by Marta Maretich | Nov 27, 2016 | Nigeria, The Possibility of Lions
by Marta Maretich I am a Nigerian. You wouldn’t guess it to look at me and when I reveal this fact to other Nigerians, they tend to laugh politely and edge away, thinking, “Clearly, this white lady is a little nuts!” But it’s 100% true. I was born in Port Harcourt.... 
by Marta Maretich | Nov 23, 2016 | Literacy, Nigeria, The Possibility of Lions, Writing and reading
by Marta Maretich General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011—and, with him died a small piece of my history. Ojukwu couldn’t have known it, but he is partly responsible for the person I am today. The General and I go all the way back. As a... 
by Marta Maretich | Jan 27, 2016 | Writing and reading
by Marta Maretich @mmmaretich Back when I wrote my blog on day jobs for writers, things were looking pretty grim for those of us who earn our living with words. Now, following a new report from the Author’s Guild, we find that the situation isn’t just grim, it’s dire.... 
by Marta Maretich | Oct 30, 2015 | Painters and painting, See Paintings by Tiepolo, The Merchants of Light
You might assume that Venice was the only place to see works by Venetian genius Giambattista Tiepolo. But if you’re hungry for the best kind of Baroque and not planning a trip anytime soon, don’t despair. Chances are there are inspirational Tiepolos in a... 
by Marta Maretich | Aug 5, 2015 | Writing and reading
Ursula Le Guin is a hero of mine. As a child I read books like The Wizard of Earthsea over and over again, fully aware that the author was giving me much more than the usual story for children. Where other writers played it safe, Le Guin bravely delivered ambiguity,... 
by Marta Maretich | Jun 24, 2015 | Narrators, Painters and painting, The Merchants of Light
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo is an artist with two distinct parts to his career. The first part is conventional, predictable and public. The second part is enigmatic, comical and mostly private. So distinct are these two phases, and so different are the artworks that... 
by Marta Maretich | Jun 17, 2015 | Narrators, Painters and painting, The Merchants of Light
Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo is the youngest of my narrators in The Merchants of Light. In real life he was the youngest Tiepolo, born in Venice in 1736 when his mother Cecilia Guardi Tiepolo was 34 and his father, Giambattista Tiepolo, was 40. His middle name, which... 
by Marta Maretich | Jun 4, 2015 | Narrators, Painters and painting, The Merchants of Light
Francesco Algarotti by Étienne Liotard It’s impossible to sum up Francesco Algarotti in a brief description. Scientist, historian, poet, diplomat, philosopher, art critic and dealer, Algarotti was Italy’s best known and most respected man of letters during his... 
by Marta Maretich | Jun 1, 2015 | Narrators, The Merchants of Light, Writing and reading
Cecilia Tiepolo circa 1770. This pastel portrait by son Lorenzo is one of only two known portraits of her. Nobody knows much about Maria Cecilia Guardi Tiepolo, one of the central narrators of my historical novel, The Merchants of Light. It seems strange to say this... 
by Marta Maretich | May 20, 2015 | Narrators, The Merchants of Light, Writing and reading
Lieutenant John D. Skilton Jr. If ever there was an unlikely-likely hero, it was John D. Skilton Jr. The first of the five narrators of my book, The Merchants of Light, he was also my most unexpected discovery. I had no plans to include a modern voice in this... 
by Marta Maretich | May 13, 2015 | The Merchants of Light, Writing and reading
You love Venice, like I do. With your passion for this most passion-inducing of cities, you’ve probably read all the well-known novels set in La Serenissima: Death in Venice, Miss Garnet’s Angel, A Room With a View… These books are terrific, but Venice has been a... 
by Marta Maretich | Mar 27, 2015 | Painters and painting, The Merchants of Light
One of the great pleasures of researching my novel The Merchants of Light was learning more about the painting techniques used by Giambattista Tiepolo and his contemporaries. It surprised (and pleased) me to discover how little many of these techniques have changed... 
by Marta Maretich | Mar 19, 2015 | Events, The Merchants of Light, Writing and reading
The afternoon sun began to slant into the salon, sliding its radiance across the surface of the painting…Bonomo had the servant bring another bottle of prosecco. His wife Vittoria soon came in along with some jolly friends of hers and they all joined the... 
by Marta Maretich | Feb 15, 2015 | Writing and reading
Everyone likes to read about the day jobs of famous writers — and how they were able to give them up. But for today’s writers the day job will be permanent part of our working lives. Harper Lee on her break. When it comes to the bios of famous writers, the day... 
by Marta Maretich | Dec 11, 2014 | The Merchants of Light, Writing and reading
We writers love our books—and then they leave us. Adored projects, like The Possibility of Lions, go off into the world and find their own lives, their own friends. It’s what we want for them, just like we want it for our children, and yet their success leaves a... 
by Marta Maretich | Dec 9, 2014 | Writing and reading
Publishers at daggers drawn with media distributors. Bookstores vanishing from our neighborhoods. Writers working harder than ever to get their books into the hands of readers, for less reward. All this makes it easy to feel pessimistic about the future of literature.... 
by Marta Maretich | Oct 25, 2014 | The Possibility of Lions
Despite the fact that all writers like to think of themselves as unique, we Open Door writers can’t call ourselves a special breed. In common with writers everywhere we share the following characteristics: We love books—reading them as well as writing them—and... 
by Marta Maretich | Oct 25, 2014 | Literacy, The Possibility of Lions, Writing and reading
It’s funny how writing projects take shape. Sometimes they come together in hours — a flood of inspiration. Sometimes they congeal slowly over many years. The Possibility of Lions, my new novella, has taken a decade to find its voice. Short as it is, it... 
by Marta Maretich | Oct 23, 2014 | The Possibility of Lions
Proliteracy likes Possibility New Readers Press, the publishing arm of ProLiteracy, one of America’s leading literacy advocates, has chosen The Possibility of Lions to include in its latest online catalogue. Possibility was selected along with five other Open... 
by Marta Maretich | Oct 23, 2014 | The Possibility of Lions, Writing and reading
Michael McClure is an American poet with a career stretching back to the Beat generation. In the attached clip McClure puts aside his tambourine to go the the San Francisco zoo to recite “Tantra 49″, a poem from his 1964 collection Ghost Tantras, to caged lions. The... 