where the writers are

South America

  • Travel Writing 101 Workshops, Buenos Aires

    November 19, 2009

    • Check out my 2010 writing workshops in Buenos Aires. There are three, all two-days, with emphasis on three easy goals: crafting a great story, considering where it might be published, getting it published. The dollar has never been stronger against the peso - so it's really cheap for Americans to travel there now. See more details on the workshops at: ...
  • Jacobo Timerman

    August 5, 2009

    • These days political torture is being much examined in the news: its use by the recently defeated Republican Party team of George Bush, its purposes, its physical effects on those tortured, its success (or lack of same) as an investigative device. Questioning and torture, we have learned, frequently go hand in hand, and Jacobo Timerman knew quite a bit about that.“Are you a Jew?”  A ...
  • Pablo Neruda's "Ode to the woman in her garden"

    May 22, 2009

    • Among the many, many unusual kinds of poems that Pablo Neruda wrote, his Elemental Odes are justifiably celebrated. He produced an abundance of them, odes to just about everything including the most domestic of everyday articles. . . innumerable objects, pieces of homey flotsam, the stuff of every day life and his constantly wandering thoughts about how they could be shown in verse. One that I ...
  • The Passing of Mario Benedetti

    May 22, 2009

    • The Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti died in Montevideo on May 17. A novelist, essayist, short story writer, poet and apologist for tango, Benedetti wrote more than sixty books and has long been considered a major figure in Latin American writing of the last half-century. He was also a political figure, having been pursued by the Uruguayan military junta in the 1970’s for his indiscreet ...
  • Notes from the English Department

    April 4, 2009

    • Last night we decided to take the coastal route on the bus ride home from Vina del Mar.  We got off far enough from the steps that lead up to our house for a chance to walk along the breakwater.  The tide was high and waves splashed over the rocks, their last wisps directly below us.  The moon lit the clouds, mottled like doeskin, and the rocks held the sheen of water and foam.  We found a ...
  • Terence Clarke On Tango 3: "What a milonga really is"

    February 23, 2009

    • I recently co-wrote and appeared in a stage show entitled "Tango: A Romantic Ritual". It was video-taped and is available from Social Dance Cultures. I was interviewed for the show as well, and I hope you'll take a look at these few portions of the conversation.
  • Terence Clarke On Tango 2: "Tango and emotion"

    February 22, 2009

    • I recently co-wrote and appeared in a stage show entitled "Tango: A Romantic Ritual". It was video-taped and is available from Social Dance Cultures. I was interviewed for the show as well, and I hope you'll take a look at these few portions of the conversation.
  • Terence Clarke On Tango 1: "See what happens"

    February 21, 2009

    • I recently co-wrote and appeared in a stage show entitled "Tango: A Romantic Ritual". It was video-taped and is available from Social Dance Cultures. I was interviewed for the show as well, and I hope you'll take a look at these few portions of the conversation.
  • Tango!

    February 5, 2009

    • As the tango says: Así se baila el tango,sintiendo en la cara,la sangre que subea cada compás,(Thus is tango danced,feeling in the facethe blood that riseswith each rhythm.)I’m involved in two major Argentine tango events in the San Francisco Bay Area on Valentine’s weekend. Please join us. . .¡Milonga de amor! At The Ferry Building (at The Embarcadero and Market Street in San Francisco), ...
  • Mirror by Susana Montanares Muñoz

    January 1, 2009

    • I look at you. You are there looking at me,but I won't let your eyes penetrate.I listen to you, but your words won't capture me. When we are far away, I feel the air cut me inside.Your distant laughter feels like a sprinkle of rain in spring,a smooth arrangement of music.Your young scent mixes with jasmineand lifts me through fresh clouds.But today your words are like the echo of ...