Interview with Rebel Bookseller Andy Laties!

Greetings everyone! I am about to leave for Chicago and Michigan for more Memory Palace events—all at indie bookstores and colleges. And since indie bookstores are on my mind these days, as is bookselling in general, I invited my old friend Andy Laties to visit us today and give his take on the chaotic and ever-changing world of publishing and bookselling. First, a little about Andy and his latest book, Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For, From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communites:

Andy Laties co-founded Children's Bookstore, Children’s Bookfair Company, Children’s Museum Store, and Povertyfighters.com, and created the film Art of Selling Children’s Books. He shared the 1987 Lucile Micheels Pannell Award for bringing children and books together. He co-founded and still manages the museum shop at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, which Parents Choice called “the very best bookstore for picture books in the entire world.”

Andy Laties' Rebel Bookseller champions the importance of the role that independent bookstores play in our society. Andy has opened four bookstores over the past couple decades and his enthusiasm for the future of indie bookstores has not been dampened by the changing economic landscape, the death of Borders, or the rise of e-books. He argues passionately that indie bookstores will always hold an important place in local communities, offering diverse and personal selections and playing a part in encouraging community involvement.

Andy, you are a bookseller, writer, activist, musician, and performance artist and although I could pick any one of those things to talk about with you, today we are going to focus on the hats you wear as bookseller and author. You have a great new book out—actually, a revised and updated version of book that first came out in 2005 called Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For—From Free Speech to Buying Local To Building Communities. In a nutshell, can you tell our readers what is at the heart of this book and why it is such an important story to tell right now, given the state of the publishing world?

Did you know that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos revealed several years ago that 75% of books he sells represent only 1% of all the titles listed on his website? That is, he sells lots of copies of the top 100,000 titles in his (currently) 10 million-title database—but the vast majority of titles listed on Amazon barely sell at all.

The growth in readers’ use of Amazon to select books to read results in most readers choosing the same books to read as other readers. Eclecticism in reading is tamped down by Amazon’s book-recommendation systems.

At the heart of Rebel Bookseller is a ferocious opposition to this kind of monopolistic constriction of book distribution.

We who read and write today are all actors in a dramatic battle between the forces of free speech and the power of censorship. Both sides have powerful trends in their favor. It may seem paradoxical—since Amazon is an internet-based company—but our free-speech side has the internet on our side. The internet is the world’s first fully functioning anarchy; it’s a uniquely decentralized self-developing system that has transformed the opportunity of individuals to control their lives. The opposing side in the big battle—Amazon’s side--has globalization of capital, which favors concentration of power in the hands of a few.

Capital is struggling mightily to harness our internet, but the internet, by its nature, daily slips the bonds that capital attempts to throw on it.

This battle plays out in the Middle Eastern revolution, in the Murdoch newspaper cellphone hacking scandal, in the constant introduction of corporate-controlled e-readers and tablets, and—happily, from the standpoint of those of us in favor of freedom of speech—in the ongoing collapse of chain bookstores and in the accelerating rate of launch of community financed independent bookstores.

It is this latter aspect of the tale that I explore in Rebel Bookseller. We readers and writers and librarians and booksellers and publishing people are at the grassroots. We have a role to play in the great events of our time. I take as my personal task, ending the concentration of reading that Jeff Bezos and his power-mad peers have helped bring about. I want to encourage a wider variety of readers to encounter a wider variety of writers.

I like what you say above, about how we readers, writers, etc. are at the grassroots and have a role to play in all of these events. I totally agree. And in reading your book, I felt very empowered about that role and doing more to encourage people to support their community businesses. And aside from the political stance of your book, I also loved your writing—how you interwove an engaging, funny and honest personal narrative about coming of age as an artist and bookseller with impassioned advice about publishing, bookselling, community organizing and small business entrepeneurship. It's sort of a memoir slash how-to book slash manifesto. I couldn't put it down. From a writer's point of view, what made you decide to tell your own personal story, rather than just write a straight forward book about bookselling?

Its true that I am an author—after all, I did write a book—but I do not consider myself a real writer. This is because I have a very healthy regard for real writers, having presented hundreds of writers in my bookstores at readings, panel discussions, festivals and story-hours (you meet lots of them in my book). So, when I realized that I had no option in my life but to write a book—because events had brought me to a crisis—I decided I needed a good model to rely on. I chose Saul Alinsky’s Reveille For Radicals. That book had shown me that the principles of activism are easiest to grasp if they are illustrated with personal anecdotes.

Gandhi developed the idea of living life as a series of “experiments with truth”—I think that if one has tried to live in this way, one can report out on one’s life, using a narrative formula, and this process will provide readers with a useful opportunity to draw their own conclusions.

Well Andy, I hope you feel compelled to write another book in the future because I certainly enjoyed reading this one! As you know, I have been on book tour for my own book, The Memory Palace, since it came out in January. One of the things I've been doing is trying to encourage people to buy the book from their local indie bookseller rather than purchase it on Amazon or big chain stores. Although you touched on this a little in my first question, can you please explain a bit more in depth for my readers why buying most of their books from Amazon ultimately hurts authors, not to mention the ripple effect it has on their local communities? We'll get into chain stores in a minute; for now, let's talk about Amazon.

As I mentioned above, Amazon.com does not exist in order to assist readers or writers find one another; rather Amazon wants to sell more of its bestsellers. So, writers need more indie bookstores to exist, to promote and display the full variety of books written. Unfortunately Amazon’s success at capturing readers’ attention equals obstruction to success for indie bookstores. So, writers are hurt by Amazon’s success at capturing market share from indie bookstores.

It is important to remember that Amazon.com does not really exist. No corporation does. Corporations are not people, and they are not things. Corporations are a cover story to obscure and facilitate the self-interested, temporary concentration and flow of capital. The mission of a corporation is, technically speaking, to amass as much capital for its founders and shareholders as possible: to “maximize shareholder value”.

When you click the “buy” button on an Amazon webpage, on your computer screen, you set in motion a slew of interlocking systems. I would argue that it is your moral responsibility as a person alive in this moment and this era to take note of, and accept responsibility for, the impact of such daily decisions. So, what have you done? Who will act, and what will happen, when you click the Amazon “buy” button? You have chosen to deploy a system of externalizing costs. You are shifting costs from yourself onto someone else.

Just as you may ignore your neighbor’s child’s asthma, which may be ultimately related to the smoke coming from your aging car’s tailpipe, or you may ignore the sealife-killing algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico, which may be fostered by the phosphorus in your laundry detergent, or you may ignore the misery of the child laborers harvesting cacao beans in the Ivory Coast when you buy a Hershey’s chocolate bar, so you may be ignoring the externalizing mechanisms whereby Amazon.com “saves you money”.

How do you hurt people, including yourself, by taking the bait and clicking the Amazon “buy” button? If this were a classroom, I could elicit from this readership thirty answers, maybe more. But, here’s a helpful link to provide some of the specific answers. www.indiebound.org. This passage is from their website:

Why shop Indie?

