READINGS & EVENTS TALES FROM THE HEART OF HAITI ALBERT SCHWEITZER'S LAMBARENE ISLAND JOURNEYS: EXPLORING THE LEGACY OF FRANCE ARCHAEOLOGIES
At the Miami Book Fair International - November 2010.
2010 READINGS:
Biblios in Thun, Switzerland, June 16, 9-11 am Reading and book-signing.
The Culture Center of the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, Thursday, October 28 at 6:30 pm Reading and Book-signing.
The Miami Book Fair in Miami, Florida, 1 pm - Saturday, November 20, 2010. Room 3315. Invited speaker, paired with Kent Annan, author of "Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle."
"These are truly marvelous stories-- steeped in the mystery, the terror, and beauty of Haitian life." -Madison Smartt Bell
"Intertwining the stories of Haitians and the foreigners who wish to help them, Marxsen moves us seamlessly between these two worlds, joining them through tales of love, of spirituality and magic, of connections forged and lost. Writing with both compassion and unflinching honesty, Marxsen’s stories allow us a glimpse into the true heart of Haiti." -Midge Raymond, author of "Forgetting English"
"Every story in Tales from the Heart of Haiti is beautifully realized. The distinct sense of place that informs the collection is wonderfully done, but it's more than that. As I read this book, I thought of Aristotle's rhetorical scheme of inventio (gathering the author's materials), dispositio (arrangement of those materials) and elocutio (the dressing up, through various tropes, of the material. Patti Marxsen hits on all three parts of the process extremely well." -Norman McMillan, Professor Emeritus, University of Montevallo (Alabama) and author of "Distant Son: An Alabama Boyhood."
"Marxsen's Tales from the Heart of Haiti illustrate the nation's sinister undercurrent, along with the naïve or deliberate exploitation of Haitians by foreign do-gooders who compound their miseries. But Marxsen soars above the political mire with descriptions of the country's natural beauty and honest, if sometimes heartbreaking, stories of human passions and spirituality." -Summary of the UNIFEM/USNC Gulf Coast Book Club of Sarasota, Florida
"A great piece of work! Wonderful to have such a collection of people's memories and reflections about that momentous time, and also for the ethos to have been brought up to the present day."
Percy Mark, Chairman of Dr. Schweitzer's Hospital Fund of Great Britain
“Albert Schweitzer has inspired many people and many biographies of him have been written. Albert Schweitzer’s Lambarene—written by Jo and Walter Munz and now available in English thanks to Patti Marxsen—provides a fresh view of Schweitzer through numerous chapters, mostly focused on the Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene, which he founded. The clear style of writing is captured in the translation, as is the humor. Here, the reader is allowed to know Schweitzer through those who loved him. Albert Schweitzer’s Lambarene is a 'must read' for all those who care about Schweitzer and want to understand all aspects of the man.” John Moses. M.D., Former president of the North American Alumni Association for the Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti
"I just finished reading Albert Schweitzer's Lambarene. There isn't another book in English that even approaches this one in presenting the last years of Schweitzer's life and the subsequent development of the hospital. Congratulations to Patti Marxsen and to Jo and Walter Munz."
Jack Fenner, Post-doc student in archaeology, Australian National Univeristy, and well-known Schweitzerien.
"Patti Marxsen is the perfect guide for this fascinating journey through the history of France and its empire, exploring its varied legacies as she expertly brings together past and present." -Laurent Dubois, author of "Avengers of the New World: The History of the Haitian Revolution" and "A Colony of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804"
“This short book of just 122 pages is enchanting …a charming, evocative, thought-provoking and occasionally witty piece of travel writing in the best traditions of that genre.”
Stephen A. Royle, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, Book Review Editor of ISLAND STUDIES JOURNAL
"Imaginative. Gracefully written. Passionate. Knowledgeable. We choose to follow this particular guide because she is, of course, curious and well-informed but, more important, she is original." Helen Marie Casey, author of "Fragrance Upon His Lips" and "Inconsiderate Madness"
"The harmony is captivating and the essays reminiscent of Montaigne's comment, 'My style and my mind alike go rambling.' " -Susan Tiberghien, author of "One Year to a Writing Life, Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer's Art and Craft."
"Island Journeys is an essential addition to the existing literature of travel and place." -Michael Steinberg, Founding Editor, Fourth Genre and author of the award-winning "Still Pitching"(2003).
“In this beautiful essay, Patti M. Marxsen mixes the personal with the historical as she looks at the literal fragments of objects as well as the fragments that make up her life: 'Each divorce is its own museum...a house of fragments forever open to interpretation.' Throughout history, women’s passions have been put aside for motherly duties, and the choices each woman makes can be difficult to discuss, but Marxsen speaks honestly here, of her own memories and in sharing the response from her now grown-daughter: 'I have no memory at all of us as a family.' Marxsen insightfully reflects on her own past and the world’s history while viewing recent archeological exhibits of Gaza and ponders 'the fine line between total destruction and the possibility of reconstruction.' In this poignantly written, poetically inspired yet grounded essay, Marxsen explores the challenges of relationships, parenting, and a greater passion, as well as other discoveries in herself and what is found in the earth below. ”
— Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room (White Pine Press, 2010)
“In this beautifully wrought essay, author Patti M. Marxsen leads the reader back and forth over the centuries, from a terra cotta amphora from Gaza year 457 C.E. to present-day Gaza, and back again to the cone-shaped, cracked amphora. As she intertwines her personal story of lost love, the author knows 'the stance of hands on hips, the hollow feeling in the bodies of aging mothers.' Dust, water, and time are on her mind in this intricate archeological excavation. It is truly a fabulous read.”
— Susan Tiberghien, author of One Year to a Writing Life and Looking for Gold
“Patti Marxsen's essay 'Archaeologies' digs deep into the heart's core as skillfully as a poem. Her choice of vessel, the essay, is a wise one for the content of this work, filled as it is with such luxuriant detail of the ancient finds of Palestinian wonders interfaced with the shattered pieces of a contemporary American family. Seeing the gut-wrenching emotion of divorce through the lens of archeology makes it almost bearable to witness. Who among us has not witnessed the heartache of good people gone separate ways with children who 'don't remember' for reasons that are not our business but very much the concern of our hearts? This essay aims to heal that hurt, not only individually but communally.”
— Loretta Cobb, author of The Ocean Was Salt (2004)
Make your
own website