I’ve finished a new draft of my West Bank Wall chapter and will post a short sample soon. It was a difficult chapter to write. There are so many facets to the Wall that I had trouble knowing when to stop. What struck me most during the writing, and during my time in Palestine earlier […]
"Books Not Bombs" online
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
A story I wrote about Tmol Shilshom, my favourite place in Jerusalem and a mecca for writers, is now online on the Maisonneuve magazine site. You can find it here.
John Irving on Wrestling and Writing
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
The author John Irving was interviewed by Michael Enright on CBC Radio a few weeks back. He spoke about how his own career as a wrestler influenced his writing. Irving started to wrestle when he was an ill-tempered fourteen year-old. He told Enright that “you can’t lose your temper on a wrestling mat”, and that […]
Article: “Berlin Wall is gone but Israel’s inhumane barrier still stands”
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I found an excellent essay about the West Bank Wall on the Herald Scotland website. The author – who, oddly, is not named – writes eloquently on many of the ideas I mentioned in my last post. You can find it here. [Correction: David Pratt wrote the aforementioned Herald Scotland piece.]
Walls in Berlin and Palestine
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Along with the Berlin Wall anniversary celebrations this week came the parallels between the Berlin Wall and the wall Israel has built around the West Bank. (The photo is of graffiti on the Wall in Ramallah.) These comparisons were inevitable, of course, and so was the subsequent scoffing of the West Bank Wall’s supporters. There […]
Representing the Other
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
Yesterday I was part of a panel discussion with writer Sid Marty, and moderated by Pamela Banting, about “Representing the Other” in Creative Nonfiction. We covered several interesting ideas during the 90 minute discussion, but a comment from a member of the audience questioned the responsibility of the author in portraying the Other, and I […]
“Wall of Shame” goes digital
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
The digital version of the current Geist magazine is now up and running. My story about the Saharawi refugee camps, titled “Wall of Shame,” begins on page 53. The good people at Geist did a fantastic job with the layout. My work has never looked so pretty. This story has turned out to be rather […]
Hills, here and elsewhere
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My office window faces north and from here I can see the edge of Calgary’s Nose Hill Park. The park is a vast stretch of grassland that has avoided the encroachment of subdivisions and suburbs. A miracle in Calgary. I used to run along the trails on Nose Hill Park when I was a teenager. […]
Writer-and-Wrestler-in-Residence
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
I’ve been the Markin-Flanagan Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary since mid-August and I’ve had a fabulous and productive month. From my 11th floor office I managed to complete a handful of freelance pieces for magazines and, more importantly, another chapter in my Walls project. A first draft of my Ceuta and Melilla chapter is […]
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Great Home Chefs
posted by Marcello Di Cintio
My freelance writing career has been typically feast or famine. This September I am feasting. In addition to the Maisonneuve piece I mentioned in my last post, and a story about Tangier in this month’s Westworld Magazine, I wrote the cover story in today’s Swerve Magazine. In it, I profile five great amateur chefs of […]
Elsewhere 