When you shop at an independently owned business, your entire community benefits:

The Economy

Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43.

Local businesses create higher-paying jobs for our neighbors.

More of your taxes are reinvested in your community--where they belong.

The Environment

Buying local means less packaging, less transportation, and a smaller carbon footprint.

Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money to beautify your community.

The Community

Local retailers are your friends and neighbors—support them and they’ll support you.

Local businesses donate to charities at more than twice the rate of national chains.

More independents means more choice, more diversity, and a truly unique community.

All great points---and from a totally selfish author point of view (!), we authors get more royalties when readers buy our books from indie bookstores. That said, consumers get big discounts on Amazon, etc. So what do you say to those people who are hard up for cash and would rather buy their books at Walmart or Amazon than an independent bookstore?

Hard up for cash? As I said above, it’s the same as buying organic veggies or fair trade coffee, or staying away from McDonalds because of the salt in the burgers and the destruction of rainforests by beef cattle. Yes, it costs you more in the short run, but the long run benefits of avoiding the lie of “low, low prices” from Walmart and Amazon far outweigh the short-run “savings”.

I think that if you already buy organic food with intentionality, then you can understand why Amazon is as much of a problem to society as conventional agriculture is, and you should be capable of convincing yourself to spend a little more to buy books through indie, small-business channels (and we indie stores sell online too!)

Well, I also encourage people who cannot afford to buy a book at an indie bookstore to please support their local libraries. So on to the elephant in the room—Barnes & Noble. We know that Borders fell and many great people lost their jobs. I'm going to be the devil's advocate for a second: before and after my book came out, I have gotten such amazing support from B & N, not to mention very moving fan letters from people who work there. These are real people with real jobs. You are very critical of B & N and other chain stores in Rebel Bookseller. Can you talk a little bit about your take on them right now, for those who haven't read your book? And if you could tell the powers-that-be at B & N how to be more indie-friendly and author friendly, what would you say? Can Barnes & Noble coexist peacefully with the little shop around the corner in these bizarre and very hard times?

I’m not surprised that you, an excellent writer, are encountering workers at B&N who are supportive of your book. However in my opinion those workers should be working at indie bookstores.

Barnes & Noble destroyed the book industry’s growth and expansion in the 1990s and into the 2000s. In fact, B&N is the company that has closed more bookstores than any company in history! In the 70s, B&N bought the Marlboro bookstore chain and closed it down. B&N bought the two-dozen bookstore Doubleday chain in the 90s, and closed it down. B&N bought the 775 B. Dalton bookstores in the 80s and by the 2000s had closed every B. Dalton store down. B&N bought Bookstop’s dozen stores in the 90s and closed them all down. B&N did this in order to control the entire book industry, constricting channels of book distribution so as to force specific titles and specific categories onto readers, and to raise their own corporate profitability by controlling publishers access to the market. It’s classic robber-baron monopoly behavior.

Sure Barnes & Noble has great employees…because there is nowhere else to get a job as a bookseller. But those workers would be able to more fully exercise their skills in a decentralized bookselling environment. So, they will benefit from the coming destruction of Barnes & Noble, just as thousands of recently laid-off Borders employees will be working in the indie bookstores of the future and doing a much more full-scale, engaged kind of bookselling then.

Right now, booksellers with chain bookstore experience should get together with community activists and real estate developers and open new indie bookstores. It can be done. If they can’t do it right now, they should plan to do it in the future. Those workers know very well that big corporations are not committed to them. B&N is a publicly held, for-profit operation, and its fiduciary responsibility is to maximize shareholder value, NOT to ensure that its workers are treated well or that its customers have access to the widest variety of the very best books.

As to whether the management people at B&N can be instructed in how to be more indie- or author-friendly, the answer is no, B&N will never “co-exist” with much-smaller bookstores. They exist to serve their owners, not authors, readers or other bookstore operators.

My task, as I’ve said before, is to help destroy B&N. This will create a world in which thousands more indie bookstores can emerge to serve writers and readers in the way they deserve to be served.

Wow, strong words Andy. I completely understand your feelings about all this since I am a pretty anti-corporate gal. But I also have gotten, as I said, such support from B & N and I have to acknowledge that (or my editors would kill me!). That said, I have refused to read at any chain stores—I am only reading at indies. I would love to hear back in my comment section from any B & N booksellers/workers/managers (or other employees/managers, etc at other chain stores) willing to respond to what you say above.

So onward and upward—what advice do you have for authors who would like to support their local bookstores (and other indie bookstores across the country) and how can they cultivate relationships with these places?

Authors should create online presences that document their own activities in indie bookstores. That is: authors should lend their brand value to help grow their readers’ appreciation of the specific indie bookstores valued by each author.

Great advice....I am trying to do that myself. And Andy, if you were to look into a crystal ball, how do you see the future of the book business in the next 10 to 20 years? For example, where do you think e-books are heading? Will there be more brick and mortar stores or will they no longer exist?

Ten years from now there will be many more indie bookstores, perhaps three times the current number. E-books will represent more than half of what will be a much larger total book market. Remember, book sales were suppressed for fifteen years by the big chainstores’ impact on book prices. Chainstore growth forced book prices up. E-books are permitting a rebound: reading is on a huge upswing because book prices are being forced down.

Amazon’s semi-monopoly on e-books will be broken. Readers will access e-books in many different ways, from many different sources.

E-books and print-on-demand books will be reciprocal sides of the same marketplace, and the POD side will permit brick-and-mortar storefronts to remain central to many readers’ book-selection processes. Authors will promote their self-published e-books in new indie bookstores, and customers will purchase e-books and print-on-demand books through channels controlled locally by the specific indie bookstores providing those author promotion opportunities.

Very interesting...I like your optimism about the future in this time of economic despair! So what's up for you next? Are you working on any new book or are you mostly selling them, along with all the other ten thousand creative things you do?

The indie bookstore movement is part of a larger attempt by many activists to end concentration of media in the hands of a small number of huge corporations. Our side stands for freedom of speech. My efforts will continue to be focused on achieving our objective of decentralizing the media.

Professionally, I will continue to pursue whatever bookselling projects excite me. For instance currently I’m helping launch a one month bookstore and art exhibit called, severally, Bookworks, BOOK=OBJECT, and 451F, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. We’re soliciting original art, and books for sale on consignment.

Also, I’m working with my partner Rebecca Migdal on an incendiary and (we hope) hilarious book trailer to promote Rebel Bookseller. This film is called Amazilla vs. Barnes Kong, and should be finished by November. Watch for it on Youtube!

Thanks so much for your time and your inspiring words about the future of the book. I wish you the very best on the remainder of your book tour for Rebel Bookseller.

You can find Andy Laties' book Rebel Bookseller wherever books are sold but hey, why not go to an indie bookstore and order it there before you compulsively search for it on Amazon! Great idea, right? Go to Indie Bound to find an independent bookstore near you!: http://www.indiebound.org/ Mirabee

Interview with Children’s Book Author Jane Schoenberg!

