Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion

MEXICO, the latest in the Whereabouts Press "Traveler's Literary Companion" series is out.

"This is a book to throw in a suitcase or mochila (backpack) on the way to Mexico or just settling into a favorite patio chair. It will open your eyes, fill you with pleasure and render our perennial vecinos a little less distante."
--- Los Angeles Times (review by Tony Cohan, author of Mexican Days)

"A banquet of pieces that reveal Mexico in all its infinite variety, its splendid geography, its luminous peoples. What a treat!"
--- Margaret Sayers Peden, leading literary translator and editor, Mexican Writers on Writing


Here's the jacket text:

Mexico has long been the top travel destination for Americans. But until now, there has not been such a panoramic vision of Mexico offered by some of Mexico's finest contemporary writers of fiction and literary prose. Here are writings--- many translated for the first time--- that bring you to the people of the beaches, the deserts, jungles, mountains, and mega-cities. The voices are rich and diverse, enthralling, and strange. These writings shatter stereotypes as they provide a rollicking journey from the Pacific to the Gulf, from Yucatán to the U.S.-Mexico border, from humble ranchos to a fabulous mountain-top castle.

Contributors include rising stars as well as many of Mexico's best-known writers, including Araceli Ardon, Ines Arredondo, Agustin Cadena, Julieta Campos, Rosario Castellanos, Martha Cerda, Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, Laura Esquivel, Bruno Estanol, Carlos Fuentes, Jesus Gardea, Raymundo Hernandez-Gil, Monica Lavin, Guadalupe Loaeza, Angeles Mastretta, C.M. Mayo, Raul Mejia, Carlos Monsivais, Pedro Angel Palou, Fernando del Paso, Daniel Reveles, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Ilan Stavans, and Juan Villoro.

Translators include Myralyn F. Allgood, Leland H. Chambers, Philip Garrison, Daryl Hague, Geoff Hargreaves, Eduardo Jimenez, Carl I. Jubran, John Kraniauskas, Stephen Lytle, Alfred MacAdam, C.M. Mayo, Harry Morales, Mark Schafer, Daniel Shapiro, Amy Schildhouse Greenberg, and Cynthia Steele.

The editor, C.M. Mayo, is yours truly.

Whereabouts Press, founded in 1994, is dedicated to publishing books that bring a greater understanding of peoples and cultures through literature. With its inauguration, it started the Literary Traveler's Companion Series, of which Mexico is the twelfth.

Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion
Trade paperback original: Travel / Fiction: 5 x 7 1/4, 256 pp., $14.95
ISBN 1-883513-15-4
Available from fine bookstores throughout the USA and also in many English language bookshops in Mexico. It is also available from all major on-line booksellers including ww.amazon.com/ and www.longitudebooks.com/ and www.booksense.com

WHEREABOUTS PRESS1111 8th St, Suite D, Berkeley CA 94710-1455tel (510) 527-8280 / fax (510) 527-8780 www.whereaboutspress.com

Read more at www.cmmayo.com Includes cover, table of contents, excerpts, Q&A, and extensive translator bios.

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