C.M. Mayo Recommends: Five New Literary Blogs to Follow

At a mere three and half-years old, my blog Madam Mayo is an old-timer, which tells you the main thing about this swirling bubble-froth of the way-too-big-to-follow-everything-Blogosphere: it's new, new, and a Niagara of new. My favorite question: what's new? Herewith, five blogs, all new to me in the past two weeks (if not necessarily new to the Blogosphere), that I warmly recommend to both writers and readers:

#1. Nieman Storyboard.

Like the tagline says, "Breaking down story in every medium. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard."


Recent noteworthy posts:

* Interview with Tom Shroder, former Washington Post Magazine editor

*Clark Boyd: Confessions of a Podcaster


*Interview with Mary Gaitskill: Lessons from Lost Cat

#2. A Writing Life.

Novelist Christina Baker Kline, who has just pubished her fourth novel, Bird in Hand (William Morrow, 2009), shares her insights into the creative process.
Recent noteworthy posts:


*Louise DeSalvo on Why Having Kids is No Excuse
*Chad Taylor on Why Writers Should Care About Twitter

*Graphic Designer and writer Julie Metz: Judging a Book by its Cover


#3. Coffee with a Canine

Hosted by screenwriter Marshal Zeringue, formula Q & A with authors and their dogs--a chance to meet some charming critters and sample some very fine writing.

Recent noteworthy posts:

*Mary Guterson (author of Gone to the Dogs) and Sparky.
*Sydney Salter (author of My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters) and Jack and Rosie.
*Julie Fenster (author of FDR's Shadow).

#4. Las Comadres & Friends and the National Latino Book Club

Las Comadres is a non-profit foundation and informal Internet-based group that meets monthly in many U.S. cities to build connections and community with other Latinas and "Latinas de corazon." Founded by Austin resident Nora de Hoyos Comstock, Las Comadres now has more than 15,000 members and, in partnership with the Association of American Publishers (AAP), they are promoting the reading of Latino authors by creating the first national level book club: Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club, which is open to anyone. Check out the book club here.

#5. She Writes Blog

This is a new and very rapidly evolving networking site, a mini-Facebook as it were, for women writers, both published and aspiring (and men also), which offers a blogging platform, events listings, member news, forums, video, and so much more that all I can say is, dive in and see for yourself!


C.M. Mayo is a workshop leader at The Writer's Center. She is the author of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books); Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel writing, three Washington Writing Prizes, and numerous fellowships, among them, to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her work has appeared in many outstanding literary journals, among them, Chelsea, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, North American Review, Massachusetts Review, Paris Review, and Tin House. An avid translator of contemporary Mexican literature, she is also founding editor of Tameme and editor of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit http://www.cmmayo.com/.

Her most recent novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, was recently named to Library Journal's Best Books of 2009 list. Her next workshop at The Writer's Center is Dialogue Intensive Techniques.