Happy August 6th, y’all. Because I have been receiving dozens of requests over the last year to do this, I am launching another facet to Mira’s List—interviews and opportunities for children’s book authors and illustrators. Since I have written many children’s books myself, it does seem silly to not have been offering more in this area, so my apologies to all of you emerging kid’s book peeps.

To start the ball rolling, today I invited children’s book author and lyricist Jane Schoenberg to talk with us today. You might remember an earlier interview I did with her husband, composer and pianist Steven Schoenberg. Well....welcome to the other half of Steven’s brain. First, a little about Jane...
Jane Schoenberg is an award-winning author and songwriter for children. Her songs have been featured on National Public Radio and kids’ music programs across the country. The first book of her new series for young readers, The One and Only Stuey Lewis: Stories from the Second Grade, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, just came out in July. Other books include My Bodyworks, (Interlink Books) and The Baby Hustle, (Simon & Schuster). Jane was an educator and social-curriculum consultant for many years before turning to writing full time.

1. Jane, thanks so much for joining us. I know you have a new book for children that just came out so why don’t we start there? Tell us a little about your book and its main character, Stuey Lewis. And by the way, I recently read a review copy and loved that little guy. Rumor has it you have a sequel in the works?

Thanks, Mira, I’m excited to be here with you. The name of the book is The One and Only Stuey Lewis, and I have to say, I’m really happy you love this kid, because I’m looking for somebody to be vice president of his fan club. Perks include unlimited cappuccino, cocoa, and chocolate chip cookies.. Interested?

Always Jane. I live for chocolate.

Anyway, Stuey Lewis is a smart little guy with a big imagination, who eventually manages to pull a rabbit out of his hat every time, but only after he initially wigs out over something. The book is told in Stuey’s voice so we’re privy to all of his thoughts. From the very first sentence, “I wake up and decide to have a stomachache that’s so bad I have to stay in bed” we know he’s a bit of a worry-wart. He’s more than a little anxious about entering second grade, because the reading light bulb has yet to turn on for him; even though everyone else knows how, and his best friend has been devouring books since pre-school...Anxieties aside, Stuey’s capable of pulling off some daring schemes, including a Halloween caper that scores him enough candy to get through Christmas.

Once he makes up his mind, Stuey can survive practically anything–even his nemesis, Lilly Stanley, “Queen of Obnoxious,” whose sole mission in life is to be right about everything. The book is comprised of four very funny linked short stories that follow him through his entire second grade year at school. I think it’s a fun read that young kids will definitely relate to, even ageless kids like you!

And, yes...the rumor mill is alive and well. The sequel, Stuey Lewis Against All Odds, comes out in July, 2012. We get to watch Stuey negotiate his way through the third grade, where he’s far less anxious, but still pulling off some great schemes. And I’ve just finished a spin-off of these two books, told in the voice of the infamous Lilly, titled, Who Else but Lilly Stanley.

2. I loved Lilly as a character. She is so full of herself that you just can’t stop reading about her. Anyway, you come from a very creative family—your husband Steven is a composer, your son Adam is too, and your daughter Sarah Kate Jackson is an actress. I know that you also collaborate with your husband Steven from time to time. How is your creative process different when you work on projects alone, such as your children’s books that don’t involve an accompanying CD?

Yes, all of the members in our immediate family are in the arts, including our son-in-law, who is an actor, and our daughter-in-law to be, who is a playwright. We’re very lucky that we can support each other’s creative endeavors and visions from a place of really knowing what it’s all about. Besides emotional support, we all rely on each other for advice, as well as constructive criticism. My husband Steven has always been my main critic and reader, and I’ve been his. I now also rely on my children for their feedback, particularly for marketing, promotion and social media advice, and my daughter Sarah has always been a very astute reader.

So, how is my process different, when I’m working on my own projects and not collaborating? Hm, I’m not sure that it is all that different. Steven and I work at the same rhythm—intense and fast until something is complete and feels one hundred percent right. I like to work that way on my own projects too and can be very compulsive until I’m finished with something.

I think I’m really in my zone when that happens. When I’m crafting a lyric, which I tend to do before it’s set to music, I have to adhere to a far stricter writing code that involves rhyme, meter, accents, and form, which is more confining than when I’m writing a book. Of course, each genre has a story to tell, and if the song is part of a musical it also has dialogue. I think both of these processes feed the other. Because I write for young kids, I’ve learned to tell a story in a limited number of words, which is just what a successful lyric needs to do. Collaborating also affords you a partner who can kick you in the butt when you need it... when you’re writing on your own, you have to do that for yourself.

3. We recently met up at the NESCBWI (New England Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) conference this past May. I remember you saying afterward that it was an eye opening experience for you. What did you learn at the conference that you didn’t know before about the world of children’s book publishing? And did you learn anything new about yourself, or something you needed to work on in your career?

That was a great conference. I had been a member of SCBWI for a number of years, but had never attended a conference. I really missed out. This particular conference offered lots of business and marketing workshops, which was perfect timing , given the release date of my new book. That was invaluable information for me. Like all of publishing, the children’s book industry is in flux right now, given the impact of technology, and this was addressed in many of the presentations given by publishers, marketers, and writers. So much of the marketing is left up to the author, and there is such a small window to try and get the word out on your book. I took an intensive workshop, called, “I hate Twitter” (and other things to stop saying). I still don’t tweet, but since the conference I’ve got my toes wet on facebook, put out a book trailer, taken advantage of all the great ways Goodreads promotes authors, and—look who is interviewing me on her incredibly cool and famous blog. Need I say more?

4. :-) Well Jane...that takes a bit of bravery to join the ranks of all the other social media-saavy authors and illustrators out there. As far as the conference went, I also had an eye-opening experience. I hadn’t gone to one in a while and I was really struck by how much has changed in the children’s book industry.

In your opinion, why should children’s book authors and illustrators, published or non-published, go to regional events like this conference, or some of the larger ones sponsored by SCBWI?

To be a part of a community. And there is an incredible community of people who make up SCBWI. Published or not, everyone seems open, generous, and down to earth. Highly respected and successful authors and illustrators, like Jane Yolen, and Tomie dePaola give inspiring and entertaining keynotes, and there are a whole cast of people far more experienced than you are, offering resources, information and practical advice. And the networking potential is amazing. You never know who you are going to meet and what may come out of that meeting.

5. Jane Yolen is by far one of my favorite people. She has such a gift for championing and inspiring writers and artists, including myself. What a gift to the world she is!

So Jane, what are some of the biggest challenges for you right now, coming into the children’s book world as a more, shall we say, ‘mature’ writer, i.e. someone over 45? Do you think there might be an advantage to being a little bit seasoned in life?

I don’t know how mature I am, but I didn’t get published until after I was 45. I think you bring whoever you are to whatever it is you do. I guess what I’ve brought with me to the children’s book world is a profound respect and appreciation of children. I was an educator and a parent for many years before becoming a writer. I always remained very open in both of these roles, acknowledging that I was learning as much about myself and the world from kids, as I was hoping they were learning from themselves, each other, and from me.

