About
Award-winning literary journalist, novelist, and literary translator C.M. Mayo has been living in and writing about Mexico for over 25 years.
Her most recent books are METEOR, which won the Gival Press Award for Poetry, and METAPHYSICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION: FRANCISCO I. MADERO AND HIS SECRET BOOK, SPIRITIST MANUAL (Dancing Chiva), which won the National Indie Excellence Award for History.
Mayo is also the author several other books about Mexico, including THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE (Unbridled Books), an historical novel based on a true story and named a Library Journal Best Book of 2009; MIRACULOUS AIR: JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES THROUGH BAJA CALIFORNIA, THE OTHER MEXICO (University of Utah Press and Milkweed Edition); and SKY OVER EL NIDO, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Her shorter works have been published in numerous literary magazines, among them, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Southwest Review, and Tin House.
Mayo's translations of Mexican contemporary literature have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, most recently, Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic (Small Beer Press) and Best Contemporary Mexican Fiction (Dalkey Archive). Her own anthology, of 24 Mexican writers, is MEXICO: A TRAVELER'S LITERARY COMPANION (Whereabouts Press).
Born in El Paso, Texas, raised in northern California, she was educated at the University of Chicago. She has been a resident of Mexico City for over 25 years. She is currently at work on a book about the Big Bend region of Far West Texas, and apropos of that, hosting the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project.
Featured Work
Meteor
Winner of the Gival Press Poetry Award
"The narrative poems of Meteor are both funny and thoughtful, turning ordinary situations on their heads and capturing strange, surprising scenes."--Foreword Clarion Review, Feb. 2019
"...Mayo's best work--perfect words without artifice; characters and situations made permanent; a triumph of language as a natural art ...."--Grace Cavalieri, The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress
"C.M. Mayo creates magic, in poems that transform the ordinary into something more marvelous and strange...."--Kim Roberts, author of A Literary Guide to Washington, D.C.
Other Works
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Dispatch from the Sister Republic or, Papelito Habla
2017
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Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual
2014
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The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
2009
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Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico
2007
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Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion
2007
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Sky Over El Nido: Stories
1995
Awards and Recognition
- Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (for SKY OVER E NIDO)
- Fellow, Bread Loaf Writers Conference
- Fellow, Sewanee Writers Conference
- Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (various)
- Fellow, MacDowell Colony (twice)
- Fellow, Yaddo (twice)
- Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Writing Essay (various)
- Best Personal Essay, Washington Independent Writers
- National Indie Excellence Award for History (for METAPHYSICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION)
- Texas Institute of Letters, inducted 2017
- Gival Press Award for Poetry
Press and Media Mentions
- Big Bend Sentinel "Disocvering the Author and Podcast Maker C.M. Mayo" by Lonn Taylor
- Division of the Social Sciences Newsletter "University of Chicago Alumna Explores Secret Book by Leader of the Mexican Revolution" by Greg Borzo
- The Book Studio with Bethann Patrick "C.M. Mayo: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire"
- National Public Radio, All Things Considered: "C.M. Mayo, Editing a Literary Tour of Mexico"
- Webpage with all C.M. Mayo Interviews
- Webpage with Reviews of Works by C.M. Mayo
- Entrevistas en español