“It’s very encouraging that there are so many writers in Texas, and so many opportunities to learn from one another.”
— C.M. Mayo
A member of the Writers’ League since September, C.M. is between a lot of places right now but her forwarding service is in Wichita Falls, TX.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
C.M. Mayo: Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Scribe: What author would you most like to have a drink with, and what’s the first question you would ask them?
CMM: Edith Wharton. I’d ask her about her dogs.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
CMM: Tolstoy’s War and Peace. That would do for about a month. That’s my max for deserted islands.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
CMM: That I wish I lived in Austin! But seriously, it’s very encouraging that there are so many writers in Texas, and so many opportunities to learn from one another.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
CMM: I’m going deep into questions about Texas in the book I’ve been working on for a while, tentatively titled World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas. I see myself finishing it, then moving on to complete a collection of essays, many of them about Mexico and the US-Mexico borderlands–– a part of the world that has absorbed me for many years, in fact, most of my books to date. For me, writing is at once a journey towards understanding and play, pure play. Any day I can get some writing done is a very good day.
Scribe: Here at the Writers’ League, we love sharing book recommendations. What’s one Texas-related book that has come out within the past year that you couldn’t put down?
CMM: I found Ty Cashion’s Lone Star Mind: Reimagining Texas History, at once fascinating, thought-provoking, and mega-crunchy––and by the way, it combines well, like a good wine with a good cheese, with Lawrence Wright’s God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
CMM: My latest book, Meteor, won the Gival Press Award for Poetry. My blog, Madam Mayo, www.madam-mayo.com posts every Monday, the second Monday of every month being dedicated to my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing. And I invite you to listen in anytime at www.cmmayo.com/marfa to the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project, with 20 of 24 projected podcasts to date.
Thank you, C.M.!
If you’re a Writers’ League member and you’d be interested in being interviewed for our Meet the Members feature, email us at member@writersleague.org for more information. It’s a great way for other members to get to know you and for you to share a bit about what you’re working on!