I also was a voracious reader my entire life, and children’s books were always at the top of my list. I guess I’m looking at the same obstacles that any writer, who is less seasoned, faces in today’s challenging market. I’m trying to stay on top of all the changes in the industry, promote and market my material, and keep a pulse on what’s selling well and why. But in the end, I can only write what I know, and hope that it resonates with my readers.

6. Describe your perfect writing day for me.

I wake up and the voice inside my head telling her (or his) story is clear and ready to roll. I pay no attention to chores, even immediate ones that need to get done, like shoveling the walkways after a snowstorm. I pay no attention to my favorite distractions, like communing with the hummers in my flower beds early in the morning. A hot cappuccino with a thick crema, and maybe a fresh poached egg, on a great piece of multi-grained toast is brought up to me in my studio, when Steven figures out I haven’t fed myself, and it’s going on eleven. I don’t have to work hard to listen, I’ve stepped away from myself, and I’m totally in the zone.

Do you think you could convince Steven to pop over in the morning and bring me breakfast too? :-) Jane, thanks so much for visiting my site today. I wish you all the best with Stuey and the rest of your book tour!

I heartily encourage everyone to go out and get a copy of Jane’s book right now and please try to get it from your local independent bookstore. Without your support, more and more of these wonderful places will bite the dust. You can find where your closest indie bookstore is by going to IndieBound. You can also visit Jane and watch her book trailer for Stuey Lewis at www.janeschoenberg.com.

And for all of those readers out there who would like to know more about the ins and outs of writing and illustrating for children and young adults, I HIGHLY suggest visiting these two websites, which are the best ones in the biz. All your questions will be answered at: www.underdown.org, which is an amazing site developed by former editor Harold Underdown and the other great site is the SCBWI site: www.scbwi.org. And there are dozens of local chapters for SCBWI if you are looking for a local children’s book writing or illustrating critique group.

Thanks for joining us today. Cheers!

Mirabee

Interview with Author Robert V.S. Redick!

Greetings, Dear Readers. I’m about to run off to France because my sister, lovely soul that she is, bought me a ticket to come visit her while she is there this semester teaching. Lucky me! Anyway, I will be out of the country until May 11th, then immediately off to the New England SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference for the following weekend. Speaking of which, I am going to start posting opportunities for children's book writers and illustrators so tell all your kid's book friends to visit my site.

Okay, on to our daily business. Today I am thrilled to welcome author Robert V.S. Redick to Mira’s List to talk a bit about his new book and his creative process. Robert is the author of three epic fantasy novels:
The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The Rats and the Ruling Sea (The Ruling Sea in the U.S.) and The River of Shadows, the latter published April 19 by Del Rey and Gollancz U.K. Together with the final volume (2012) these books make up The Chathrand Voyage Quartet. Before turning full-time to fiction, he worked for the antipoverty organization Oxfam, reviewed theater for two New England newspapers, taught in a bilingual school in Cali, Colombia, and ran a writing workshop as part of the International Development and Social Change program at Clark University. His unpublished mainstream novel, Conquistadors, is set during the Dirty War in Argentina, where he studied and traveled extensively in the 1990s. Redick has an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and an M.A. in Tropical Conservation and Development from the University of Florida. He lives in western Massachusetts with his partner Kiran Asher, as well as a cat, dog and three-striped mud turtle. He can be reached through his website, redwolfconspiracy.com

1. Robert, thanks so much for visiting my blog today. First I want to say congratulations! You have a book coming out on April 19th, River of Shadows, the third book in the Chathrand Voyage Series. I’m reading book one right now, The Red Wolf Conspiracy and it’s amazing! Without giving away any spoilers, can you tell my readers a little bit about your fantasy series?

With pleasure, Mira, and thanks for having me here! The Chathrand Voyage is epic fantasy. It tells the story of the crew and passengers of an immense, 600-year-old sailing ship, the Chathrand, who find themselves at the epicenter of forces that are rending the world about them to pieces. That world is called Alifros, and like many fantasy settings it’s both very like and utterly unlike this world. Like, in that it is war-torn, and perhaps standing on the edge of an abyss. Like in that it is fractured along ethnic, religious and economic lines, and no one’s hands are clean. Unlike, in that it is populated not by humans alone, but also by a growing number of intelligent species. I say “growing” because that is literally the case: a disease or spell is at work in Alifros, which causes animals to suddenly attain human intelligence--often with disastrous consequences for their sanity. This force is spreading quickly, and no one knows just where it will lead. There are also many non-human but humanoid species, though they appear to have been deciminated in numbers by human civilization.

Fortunately we enter this world through just a handful of core characters. Pazel Pathkendle, first of all, is a youth working as a “tarboy” or shipboard servant in the merchant navy of the very empire which seized and annexed his country five years before—and no, the choice was not really his. Thasha Isiq is a young woman born into the military elite of that empire: in fact she is the daughter of the very admiral who led the invasion of Pazel’s homeland. By the oddest circumstances they both end up on the Chathrand, which is under the command of the infamous, sadistic and possibly deranged Captain Nilus Rose. Who is in turn under the eye of the emperor’s elderly spymaster, Sandor Ott. Who in turn has some ugly connections to Thasha’s family...and so on.

By the time you reach The River of Shadows, you’re good 1200 pages into a story that pulls few punches with complexity. Peace treaties become tools for warmaking, allies become foes and vice-versa, conspirators are used by other conspirators, ships sink, monsters devour pivotal characters ... And the choices of Pazel and Thasha remain at the heart of it all. You can probably tell I’ve had the time of my life, writing these books.

2. Wow, what a huge project. What have been some of the greatest challenges so far in working on such a long series?

Doing it very well, and fast. No other challenge compares to that one. Publishing is a lean business, and publishers don’t want any part of the audience for a series to drift away between volumes. Nor do writers, of course. The challenge is to not appall anyone with the length of time it takes you to continue the story, nor to harm your books by rushing them, nor to collapse. It’s a very tough balance to maintain.

Beyond that, it can be tough to know just how much allowance you want to make for readers who pick up a book out of sequence. For the record, I’d strongly urge readers to start at the beginning. This is one story, not four, and you’d never read a story bound in one volume by cracking it open halfway and plowing forward. All the same, sometimes you just end with the second or third book in a series in your hands, and want to get started. I try to make that enjoyable, without distorting the narrative as a whole.

3. Would you mind telling us about your writing process?

So many ways to answer that question! Do you mean the daily routine, the overall effort with a book, the psychologial approach I try to take? Or perhaps something else?

Well, I get asked that question a lot myself when I do readings and I find most people want to know what I do on a daily basis. So I’ll approach it that way. What does a normal writing day for you look like, if there is in deed a 'normal' day? Do you ever take time off from writing, i.e. long stretches of time or do you tend to write every day?

