Maria Espinosa | Author

Maria Espinosa
Novelist, Translator, Poet.

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SHAMBHALA MOUNTAIN CENTER WORKSHOP

May.25.2013

FINDING YOUR VOICE: A MINDFUL WRITING RETREAT June 7 - 9 Shambhala Mountain Center, Red Feather Lakes, Colorado The act of writing can open new widows of vision. Through a combination of free writing and meditation we may be able to untangle thoughts, emotions, and memories .

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Feb.01.2009

DYING UNFINISHED

This is the story of a troubled relationship between Eleanor and her daughter, Rosa, as told through their alternating voices. At the center is their rivalry over Rosa's husband, Antonio, who acts as a catalyst on more than one level. Sex is the merely the means through which each characters seeks a far deeper psychic and emotional connection with another being, the self, and the...

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PUBLISHED: Dec.01.2002

Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew

This is a story about Marranos (also known as anusim, forced ones), secret Jews of Spain who passed as Christians. The story takes place in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Alfonso, a native of Cadiz, learns at the age of thirteen that certain members of his family have remained secretly faithful to their Jewish roots. As a young child, he had watched the Jews leave Spain...

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PUBLISHED: Sep.01.1995

Longing

Longing is a psychological novel focusing on a young woman’s dependence on her husband and finally her attempts to forge an independent life for herself and escape their unhealthy relationship. Rosa, a frail, sensitive American Jew living in Paris, marries an alcoholic expatriate from Chile and finds herself trapped in a sado-masochistic relationship. After the birth of their...

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PUBLISHED:

Lelia, by George Sand, translation

Dostoevsky called Lélia “Sand’s immense ethical quest.” It is the most self-revealing of her novels. Published in 1833, it shocked the public by advocating the same standard of morality for both sexes. She later published an expurgated version of the novel. It is the most autobiographical of her novels veiled in the story of a woman who explores asceticism as well as erotic love in...

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PUBLISHED:

Dark Plums

Dark Plums is Maria Espinosa’s exploration of a young woman’s search for love and self in Manhattan. Set in the late 1950’s, Adrianne, a young girl from Texas, wanders the city and has sex indiscriminately with strangers. Her relationship with a Cuban-American artist, Alfredo, leads to further degradation as she agrees to work as a hooker in order to support his work as a painter....

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PUBLISHED: Jan.08.1991

story of my life: the autobiography of George Sand.

More than an autobiography of an extraordinary woman, it is also the story of a century of French history as lived through the experiences and fates of three generations, the tumultuous history of the birth of modern France, and the transformation of a society.

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Maria's Latest Blogs

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May.25.2013 - 10:35 am

WRITING TO FORGIVE

My autobiographical novels LONGING and DYING UNFINISHED began as attempts to understand people whom I both loved and hated as well as to understand who I...

May.14.2013 - 7:10 pm

Memories of Mexico, Shambhala Mountain Center, and writing a first novel

A group of us had walked along a narrow path to a deserted beach near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, which in 1971 was still a village of only several thousand inhabitants. The moon...

Mar.01.2013 - 1:33 pm

mythic new mexico

MYTHIC NEW MEXICO Long ago I had a romantic vision of growing old in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. Alone in a remote cabin I would sort through my boxes of writing...

Nov.10.2012 - 9:19 pm

november in albuquerque

Gary and I have been together nearly a year now. We are living in a house on a narrow, almost hidden street near Old Town, within walking distance of several...

Comments from Maria

Jun.15.2010 - 10:09 am

In response to: "Miles Is the Name . . . Miles Archer"

shadows of the past

taking on his persona, you had me by surprise. Old San Francisco. Was Sam Spade really shot to death and buried in...

Jun.12.2010 - 10:36 am

In response to: MAZATLAN: My Favorite City Away from Home:

mazatlan

Alex, this is a wonderful article. I remember the Hotel Bel Mar and I think I ate at the outdoor restaurant you...

Mar.02.2010 - 1:09 am

In response to: The Course of Civilization: Peace! Peace! But There Has Never Been Peace in the World!

peace

the government seems to be at war with its people--ie the us/drug companies/insurance companies/banks/big corporations...

Feb.26.2010 - 9:55 pm

In response to: On Kafka's thoughts

cyber space

do you mean the mechanism of the computer or the physical body? I think of Kafka, Emily Dickinson, reclusive souls, and...

Feb.26.2010 - 9:53 pm

In response to: On Kafka's thoughts

cyber space

do you mean the mechanism of the computer or the physical body? I think of Kafka, Emily Dickinson, reclusive souls, and...

Writing

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Article: THE STILLNESS OF LOVE AND EXILE

Article: 259 LEAPS

Article: CHRONICLES OF AIR AND DREAMS

Published Reviews

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DYING UNFINISHED

Published by Soma Literary Review

Maria Espinosa arrived in San Francisco in 1964, thinking to stay only a few months. Forty years later, she was living on Capp Street and teaching ESL at City College's Mission...

Audio & Video

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Video: pen women presents maria espinosa

About Maria

MARIA ESPINOSA is a novelist, poet, and translator as well as a teacher. Her publications include four novels : Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew, Dark Plums, Longing, which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and Dying Unfinished...

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