I am finding it hard to know what to write about Mumbai. This is a city, after all, that has been so well-served by writers far better than I am. And one of them, Suketu Mehta, encapsulated Mumbai in two words: ‘maximum city.’ I didn’t know what to expect here. Everyone I know who has […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Literary Gluttony
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Anyone else getting tired of food writing? I started my freelance career writing about food. A fabulous little bi-monthly food magazine in Calgary called City Palate published my first paid article, an account of my time in Mali’s Dogon country drinking millet beer with locals. I went on to write about a dozen or so […]
August
08
Cheap Books
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hello all. It was one of those moments that eventually humbles all writers. I recently discovered that the hardcover edition of my last book, Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey Into the Heart of Iran, has been remaindered. This means that it will soon appear on those bargain tables in front of bookstores alongside back-issues of […]
The Forgotten Wall
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Here is a very brief excerpt from the piece I wrote in Banff. It is a time of no war and no peace. The ceasefire holds but cracks are starting to show. The refugees wait, and though one man says it is courageous to be patient, it has already been more than thirty years. There […]
Leaving Banff
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Today is the last day of the Literary Journalism Program and my last afternoon in ‘The Hemingway’. It has been a wonderfully fruitful month. With the help of a careful editor and the the suggestions of my writing mates, I have managed to put together a polished first chapter of my ‘walls’ project. I also […]
Writer-in-Residence
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I have some happy news to report. I’ve been chosen as the University of Calgary’s 2009-2010 Writer-in-Residence. My residency begins in August 2009 – which is perfect, as I should be done the bulk of my traveling for this ‘walls’ project by then – and will last for ten months. I will be responsible for […]
Home
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hello all. I am home now where I will stay until the beginning of July when I begin a month-long residency at the Banff Centre of the Arts. I will use my time in the ‘Literary Journalism’ program to turn my scrawled notes from the Western Sahara into a legible first chapter of the Walls […]
Thinking about walls
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My walls project is in its early stages, to be sure, but I´ve been musing a little lately about what all of it means. What do these various walls have in common? What do they tell us? At first I was thinking that these walls are simply expressions of fear, but I think that might […]
May
05
Reconsidering Tangier
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Tangier’s reputation intimidated me. The seedy and licentious city the Beats tumbled through in the ’50s had long since become a place travelers were urged to avoid. I read about the muggers and the pickpockets and the dangers of the medina. I was ready to find the worst of Morocco. I came to write a […]
Best Menu Mistranslation Ever?
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Hello all. The vacation is over and I am back on writer duty. I am in Essaouria now and will head south tomorrow. I will write a proper post soon, but in the meantime I want to pass along a little item from a restaurant menu here in Essaouria. Apparently, at Restaurant des Arches you […]