With very few exceptions, I write each morning. At that time of day my mind’s uncluttered, and I tend to be more able to access the storytelling part of me. It often feels like a race, to see how quickly I can get up, attend to the animals, warm the house and my body enough to contemplate holding very still for a number of hours. If it’s a free-and-clear day with no other commitments, I keep up the work until early afternoon. Then I get out of the house on any pretext whatsoever. I tend to make it back to the desk in the evening at some point—maybe just before or after dinner—but that second work session is nearly always shorter.

Of course when you’re in the middle of a book, a part of you is always wrestling with the next scene, the next chapter, the next challenge. When something clicks in me, it doesn’t matter where I am—I stop and think about it, and write out my thoughts before they vanish into the ether. The same is true at night. Pencil and paper on the bedside table are a must.

4. I do that too. I actually keep a small notebook in every single room, even the bathroom! Anyway, I'm intrigued about your past—you’ve had such an unusual background—you’ve studied Russian and tropical conservation, you worked at Oxfam, you lived and traveled extensively in South America, just to mention a handful of things. Eventually, you ended up in Warren Wilson's low-residency MFA writing program. What ways do you feel your pre-MFA life experiences helped shape your writing today?

Everything that I feel and think and ponder and remember has an effect on the story. The Chathrand Voyage, of course, is not about my life. But it is nonetheless a most intimate project for me, as I hope all my fiction will be. As you say, I have roamed around a bit. And I dare say you, Mira, know how much that can change a person. Provided, of course, that you go there open to change, not wrapped in a cultural coccoon. I did have transformative experiences in Argentina and Colombia and elsewhere. But the truth is that the urge to go places was itself the symptom of a much older way of relating to the world, which I’d describe as both a desperate hunger to belong and a militant effort not to. I’ve never been comfortable with the notion of membership in a club. And I’ve never been able to resist trying to speak across boundaries of belonging. There’s something a bit pathetic in this, if you ask me. But it does create good circumstances for storytelling.

5. Do you feel like going to an MFA program was helpful?
Tremendously. And I say that as someone who walked away from an MFA, after spending two semesters and $20,000 on the experiment, and moving to the opposite side of the country. All that before eventually finding a program that did help me, and loving every minute of my studies. OK, not every minute. Just 92% of them. Warren Wilson was a delirious joy.

But the point I’d like to stress is that you must stay true to yourself and your work, even as you open yourself up to learn. You will get bad advice along with good. You will see pettiness and backbiting, alongside generosity and kindness. And you must never, ever downgrade your depth of feeling about a story. That story is what counts. It is never a “school project,” never a “thesis.” You have to be prepared to fight your program for the sake of your own work—or even walk away if necessary. Just as vitally, though, you have to be not just willing to hear what’s wrong with your work, but famished to hear it. That’s what you’re there for! And when you’ve begged and pleaded and cobbled together all the feedback you can get, you must be able to decide what part of it you believe, and what you don’t.

MFAs can do great good, or great harm. You have to be the judge of your experience, and act accordingly.

6. That's great advice. I went back to get my MFA in writing after many years doing other things. For me, the best part of it was finding a handful of great readers who became friends. They are still my readers now and then and still my friends. On another note, as you know, I help people find funding and residencies so that they have time and money to do their creative work. Have you ever done a residency program anywhere? If so, where was it and in what ways did it impact your writing?

I’ve never participated in such a thing, and would love to. But I should note that low-residency programs like Warren Wilson are essentially short, hyper-intensive learning retreats strung together by semesters of one-on-one mentorship. Those retreats, or residencies as they’re called, squeeze the book geekery of a whole year into about ten days (for which you may well have prepared for months). I had six such residencies, each challenging and strange and exhausting and adrenal. They were a bit like the scenes in The Matrix where Keanu Reeves is force-fed knowledge through a brain cable. You walk away feeling electrified, feeling there’s nothing you can’t do. And then the work begins.

7. Hah! I love that. The Matrix thing sounds a little like what it felt like going to my first AWP (The Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference years ago. So in closing, any brilliant words of advice to emerging writers out there?

Don’t burden your writing or yourself with awful spectres—as I did. Don’t tie up your sense of self-worth with “making it” as a writer. Embrace things—many things, if you can—that have nothing to do with putting words on a page. Then you’ll have more stories to tell, and some natural immunity to the foolishness that you’ll encounter in the writing life. And then, if and when you do write—well, respect your dreams. They’re on your side. They’re the gold in your hands.

What a wonderful way to end our interview! Thanks so much for joining us today and I wish you great success on your new book, The River of Shadows, and good luck on finishing up the final book in the series. I can’t wait to read them all.

Thank you Mira!

You can get Robert V. S. Redick’s books at your local bookstore (please support your local indie bookstores!) or on Amazon and Barnes & Noble of course. But have I mentioned yet that you should support your local independent bookstores and keep them alive and thriving? I will try to post from France if I can—I will have limited email access though and won’t be bringing my computer (yay!). So if you don’t hear from me, you will later in May. Also, I do have other kinds of artists in the queue for interviews (painters, printmakers, filmmakers, etc.) but for some reason, the writers always respond pronto and my other interviewees are a bit slower to write their answers back to me. See you soon! Love, Mirabee

Interview with Gigi Rosenberg, Author of The Artist’s Guide to Grantwriting

Today I am happy to introduce you to Gigi Rosenberg whose book, The Artist’s Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary and Performing Artist is coming out TOMORROW, December 14th, in stores nationwide. I was fortunate to grab her for a few questions before she sets out to promote her book. Gigi Rosenberg is a writer, speaker, and presentation coach. Her writing has been published by Seal Press, The Oregonian, Writer’s Digest, performed at Seattle’s On the Boards, and heard on Oregon Public Radio. As a presentation coach, she draws on her background in writing, visual art, theater, and corporate communications to teach artists and entrepreneurs how to give stellar public presentations.

Gigi, thanks so much for visiting us today. I’d like to start out by asking you to tell us a little about your new book and what motivated you to write it?

Mira: Thanks for having me! I’m a huge fan of your writing, your art, and your blog. I wrote The Artist’s Guide to Grant Writing because I couldn’t find a comprehensive and inspiring reference guide as I was looking for and applying for grants and residencies for my own work as a writer. I also realized that -- in my workshops -- a book would be so useful -- students can only absorb so much in a two or three-hour session and it’s great to have a “go-to” book for when you're researching, or finessing, or feeling demoralized by grants, or the business side of being an artist. Also, I grew up in a family of visual artists so as a kid I thought that everybody made their living as an artist! I wrote the book to empower artists and to share what I knew and what I gleaned from dozens of interviews with artists and funders about how to talk about and write about your work so that others want to support it.

In your process of research and writing, did you learn anything new about grant writing that you didn’t know before?

