July Bookswap

A new retreat started a few days ago, which means a new slew of books from new residents were donated today.

After we had crepes and homemade dandelion, apricot and fig jams (as well as Kerry's homemade cherry compote!) the writer Sheryl St. Germain donated some of her own books first, talking about the artists who designed the cool covers: Let It Be a Dark Roux (by artist Francis Pavy), The Journals of Scheherazade, and Swamp Songs (by Jacqueline Bishop).

Because she hails from New Orleans Sheryl also brought along Why New Orleans Matters by Tom Piazza, a book "about the world, not just New Orleans," as well as a recent collection of 108 sacred poems, Mala of the Heart, and Sherman Alexi's Face, a writer Sheryl said "writes with a lot of anger and interesting gusto." Sheryl also generously gave the library two books by Paul Guest, One More Theory About Happiness and Notes for My Body Double.

The artist Daphne Leighton talked next, about Israel, a book of photos by Annie Sacerdoti, Meir Shalev's novel The Blue Mountain, and a Sotheby catalogue featuring Israeli art going back to the beginning of the last century.

Daphne also donated two catalogues of her most recent art Images of Thought and unknown familiar land (that's one of her paintings to the left).

Camille Goodison then donated her grandmother's memoir From Harvey River, a book about where she's from, as well as a collection of stories, Creole Folktales, by a writer that inspires her a lot, Patrick Chamoiseau.

Deborah Clarke, an artist from South Africa, who lives in Grenoble and who was here last year too, donated Africa House by Christina Lamb about the Englishman Stewart Gore-Browne because it is "about a house as well as a man" who built it from scratch and helped people in the process even if "the dream turned sour."

On a different note Deborah donated Francis Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun a book she loves because it emphasizes "a new life in a different country" but also because she "includes recipes" that give you a real feel for the place and the people.

Next up was the Australian Mary Delahunty who is here working on her memoir Public Life, Private Grief. Mary donated Colm Tóibín's Bad Blood because it is "another way of looking at the Troubles" starting in reportage that bleeds into "a beautiful story of a walk along the border." Mary's other book was Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man about her homeland as "an unreconciled country, but also a book about why justice can never be served."

Kathleen Smith, a filmmaker and producer, is also "drawn to the Troubles" as Mary put it, and so gave the library her friend Darren O'Donnell's Social Acupuncture, a book about confronting change, no matter where we are.

Then Kathleen donated "a book about where I grew up, but more because of the universal truths in it," Alice Munro's Dance of The Happy Shades. 

The jewelry designer Toni Freitas came next donating The Vintner's Luck, (she compared it to Marquez's magic realism) a novel by Elizabeth Knox about a guy who meets an angel.

Toni also brought along 1000 Years of Annoying the French, a funny repackaging of history from the same man who wrote A Year in the Merde.

And finally came the writer and designer David Trujillo-Farley's cool children's book This Is Edinburgh by M. Sasek, about the city he and Toni live in.

David's second donation was Ilustrating Children's Books by Martin Salisbury, which "talks about structure, characterization and many other things" that David says are "a lot more useful than many of the pretty books on the subject."

Again, THANK YOU to everyone for the books!

New Poems

Nicholas Wong, a great poet, who is here on a barter fellowship, just published a few new poems here on the cool blog Asia Writes. The poems were written during his Rimbun Dahan Artist Residency in Malaysia in August '08.

Nic was a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award in 2008 and 2010 and is studying Comparative Literature & Society at Columbia University. He's working on his first poetry collection, Extinction Suite, his poems having appeared in The Rialto, Southeast Asian Review of English, and The Columbia Review, among others.

Sausage poem

Here's a fun poem from the poet and translator Marilyn McCabe who was here this retreat from the US.

Marilyn was here working on a series of poems about Marie Curie, and starting a translation of some of Rilke's French poems.

Casing Beauty

The sausage self

is a marbled mold

of fancied fat and

mythic gristle in a

stretch of flesh

which in startled glance

of a sudden eye

might be rendered

incandescent.

Book Swap - June

June has come and once again the artists-in-residence at La Muse share their artistic goals and inspiration over breakfast. While savoring the crepes prepared by John, and toasts of bread slapped with dandelion jam, we heard from our seven residents: -

Victoria Nechodomu writes fiction and hails from Kasigluk, a Yup’ik village in Alaska. She plans to work on short stories that feature her heartwarming and brilliant teaching experience in Kasigluk and travel stories in China, Mongolia and etc.. The books she brought for La Muse include Qayaqs & Canoes, Native Ways of Knowing presented by the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and Monica Wood’s The Pocket Muse, a picture book with writing prompts.

