From Fellow C.M. Mayo : In the years of writing, researching, and revising my novel, T he Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books, May 5, 2009), I enjoyed several intensely productive stays at VCCA. A few sparkles: In the corn crib studio: Drafting General Achille Bazaine's flashback scenes of 1850s Algeria, Arab music on the CD player, snow falling on the skylight. At dinner: Chatting with novelist Josephine Humphreys about archives and the influence of the dead. By the fireplace in the living room : Reading these same pages with Peter Behrens , reading from his novel then in-progress, The Law of Dream s. Eating potato chips with poets Sandra Beasley and Alfred Corn . Trying not to be embarrassed when Alfred (bless him) corrected my French pronunciation. In Sweet Briar's Library : After checking e-mail, reading Virgil. Rectangles of autumn light falling on the old tables. One sunny afternoon outside my studio by the barn: Finding Peter Behrens,
VCCA Fellow Edwin Honig, poet, critic and translator, died on May 25 at his home in Providence, Rhode Island. He was 91. Best known for his elegant translations of Spanish and Portuguese literature, he was knighted by the President of Portugal in 1986; and in 1996 by the King of Spain. He was a twice Guggenheimed fellow and a grantee of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to his translation work, he published ten books of poetry, five books of criticism and fiction, and three books of plays. Mr. Honig served in the U.S. Army in the European Theatre from 1942 to 1946. He taught at New York University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of New Mexico, Purdue University, Claremont College, Harvard University and Brown University, where he founded Brown's Graduate Program in Creative Writing and established Copper Beech Press. At his death, he was emeritus professor of English and comparative literature at Brown University, where he had taught from 1957 until his retirement in 1982.
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