My biggest surprise was realizing that “famous” artists struggle in the same way I do. There’s little difference between the time “before you succeed” and “after you succeed.” I always thought that famous artists had it easier because they’d already “made it.” In fact: every new project is scary. The only difference is that when you’re experienced you might manage the fear better or know that you just have to keep working to move through it. On the subject of grants I realized how many more opportunities there were than I thought there were. I also learned that the most important thing to do is to learn to write about your work as if you didn't create it -- that’s the challenge and that’s why you need other people to help. They can help you find the language to describe what you do and why you want to have money to make it.

I always say that too, that is, write the application as if you were someone else. I think it helps to distance yourself from talking about your work, which is really hard for some people to do. Sometimes it is the weakest link in an application and it should be the strongest, aside from the work itself. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see artists make in grant applications?

The biggest mistake that artists make is that they think grant application reviewers can read minds! Artists don’t realize that a reviewer is likely seeing their work for the first time and not everything will be obvious. Even though it’s hard, an artist has to explain what the project is in detail and why she wants to make it. Reviewers need the artist to connect the dots for them. The second biggest mistake is that artists don’t spend enough time on the work sample -- it must be not only their best work, but well-documented, and related to the grant. Lastly: budgets scare some artists and they don’t make them specific enough so they detail how the money will be spent. Think about it: when you give money away, you want to know how exactly the money is being spent.

I agree. Very good points. For me the budget one hits close to home! Even I have a hard time with the budget component of a grant application and I’ve written dozens of grants. But you get through it and if you don’t know how to do it, you ask someone to help. Sometimes artists are just too afraid to ask other professionals for help. Anyway, would you mind sharing with my readers five very short kernels of wisdom from your book?

What I learned from all the interviews I did is that 1) To win a grant, you have to apply. This may seem so dumb. But it’s true: your chances of winning are guaranteed to be zero if you don’t apply. Successful grant writers don’t let the competition dissuade them. 2) There are times when I’m better off continuing to build my body of work rather than applying for a grant. Preparing a grant application takes time. I have to decide if the time is worth it. 3) I always need an editor even though I’m a writer. 4) I can’t do a great job on a grant application if I don’t give myself enough time. 5) I don’t let one rejection get me down. I stand up again and get back to the work at hand.

You called me a few months back to talk to me about a chapter in your book. Can you tell my readers a little about that chapter and what you learned from writing it and why you think it's important in your book?

I think the chapter you’re referring to is “Stand Out from the Crowd” which is about how to take a good application and make it great. The best advice from that chapter was from you -- which is to write the grant as if you’re writing to a specific person, a friend even, someone waiting to fall in love with your project. If you write to an “institution” you’ll sound so formal and generic that it won’t grab anybody!

What do you hope your readers will get out of reading your book, Gigi?

I want readers to receive three things from the book: practical advice about where to find grants (including subscribing to your blog!), detailed advice on how to write a winning application, and inspiration so they keep applying for opportunities and keep making art. Most artists work solo and the danger of solitude is that you can lose hope. I want readers to have an inspiring and extremely practical reference guide to the world of grants and fundraising! Please let your readers know that they can download an excerpt from the book from the website: www.theartistsguidetograntwriting.com and they can get a free grant writing tip sheet when they sign up for my occasional updates -- which they can unsubscribe from at any time at www.gigirosenberg.com

Mira: Thanks for having me today. I can’t wait to read your memoir. When are you coming to Portland?!

Hah! Good question. I have never been there but plan to go sometime this coming year while I’m on book tour, or at least when the paperback comes out. I’ll let you know! Thanks so much for your time and insight. I look forward to reading your book!

For updates on Gigi’s workshops and to order her book (you can also order through my site as well), go here: http://gigirosenberg.com/book/

Interview with Author Ayun Halliday!

Today I am very pleased to introduce you to author, zinester, and all-around creative genius, Ayun Halliday. Ayun is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and the author of four self mocking memoirs: The Big Rumpus, Job Hopper, Dirty Sugar Cookies, and No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late. She is also the non-illustration half of the picture book Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo, and the forthcoming graphic novel Peanut. The latest addition to her increasingly eclectic oeuvre is The Zinester’s Guide to NYC. She lives in Brooklyn with her children, India and Milo and their dad, the playwright Greg Kotis, of Broadway’s Urinetown fame (the only Broadway show I ever saw and I saw it twice!). I have been a subscriber to her zine for years now and I suggest you become one too!

Welcome Ayun! I’m so happy that you are launching your blog tour for your new book with Mira’s List! It’s been great to follow your career over these last few years. My first memory of you was actually in the mid or late 1980s, seeing you perform with your husband, Greg Kotis at Chicago’s Neofutarium in Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes with the Neo-Futurists. I loved that show and was a regular. Since then, you have moved to New York, written several books for both children and adults and have a successful on-going zine called The East Village Inky. Can you tell us what motivated you to move from acting and improv work to writing? Does it have to do with you becoming a mom? Would you mind telling us a little about this trajectory?

You pretty much nailed it right there. If I’d been acting on Broadway, I’d have had greater motivation and resources to hire a babysitter. Low budget theater takes a lot of time and energy, and adding baby care logistics was way more than of a headache than I could handle. Too Much Light was an integral part of my identity, but there was no way Greg and I could’ve continued as we had been when there was an exclusively breastfed baby at home in a 340 square foot apartment that cost double what we’d been paying in Chicago. We had three cohorts at the time, and none of them were into resurrecting the show in September, when our summer break would’ve been over. So, I was never in a position of having to make the decision of whether or not the show would proceed without me.

Even so, shortly before India’s first birthday, I had myself a nice bit of existential meltdown. We had traveled to Glasgow for the wedding of fellow Neo-Futurist Karen Christopher, and, in order to claim our travels as a business expense, we signed up to participate in a performance workshop she was teaching at the Center for Contemporary Art. I was really excited to be back in a creative community, making art, making new friends... The plan was for me to have India on my lap, and then Greg would hold her when it was my turn to perform. Twenty four hours in, with her squawking, and throwing her bumblebee rattle to the ground at every opportunity, it became apparent that this was not a workable idea. It was, in fact, a poorly thought out imposition on the other participants. I dropped out. Greg continued.

The other participants were really nice, but never got to know me, and kept talking about what a good wife I was, so sweet, showing up at lunchtime with the baby...this diminished identity did a real number on me. I needed to find a creative project that could take shape within the parameters of taking care of a one-year-old, and reach an audience of strangers, as Too Much Light had. That’s what led to the creation of the East Village Inky. I started work on it immediately upon our return from Glasgow, and it’s still going twelve years later.

The switch to writing wasn’t really a switch, as much as a turning away from other activities that had shared the stage prior to my becoming a mother. It’s a common misconception that the Neo-Futurists do improv, but in fact almost all of the short plays in Too Much Light are scripted. Maybe not ‘carefully’ scripted. A lot of them get written on the bus on the way to rehearsal. Years of cranking out short plays on a weekly basis primed me for banging out a zine while the baby napped, whenever and wherever that blessed event occured.

