Martha BátizTag

On Listening to Music and Writing a Novel

Do you listen to music as you write? I often do, particularly when writing a short story, but it has been several months since I typed the night away with a melody playing in the background. At this moment, ...

The Joy of Literary Festivals – And Dreams Coming True

It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of September and that the time I have been privileged to spend with you on this Open Book platform is almost over. Looking back at what I have shared with ...

A Thousand More Lives: On Reading

I recently stumbled across an article written by Umberto Eco in Rome in 1991, translated into Spanish by Jorge Cruz and published in the Argentinean newspaper La Nación, explaining why he believed that ...

Plant a tree, have a child, write a book? Not so fast!

“Plant a tree, have a child, write a book.” Whether it was Cuban poet and freedom fighter José Martí or some other worthy who first uttered this maxim is irrelevant. What matters is its message: ...

On Translation

My favourite assignment during my time as an undergraduate student at the English Literature Department in Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM), was the translation of a short story of my ...

I believe in... workshops

A escribir se aprende escribiendo, we say in Spanish: It is only by writing that one learns how to write. Lots of writing and reading are an absolute must, but acquiring writing techniques is equally ...

On Federico García Lorca's "Duende"

What immediate need of yours has to be satisfied before you can hit the keyboard? If I had to have a clean house before I sat down to write, I would never have written anything after I got married and ...

On Writing as Rehearsal

Growing up surrounded by music was a unique privilege whose ramifications, as a child, I was incapable of comprehending. I developed an impeccable musical ear, of course, but more than that, I bore witness ...

On Shooting Stars and Poetry as Fuel

To live at all is to grieve;but, once, to have it all at onceis to see a shooting star: shooting starshooting star.Arthur Sze (From Shooting Star) I read a poem every morning. Not because I have a pile ...

"They are Warriors, They Bear Witness" September Writer in Residence Martha Bátiz on the Women Who Fill Her New Story Collection

The stories in Martha Bátiz's No Stars in the Sky (House of Anansi Press) are painfully, urgently timely, exploring the objectification and oppression women experience as their rights, bodies, and ...