This interview appears in TSAR Volume 8, Number 1 CM (continued from page two): I see books and print magazines as going the way of horses, which is to say, they won’t disappear, but they will become a luxury. Once we have a reading gadget on par with what the iPod has done for music (Amazon’s Kindle seems to be in the right direction) I think we could see a huge drop in the demand per capita for works printed on paper. That said, I think we’ll all be reading—devouring narrative and poetry—as much if not moreso than ever before. I think we’ll also be seeing a lot of cheap print-on-demand books and, possibly, also journals, coming directly out of vending machines. At the same time, glorious days are yet to come for the book as an art object. TSAR: How are internet and print best used to each other’s mutual benefit, or to some synergic effect? What possibilities does the Internet open up specifically for translators and translation? CM: As a writer and editor I’ve found that websites, both my own (www.cmmayo.com) and Tameme’s (www.tameme.org) have been a boon for visibility. They are also a way to add value to a given work by offering online extras, such as interviews, notes, bibliography, images, and links. The Internet has been a great help for translators in a multitude of ways. We’re more connected to each other—specifically, through e-mail and discussion groups, we’re able to ask questions of and offer advice to many more people, instantaneously. TSAR: How do you balance your vocations as editor and as writer? CM: I don’t know that I’ve achieved balance—it’s a constant learning process. TSAR: What’s next for Tameme? CM: What’s next? Another chapbook, this time from English into Spanish. TSAR: What’s next for C.M. Mayo, author? CM: A big fat historical novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, will be coming out next year with Unbridled Books. TSAR: What do you read that might surprise other people? CM: Which other people? I don’t know who, exactly, would be surprised by what I read. I can tell you that I’m big on reading blogs. I read a lot of biographies: right now, one on the Austrian economist, Schumpeter, and a memoir by comedian Steve Martin. I like to get into whatever: the sociology of doormen, handwiting analysis, the Roman Empire. Ask me next week, I’d tell you something different.
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