I thought a lot of your career path the past few years had to do with struggling to be a mom AND an artist, something many of my readers deal with too. Anyway, one of my favorite books by you is Job Hopper. I hear a lot of whining sometimes from young people I know about how annoyed they are that they have to take some stupid job in order to support their art. Well...I guess I hear it from geezers like me too! I always just say, “Suck it up—you should read Ayun Halliday’s Job Hopper!” I too had a million jobs—I've done everything from cleaning toilets for evangelical right-wing Christian families to working at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo in an office, surrounded by potty mouth parrots. For fun, can you make a really fast list from the top of your head of some of the jobs you had to take in order to support your addiction to making art?

Sorry - there’s no top of my head left after mining that raw material for the book, even if a lot of jobs from that period are but glancingly mentioned in its pages (to be fair some of them only lasted a day). Instead, I will make a list of the jobs I wish I had had:
Pediatric echocardiogram technician
Museum educator
Massage therapist
First ammendment street vendor
Korean bathhouse attendant (ladies only)
Bike mechanic
Bookstore clerk
Comic book store clerk
If only etsy had existed back in the day, I would go back in time, do anything to get myself hired on there - what a cool place to work!

Ayun, I hate to tell you but I’d had two of your dream jobs! Museum educator and bookstore clerk. I think my dream job would be an ice dancer who could sing opera. Maybe in my next life.... So I always think of you as one of the best grassroots guerrilla marketers around when it comes to getting your work out there. Would you mind telling my readers a few things you do to spread the word about your books and artistic projects?

Wear myself down to a frazzle, you mean? Eschew housework? Spend so much time on the internet that I get tennis elbow? I try to stay mindful of the fact that anyone who is helping me publicize my books or zines is doing me a major favor. If someone mentions the book on a blog, I send a message to thank them. I treat college newspaper reporters with the same respect I would show a New Yorker editor...perhaps one of them will grow up to edit the New Yorker, and THEN their old pal, Ayun Halliday, will start showing up in its pages (hopefully paper will still exist).

I am increasingly mindful to extend that courtesy to the people who turn up for my readings as well. My latest project, the Zinester’s Guide to NYC is an interesting case, because I want to do bookstore events, so the bookstores will stand behind the book, but how does one do a reading for a guidebook? For its release at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, I basically threw a bunch of stuff at the wall, and prayed something would stick. I played Pomp and Circumstance while reciting the names of all the zine publishers who had contributed listings and illustrations so those who were present could receive their complimentary contributor copies, diploma style. Then each of them recited their favorite listing, which was kind of a hot mess because none of them had seen the finished book before. Thank god we have an index. We had a mini zine fair. My favorite part was the peformance of eight original songs inspired by the guidebook, courtesy of various members of the Bushwick Book Club.

It seemed like everyone who showed up had a really good time...at least they got something more than a garden variety reading. That three ring circus approach helps as far as getting advance publicity too. Our next event on November 30 at St. Mark’s Bookshop features an opportunity for audience members to bring their own zines in for consignment, and grill the contributors about all things zine related. The one at Bluestockings on December 5 is a vegetarian potluck. Anything to rise above the herd...

With the holidays looming, I’ve decided to take it to the streets. Literally. It’s kind of scary...nothing like a crush of disiterested shoppers gliding past a table set up with your blood, sweat and tears to make you feel like a loser. Of course, having all the major publishers reject your second children’s book can make you feel like a loser too. That experience has reawakened a bit of my Little Red “Fuck you! I’ll do it myself!” Hen sensibility. India was a cigarette girl for Halloween one year. I’m going to co-opt the tray that once held boxes of candy cigarettes, load it full of ZG2NYCs and try my luck with the tourists waiting in line at the Empire State Building and the half price ticket booth in Times Square. It’s scary, but it’s not like I’m trying to sell them something they don’t want and/or need!

And today, on a whim, I droplifted a couple of copies in the travel section of the Barnes and Noble across the street from Lincoln Center. Why not, you know?

Wow, you are the anti-thesis of some slacker writers who expect everything to be handed to them. I really admire your enthusiasm and innovative approach to marketing your books. Do you have any great advice to first time authors? Feel free to use that much-adored phrase we all know and love from EVI. Personally, I do believe it sums it all up!

Dare to be Heinie? All right. Maybe one of your readers can tell me what it means. A travel blogger in Australia just asked me that question, so with your permission, I’m going to cut and paste what I told her... that tennis elbow’s starting to act up a bit:

“The best advice I can give is to cite something the late monologuist Spalding Grey told Tricycle Magazine, that he started performing the autobiographical monologues that garnered a lot of recognition for him because he “got sick of waiting for the big infernal machine to make up its mind” about him. I’ve never had much of a gift for going after success in a traditional, mainstream way. Starting my zine, The East Village Inky, is what led to my first book contract and it sustains me creatively during periods when things feel like they’re starting to run off the rails. Writing is only part of being a writer. You’ve also got to get it out there, particularly if no one else seems interested in doing it for you.”

I totally agree, Ayun. I simply don’t understand how someone can spend hours, weeks, months and years working so passionately on a project and then when it comes time to spend the energy to find an agent, send out queries, write something for a blog, put oneself out there, they refuse or complain. In this publishing climate, they will simply perish, in my opinion.

So any great advice to mommy writers and artists, i.e. ways in which you keep your sanity and find a balance between the demands of motherhood and the demands of your creative life?

Anyone who would diminish your experience of motherhood can get stuffed. I hate that term ‘momoir’—you can hear the sneer with which it was coined! Don’t get caught in flame wars in the comments sections of the parenting blogs either—it’s a highly contagious toxin that will devour your precious writing time. For those whose children are still in infancy or toddlerhood, take heart in the fact that they do grow out of it. (By the same token, savor and document this period, because they do grow out of it.)

For me, having children turned out to be a real bite in the ass. Back when my creative time was limited to the always unpedictable hour or two India and then Milo conked out for a nap, I had only myself to blame if I blew it. It was a completely balls- to-the-wall, carpe diem type situation. Now that they’re both in school, I’m not nearly as disciplined. Maybe I should have another baby...

One of the things I LOVE about the East Village Inky (and, as you know, I have been a subscriber for years) is all the advice you give about amazing and authentic places to see in NYC, not to mention great places to eat and things to do for free. Which brings me to your new book: The Zinester's Guide to New York City. Please tell our readers a little bit about your book so that they will be so excited, they will run out and get it right after they finish this interview.

And here I thought I was doing that with my description of the Housing Works event!
The Zinester’s Guide to NYC is a low budget, highly participatory, anecdotal, illustrated guidebook that costs less than a movie ticket here in its city of origin. Quite possibly the last wholly analog creature of its species. There’s a cheese store listed in the Art Supplies category. And Stephen Colbert said it’s the guidebook he’d use if he could still still walk the streets of New York among his People.

Thanks for joining us today Ayun and I wish you the absolute best luck with your new book and all your future endeavors! Dare to be Heinie!