A daring New Yorker, Jennifer Murray quitted her daytime job as a lawyer to write fiction. She is currently working on the first few chapters of her novel, Mother of Exiles, set during the Nazi occupation of France. Her novel spans different historical periods under the thematic element of escape and exile. She is also working on a short story incorporating Dissociative Fugue, a type of amnesia in which the traveler forgets his/her journey. She brought in Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin and The Paris Review Interviews, Volume 1.

Nandi Szabo is a creative arts therapist from Sacramento, California and has been an artist resident at La Muse in the previous year. She dances, paints and writes and is interested in the healing potential of art and a multidisciplinary approach between performance and literature. She is a charming sweetheart, bringing to La Muse her youthful energy and generosity. The books she brought were Soiled Doves, Prostitution in the Early West by Anne Seagraves and The Art of Breathing by Nancy Zi.

Vicki Jean de Kay is also from Sacramento, California and has been a nurse and consultant for the state health department. She loves country dancing and is currently taking art therapy workshops with Nandi. True to her warm and racy sense of humor, she brought in Ladies’ Home Erotica by the Kensington Ladies’ Erotica Society as well as Where I was From by Joan Didion.

Tiziana Stupia left England for the Himalayas on an inner journey of healing and discovery. She has been a resident since May and is currently in the fourth draft of her book on travel in India and Pakistan. From her fire rituals to meditation practices, she refreshes our idea of an artistic retreat. Her books are Glastonbury, Avalon of the Heart by Dion Fortune and Tantrika, Travelling the Road of Divine Love by Asra Q. Nomani.

Nicholas Wong, a Malaysian poet based in New York City, is here on a barter fellowship to read and write about Cathar history, troubadour verse and Occitan culture. He brought Dialogues in Paradise, a short story collection by Can Xue, China’s heir to magical realism. The other book is Louis Couperus’s The Hidden Force, a novel with its own dose of Malay magic and the scary forces that threaten Dutch imperialism in the East Indies.

Nicole Mayhew, a sculptor and painter from New York City, has been here on barter fellowship since May. Her portraits show the hand of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, and she loves Southern France. The books she brought are Calvin Tomkin’s Off the Wall, a book featuring the New York arts scene in the 80s, significant for uniting the art of painting and sculpting, as well as Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins.

Amazing video

 You can't really beat this video from OK Go:



And here's their most recent one:

Robin Chandler

So, one of our past attendees, Robin Chandler, has a book coming out on the 31st of August called Women, War, and Violence: Personal Perspectives and Global Activism from Palgrave Macmillan.

Robin edited it along with Lihua Wang, and Linda K. Fuller. To pre-order the book click here.

Besides her editorial role, Robin also wrote the Introduction, the chapter on Liberia, as well as designing the cool cover. She hopes the book will "advance the status of women and raise consciousness about the oneness of humanity."

Read a book...

We were just introduced to this great video by one of our artists:

Kate McBride Expo

Here's some video of the great work Australian artist Kate McBride created while here on a barter fellowship at La Muse.



Kate comes from Sydney and was off to Croatia to meet friends before heading back to Australia.

We also had readings after the show and a meal of Kerry's New England chowder. We'll try to upload video of all the readings soon!

Onion Videos

Here's some video Robin Berson took of the traditional Occitan music that was played in St. Andre, the church at the entrance to the village, after the Onion Walk (Lo Camin de la Ceba) from Mazamet.


We dropped six of our attendees off up there at 7 in the morning and they arrived at the church to eat sausage and pate sandwiches to the melodic cacophony of the Occitan goatpipes many hours later!



This one takes a minute or so to start, but the song is lovely:

Book Swap - May

A full house of writers and artists sat around the breakfast table over crepes and homemade dandelion jam to talk about where they were from, what they were doing at La Muse, and what they’d brought to contribute to the living library.

Rachel Ephraim, a fiction writer from Brooklyn, NY spoke about coming to southern France to gain patience in her writing while she tackles her first novel. She brought the books, “Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes,” by Daniel Everett—a book on travel, culture, and language, and “Easter Parade,” by Richard Yates, a book set in Rachel’s hometown of Westchester, NY. Rachel is here on a barter fellowship.

