January 10, 2023
For the past five years, I’ve been working on a novel, The Translators, which will hopefully be finished by summer. Based on the historical Robert of Ketton and Hermann of Carinthia, it’s a story about the pursuit of hidden (and forbidden) knowledge, of love and friendship, and the kaleidoscope of spiritualities in twelfth-century Spain. The actual Robert and Hermann were both priests (the only way to get an education in those days), astronomers and mathematicians; they were both readers and writers of Arabic, which they learned while in Spain (it wasn’t “Spain” then but a series of smaller kingdoms). Robert is credited with being the first translator of the Koran into Latin. My novel takes off from what little we know of them and imagines their efforts to translate Arab science for European readers, while keeping out of view of the Church’s suspicious eyes. Much drama, much intrigue, and still literary fiction!

Maps for The Translators, drawn by A.E. Charters:

 

July 2020: My short essay, “Russian Bounty” is online in the latest issue of Politics/Letters. The piece describes the military’s response to reports that Russian intelligence offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan last year–and that the White House has done nothing about it.

 

March 2019: Once again, a residency at the great Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ireland. A good two weeks of work in the best environment for writers (and filmmakers, painters, playwrights, musicians) in the mundo!

 

December 2018: My newest story, “The President’s Ghost,” is online in the latest issue of Politics/Letters. In this issue there’s also a very fine essay by John McClure on the Spanish approach to the immigration crisis. Also my friend Jim Livingston gives the dramatic account of his entanglement with Rutgers over FB comments about whites in Harlem.

 

April 2018: Chapter One, “Learning to Fly,” of the audiobook of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter read by Rhea Galland for Beacon Publishing Group is available for listening here:

 

February 2018: Fighter Pilot’s Daughter released as an audiobook by Beacon Publishing Group. https://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Mary%20Lawlor%20Fighter%20Pilot%27s%20Daughter&filterby=field-keywords

 

January 2018: Hiking in sun and fog northeast of Gaucin (setting of Chapter 27 in Fighter Pilot’s Daughter). Happy to escape my study!

 

August-September 2017: Residency at Tyrone Guthrie Arts Centre, County Monaghan, Ireland.

 

 

October 20, 2016: An evening of conversation about writing at Arts Quest/Bethlehem Steel Stacks with Bathsheba Monk (Publisher of Blue Heron Book Works, author of Now You See It: Tales From Cokesville, Nude Walker, and the Swanson Herbinko “Dead” series), Bruce Boyer (formerly Men’s Fashion columnist for Town and Country and The New York Times and author of True Style, Gary Cooper, Rebel Style and other works of men’s fashion history), and John McClure (Prof. Emeritus of English, Rutgers New Brunswick and author of Kipling and Conrad: The Colonial Fiction, Late Imperial Romance, and Partial Faiths: Fiction in the Age of Morrison and Pynchon and of essays on the Spanish political scene at Politics/Letters (http://politicsslashletters.org). Great questions from the audience!

 

 

September 2016: Residency at Tyrone Guthrie Arts Centre, County Monaghan, Ireland

February 10, 2016: Interview on Talk Radio Europe, San Pedro Spain, with Selina MacKenzie, 1:30 pm Central European Time: http://www.talkradioeurope.net/

 

January 7, 2016: Interview for paperback edition of FPD at As The Page Turns: http://www.asthepageturns.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/talking-books-with-mary-lawlor-author.html

 

December 5, 2015:

 

August 31, 2015: Paperback edition of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter is finally available!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2aZm8p9

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/2cf8ZHB

Rowman & Littlefield: http://bit.ly/2fLxFde

 

July 27, 2015: A piece about the reception of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter and an excerpt from the Paris, May ’68 chapters appear in July 2015 issues of Politics/Letters http://politicsslashletters.org/2015/07/fighter-pilots-daughter/

 

March 1, 2015: First printing of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War has sold out! The book will be issued in paperback in July! Very happy about this.

 

November 21, 2014: Interview with Eric Cocks on WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport, CT. (See Fighter Pilot’s Daughter page for the recording.)

 

October 2, 2014: Visit to Acoma Pueblo (setting of Chapter 4 in Public Native America, “Keeping History at Acoma Pueblo”)

 

June 24, 2014: Reading from Fighter Pilot’s Daughter at Spanish-American Naval Station, Rota, Spain. A short piece about the reading appeared in the Rota Coastline

May 12, 2014: Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations, which I’ve been attending every spring since its founding in 2000. It’s been an important annual event in my life as a teacher of Native American Studies. See more photos on Photos page. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/

 

April 23, 2014: Lecture on Indigenous Issues and a reading from Fighter Pilot’s Daughter at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany). Great faculty hosts and graduate students in American Studies and Life Writing.

 

March 3, 2014 pm: Interview on WDIY with George Miller and Kate Scuffle
http://wdiy.org/post/local-author-mary-lawlor-arts-salon

 

January 5, 2014 am: Interview on WBZ Radio Boston with Jordan Rich

 

December 9, 2013 pm: Interview on WDIY Radio with George Miller and Kate Scuffle
http://wdiy.org/post/local-author-mary-lawlor-arts-salon

 

November 20, 2013 pm: Reading from Fighter Pilot’s Daughter at Muhlenberg College, Seegers Union.

November 9, 2013 Interview on Veterans Radio. http://veteransradio.net/wp-content/uploads/audio_archives/VRP110913-1.mp3
(discussion of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter begins about 10 minutes into the program)

 

October 10, 2013: Reception for publication of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War at Muhlenberg College.