January 14, 2016

Literary Sala Authors Will Electrify You and Get You Hooked!

By Carole Schor

The January Literary Sala presents two remarkable women, Elizabeth Rosner, author of The Electric City, and Charlotte Bell, author of Rich Roots. Both live in San Miguel part time and have made important contributions to the town, Elizabeth with presentations and workshops at the Literary Sala and Writers’ Conference, and Charlotte with her photography and her work in rural communities.

Elizabeth Rosner

Elizabeth Rosner’s latest book, Electric City, takes place in her hometown of Schenectady, New York, a company town where Edison invented electricity and where virtually everyone worked for General Electric.

Elizabeth immerses herself in every aspect of her work. She took up singing to know what the heroine of her award-winning book, The Speed of Light would think and feel and how she would breathe and stand when she opened her mouth to sing. She returned to modeling and painting to do the research for her second book, Blue Nude, named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, in order to see both sides of the process — what the artist was looking at when he or she painted a nude model, and what the model thought and felt while she stood naked in front of the easel. Her first published short story, “In the Drawing Studio,” was about the nonverbal relationship between an artist and a model. In Blue Nude, she added a significant second layer, the relationship between a German and a Jew, drawing upon her experience as the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

Survival is key to Liz Rosner’s writing. “Writing has taught me so much about reconciling with my demons and illuminating my darkest shadows,” she says. What is survival? What is the aftermath of a trauma? How are we changed by circumstances? How do we live with the next set of circumstances we are given? What do we carry forward into the rest of our lives?”

Liz gives this advice to the aspiring writers here in San Miguel: “You survive by persevering, by finding the material that is very truly yours; by finding the language that is your language and by using the voice that is your voice.”

Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell also writes about survival. In her new book, Rich Roots, with photography and writing, she documents the survival of a small village in rural Mexico and the craftspeople whose art Charlotte has helped to market.

Rich Roots, takes the reader “on a journey of words and photos to a Mexico that most of us never see.” The book combines Charlotte’s love of photography and art, and takes the reader “into the Mexican campo, the rural countryside outside the colonial cities and glittery resorts that define Mexico for so many people . . . into the campo with its tiny pueblos and farming villages, [where] the true heart of Mexico beats, where the roots of the people go deep into the earth and their blood goes back for centuries beyond memory. For many people, especially in the States, Mexico is a barely discovered jewel with its intriguing and complicated culture, rich history, and enormous natural beauty.”

Charlotte Bell is the force behind many projects here in San Miguel, as well as being an accomplished photographer in her hometown of Austin, Texas. Thanks to her efforts, the Rug Hook Project of Las Rancheritas, started by San Miguel’s own Mujeres en Cambio, in the tiny pueblo of Agustin Gonzales, has provided the families living there with the income they need to buy food, schooling for their children, as well as doctor visits and other family needs. The rug hookers use the images of life around them — the mountains, cactus, cows, horses, burros, flowers, houses and churches, ducks, rabbits, chickens and roosters to weave intricate patterns which are now being sold all over the world. As an outgrowth of the Rug Hook Project, Charlotte has launched The Rancho Tour where visitors can experience a real Mexican village with a visit
to Las Rancheritas’ store and demonstrations in rug hooking, traditional
Mexican cooking techniques, and stone carving.

Consider Joining the Literary Sala

Membership in the Literary Sala of San Miguel supports not only the literary life of San Miguel including scholarships for teens and reading projects for children in campo communities, it also offers attractive benefits including book groups like The Big Read featuring Joyce Carol Oates’ collection of short stories, Lovely, Dark, Deep; discounts at the monthly author readings, as well as discounts and priority seating at the annual Writers Conference. A Membership desk will be available for information and registration at the January 14 Sala event. It is also possible to obtain information and to join on line at http://sanmiguelliterarysala.org/sala-membership/membership.