Next, Trevor Davison, a fiction writer from Vancouver who is also working on his first novel (a work of science fiction), brought the books “The Year of the Flood,” by Margaret Atwood and “Vancouver Wild,” photographed by Graham Osborne with text by Richard Cannings. Everyone at La Muse is jealous of Trevor’s high-powered productivity since he’s arrived. Each day he seems aglow after writing pages upon pages of his rapidly growing novel.

After Trevor, the Australian artist Kate McBride showed us her wonderfully diverse and original works and talked about how she's inspired by Shazia Sikander, the Pakistani artist. She showed us Sikander's work in the book she donated, edited by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. She also gave La Muse Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief." Kate is here on a barter fellowship creating some beautiful watercolor and oil paintings.

Kelly Scarff, a poet from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, is inspired by poems about people which highlight the small, idiosyncratic characteristics that often go unnoticed by most. Currently she’s working on a collection of poems based on her travels to Russia with her mother. She brought the books, “Miss New York Has Everything,” written by her former teacher, Lori Jakiela and “Unreconstructed,” by Ed Ochester, a book of poems that she deems, “No bullshit.”

Colleen Hubbard, a fiction writer from San Francisco, is also working on a novel during her time at La Muse. She relayed to the group that the books she’d originally packed for the library were stolen in Turkey. Luckily, a stranger on a bus took pity on her and gave her “Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe. Colleen also brought “Tony and Susan,” by Austin Wright—a book she describes as the only decent looking book at the airport terminal. A food writer and avid traveler, Colleen has impressed everyone thus far with her skills in the kitchen and her adventurous taste buds that have tried almost everything, (from bird’s nest soup to brain!), although she did mention that she refuses to eat “three squeaks,” a Chinese dish comprised of live baby mice, squeaking three times as you pick them up with chopsticks, dip them in sauce, and then put them in your mouth...yes, truth is stranger than fiction.

Robin Berson, ex-librarian and non-fiction writer, spoke about research for her fascinating new book, which she admits has been leading her down many tangential paths. When she told us about her project, it was easy to understand why: she is at La Muse writing a memoir on Benjamin Lay, an 18^th century hunchback, dwarf, abolitionist, and Quaker—amongst other things! She contributed her last book, “Jane Addams; A Biography,” and “The Island at the Center of the World,” a history of Dutch colonialism in Manhattan written by Russell Shorto.

Robin’s husband, David Greetham, is working on something that’s never been done—that is, he’s writing a book on the idea of incompletion and exploring great works that have ended abruptly, such as Bach’s The Art of Fugue.  He donated his 2^nd book, “Textual Scholarship,” which is based on the history of textuality, and “The Lenox School of Jazz,” by Jeremy Yudkin, a book that explores the history of music in upstate New York where he and Robin enjoy a country house.

Tiziana Stupia, has been traveling the world for months. She brings to La Muse an inspiring spiritual energy and a wonderful sense of humor. Tiziana brought “Tantrika, Traveling the Road of Divine love,” by Asra Q. Nomani, and “Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart,” by Dion Fortune, where Tiziana spent some time this year. She is currently revising a book on her previous personal journeys.

Nicole Mayhew, New York sculptor and painter, could not attend the book swap because of another volcano eruption. Although her flight was canceled, she eventually made it to La Muse and is working on a series of sketches and paintings. She brought the books “Jitterbug Perfume,” by Tom Robbins and “Off the Wall; A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg,” by Calvin Tomkins. Nicole is also here on a barter fellowship.

And thanks to Rachel for writing all of the above far more eloquently than we have in the past!

Onion Walk - LO CAMIN DE LA CEBA

We dropped 6 attendees off in Mazamet at 7 this morning to hike the Lo Camin de La Ceba - "Onion Walk" from Mazamet to Labastide Esparbairenque, an 18 km annual event that retraces the steps of centuries of peasants who walked to Labastide for the first onion plantings. Labastide is the last Mediterreanean village before you hit the colder Atlantic climate of the Tarn to the North, hence the reason for the earlier onions here.

Although it was raining everyone still had a great time and for those who didn't walk there was the sausage and pate sandwiches, goatpipes, wine, pastis, and Occitane choral music in the church of St. Andre.

We'll try and get photos and videos for you from our attendees and post them later!

Here's some photos of Tiziana's on Facebook.


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Here's a fun video from a band in Paris, Hold Your Horses! :