo: As one learns a new language, one realizes that one's own language lacks words for certain things and concepts. There are limits to language. But it is also a kind of instrument with which to make infinite varieties of music. But one language makes one kind of music; another makes another.
RW: What advice do you have for new or young writers?
Mayo: First, read. Second, take the craft seriously. In our culture, we tend to fall for this idea that one either has talent or one doesn't. But writing is like ballet dancing, wood working, flying airplanes--to learn how to do it, it is important to find a good teacher and to work at it.
RW: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Mayo: For anyone interested in getting some practice as a writer, on my website (www.cmmayo.com) I offer 365 free five-minute writing exercises. Yes, they really are only five minutes and they are meant to be fun.
Ammad Khan is a Staff Writer for The Retriever Weekly. He can be reached at khan5@umbc.edu.Copyright: The Retriever Weekly