Check out Ayun’s website for her books and projects and don’t forget to order her latest book for the holidays!
http://www.ayunhalliday.com

Interview with TransCultural Exchange Director, Mary Sherman

Today I am thrilled to interview Mary Sherman, Director of TransCultural Exchange. Mary and I have known each other for years and I was part of the very first TransCult exhibit, way back in 1989 in Chicago. I hope you enjoy our interview! Read on...

Mary Sherman is an artist and the director of the nonprofit TransCultural Exchange (TCE). She is also the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Program in Art, Culture and Technology. In 1989 she founded TCE to create art projects that transcend social, political, geographical and historical barriers. Since then, TCE has worked directly with hundreds of artists, arts organizations, foundations, museums and cultural centers in more than sixty countries to produce cultural exchanges, critically acclaimed exhibitions and public art works, from Sarajevo to Sao Paulo, Berlin to Boston, Tel Aviv to Taipei, Mongolia to Mumbai.

Mary, thanks so much for joining us today. Would you mind starting out by telling us a little bit about TransCultural Exchange—How it got started, what your organization does, how it has grown since you began and where you see it going in the future?

In 1989, at the invitation of two Viennese architects, a group of Chicago artists put together a wildly ambitious exchange show of over 70 Viennese and Chicago artists’ works. The Chicago literary magazine Another Chicago Magazine turned one of their issues into the show’s catalog (which included an essay by Wim Wenders), Café Tête-à-Tête hosted a reading series and Facet’s Multimedia Centre organized a Viennese and Chicago film festival.

Then, after a brief hiatus, TransCultural Exchange resurfaced in New York City thanks to the Trans Hudson Gallery, who offered their gallery space for an exhibition. From then on, there was no looking back. TCE is currently based in Boston but really, our home is all over the world.

In 2000 we took part in the London Biennale (and did so again last year and will again this April) Your readers are invited to join us when we bring the London Biennale to Boston for a 'curated salon': (http://www.transculturalexchange.org/participate_docs/inviteLB.html) Anyway, in 2002, TransCultural Exchange reached hundreds of artists around the globe to produce its first worldwide project, The Coaster Project. For this project, 100 artists made 100 coaster-sized artworks. They then exhibited one of each participant’s (for a total of 100 works per exhibit) in a public space. These exhibits took place on all seven continents. Afterward, all 10,000+ artworks were given away – to all segments of society - for free.

The Coaster Project, was followed by The Tile Project, which included an artist exchange program, educational component and the creation of public art works to draw attention to the organization’s mission of working with artists from diverse nationalities, to educate the public about these various cultures and to encourage them to consider ways in which artists, and by extension, others might work together for a more peaceful future. For last year’s global project (and catalog), artists were asked to collaborate with an artist(s) or others from another country to make a collaborative artwork. Over 200 artists participated, resulting in over sixty exhibitions, talks and performances in more than as many places.

Starting in 2009, TCE began hosting international conferences for opportunities in the arts. I had such a great time last year! I met people from all over the world and brought back a lot of information on grants and residencies for my Mira's List readers. Would you mind telling us about the upcoming conference next April, 2011 and will there be anything new this time that is different from last year's conference?

I'd be happy to. Like last year, this coming Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts will be held in Boston, Massachusetts and will bring more than seventy representatives from around the world to talk about their residency, grant, exhibition and fellowship programs. And this coming year, there will be even more mentoring sessions and portfolio reviews for artists than before. We will also offer much more to artists, writers and media artists/filmmakers, including public readings by well-known and emerging authors (check back on our website for updated list), a video-screening room to showcase new work, a screening program for artists to show slides, and an extra day of activities, showcasing local cultural attractions and related research at sponsoring institutions.

I'll be there too—doing a reading from my new book as well as talking once again about opportunities in the arts, in particular, for writers. So on to my next question—which is the most frequently asked question I get: What are some of the ways an artist can fund his or her residency? And if you can suggest creative solutions or specific grants or fellowships for both U.S. and international artists, that would be great.

There is a great organization The Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which works to make the world a smaller place by giving artists of different cultures the opportunity to work together in the hope that lasting friendship and understanding will develop. The program provides support for visual artists and arts professionals to travel to international residencies and artist communities and for foreign visual artists to travel to and work in the United States.

Then, of course both your website and ours http://www.transculturalexchange.blogspot.com/
list information about residencies and funding on a regular basis. Also, most residencies abroad cover most of your expenses, except airfare, and for what you save on food and housings—to say nothing of the network you'll create as a result—that is an incredible bargain.

Mary, please tell me about one or two of your best international residency experiences.

That is hard. .. .My first was to Romania. It was/is run by Dorothea Fleiss. That year it was in a villa, where we worked all day, ate these long lasting dinners and talked long into the evening. I made amazing contacts, who I am still in touch with to this day, including Dorothea, a strong artist with an amazing heart.

Most recently I was in Taiwan as a resident at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (it was my third time in Taiwan; I was earlier a resident at the Taipei Artists Village) and also was a Fulbright Senior Specialist (also an amazing program). And, please one more: a residency at MIT, which, like all residencies introduced me to amazing people and led to other opportunities—including TCE's initial support of our first conference and now the addition of Ute Meta Bauer to our advisory board & my now working there. I really wish I could list them all—because each and everyone one of them changed my life in only the best ways possible.

Well, if some of my readers go to the next TCE Conference, maybe they can ask you more about your residency experiences! Anyway, I know that TCE has a bit kickstarter project going right now and you are trying to raise money for it. Please tell my readers about the project and what you hope to happen if you get funding.

Well, here's the link and I hope a good hook, as I'd really like to see this project take off and in the process all the supports get a piece of TransCultural Exchange:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/110350793/the-art-of-collaboration

In essence, are trying to raise money to produce a catalog of collaborative works, to celebrate the work made by artists not only working together from different cultures but also engaging those in other disciplines. A true embodiment of the name: TransCultural Exchange.

I really hope you get funding. I'm counting on some of my devoted readers to check out your project at kickstarter and help support it! Well, lastly Mary, what do you see in the future for TCE? Dream big!

To be honest, I never imagined we get this far. . .but.. it'd be great to have TransCultural Exchange all over the world with a net work of artists working with people from other cultures and other disciplines. Wouldn't that be great? Well, we're trying: we are now filing paper work to create TransCultural Exchange as an NGO (a non-governmental organization) as well as keep our nonprofit status, making it easier to move artists and works between the states and the rest of the world. As we often write as a tagline: Stay Tuned: a new World Awaits. ;)

Thanks so much for joining us today, Mary. It's been a pleasure! I can't wait to see what TCE will do in the future.

I'd like to close this post today by quoting Mary Sherman from her opening of the 2009 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts. I think she expresses my own sentiments and why I do this blog:

“The arts most likely won’t pinpoint the cure for cancer, but that does not negate their power. Marvelous things can come from where you least suspect. Working in tandem, much can be accomplished; and the arts can help. Like the face of a beloved, the arts can stimulate our curiosity. They can give our lives meaning in ways that we may never be able to explain. Even across vast time zones and geographic distances, the arts give us the ability to touch another person and be touched—and with that, many possibilities can arise.”