“For her to have achieved more renown, I wonder if Gus would have had to be more pushy, more self-centered, more sure of herself. Or maybe she just needed to have been born a hundred years later. But she was herself, in her own time. My mother, who was a writer, had to make similar choices in her life. And I have too, trying, not always gracefully, to balance being married, having a child, and making a living with the commitment to a creative life.”
Enjoy this audio recording of “Playing for Prokofiev” by Mir Seidel from Vol. 34:2 of CALYX Journal! Buy your copy here!
Mir Seidel’s writing includes the novel The Speed of Clouds (as Miriam Seidel), and stories and essays in places including Bourbon Penn, Exquisite Corpse, Asteroid Belt Almanac, and The NY Review of Science Fiction. She’s had two operas produced with her librettos, including Violet Fire, about Nikola Tesla. She lives outside Philadelphia, PA.
3 Comments
Wonderful essay that places a difficult personal and artistic decision within its sociohistorical context and shows how it reverberates down the years and generations.
Thank you, Doug!
I loved this Miriam, and I loved your voice reading it!
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