I'LL BE ON THE RADIO TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13th

RADIO INTERVIEW! First of all, I want to tell everyone that tomorrow, on Wednesday, May 13, from 8 am to 9 am (EASTERN STANDARD TIME), I will be speaking about Mira's List on an indie radio station in Western Massachusetts called Valley Free Radio. The show is called "Mo Radio" and I will be informally chatting about the blog, opportunities for artists and other related info. Tune in at 103.3 FM if you are in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley, or stream it live at www.valleyfreeradio.org OR check back on Mira's List in a week or so, sooner or later, and I will have it posted as a downloadable MP3 file. You can also check the radio station a couple days after the show is aired as there should be a link to the podcast (filed at the link under “Mo Radio” at right.) For more info about the interview and me, go to Mo Ringey's blog called Benign Girl. And just so you know, you radio fans, down the road, I will be doing interviews with artists and writers, etc. who have gone to residencies and get their feedback and their stories as well as interviews with residency and grant foundation directors. With my partner, musician and music producer, Doug Plavin, we are setting up a production company called North of Radio (website to come) that will help facilitate podcasts on this blog.

On another note, have I told you lately how much I love doing this blog? Well, I do. Today in my mailbox were letters from artists from as far away as India, the Netherlands, the UK and elsewhere. Not to mention those of you who posted thank-you's and great questions and requests on my Calling All Artists post where I ask (and still asking) everyone to tell me how you found this blog and tell me what you are looking for in terms of a grant, fellowship or residency. Essentially: What is Your Dream? Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you for visiting this site, passing on the word, and providing me with such great feedback. I will develop an FAQ link in the future, it's just that I'm on deadline with my book right now. I am in the process of reading and compiling everyone's comments and questions that I have received from that posting and also privately from emails and will, over time, try to answer all your questions. (By the way, also check out an earlier question and answer post. You might find a couple questions you have answered there. You can also go to the sidebar at the right and look for the label "question and answer forum" for more Q and A's on MFA programs, residencies, grants, etc). I'll answer a couple easy questions right now and then do more over time...

Q: When you post grant opportunities, are those for U.S. citizens only?
A: Excellent question. It's only recently that I have realized that I not only have artists from the U.S. visiting my site but artists from all over the world. I would say that just about 100 percent of the residencies I post are for international artists, however, the grants are mostly for U.S. citizens, only because that is my largest audience and also, it is an area that I know pretty well. I spend so much time as it is doing research and compiling what I know and keeping up with deadlines, all for gratis (yes, please donate! Please buy books on my site, and more are coming soon!) that I simply can't do it all. That said, I will A. keep a look-out for grants that are also for non-US citizens and B. try to tell you when I know that a grant I'm posting IS for all citizens EVERYWHERE. I hope I find more of those and I promise that I will do the best I can to seek them out, given my limited resources and time.

Q: Where can I find your own art and/or writing?
A: Well, the thing is that I really didn't plan for this blog to be the Mira Show and had no intention of ever posting my art or books since this blog is really about YOU and furthering your dreams. But so many people have been asking me, which is a surprise, that I thought I better answer that question. Here goes:

I was a visual artist for many years and had a gallery in NYC (and exhibited across the US and some places in Europe). These were the years before the digital world took off so a lot of that work is not scanned (yet). Anyway, I showed mostly egg tempera paintings, drawings and artists' books. Also, some experimental short films. But in the mid-90s, I began to write more seriously and started publishing. I started out writing books for children on various cultures (I might start selling those on this site soon so keep an eye open for that), then essays and articles in literary magazines, and now I have just finished my first book for adults, an illustrated memoir called The Memory Palace. You can't find it yet as it is going to be sent out by my agent next month. I'll keep you posted about what happens.

If all goes well, the book should be in stores within the year or so. When it comes out (which will have a lot of my art in it by the way, new and old), there will be a website set up for the book and I'll post a link on my sidebar. I'm not posting any of my art anywhere on the web right now as a lot of it is going into my book and I just don't want to mess around with copyright issues before the book is out. And I don't have a website for my art because I have been mostly writing these past few years. You can look at my professional bio on the right-hand side bar for some of the places I have published. Thanks for your interest in my own work. I didn't expect that at all.

Keep on working hard, keep on applying, and when you get rejected (if you do), use the rejection form to create a collage, a poem or the bull's eye for your dart board. Cheers all, Mira

CALLING ALL ARTISTS, WRITERS, COMPOSERS, MUSICIANS, DANCERS, etc.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT: So I have been getting wonderful messages from people all over the world, thanking me for this blog, people from as far away as Ghana, Hungary, Sweden, and Brazil. I know I need to set up a poll to find out where the heck you guys are finding this site but until I do that, I kind of prefer the more personal approach, which is to: A. ask you how you found this blog and B: ask you to leave a comment below about what it is in particular you are looking for (a grant to travel to West Africa, for instance, or you are an emerging painter looking for a fellowship to study in Italy for a year or you are a mid-career writer who wants to just write poetry for a month, or you are a composer who just lost his job and needs emergency funding, etc.). I will read everything I get and store it into my wee brain for future postings.

As most of you know, I do this for free and am currently unemployed (let's hope I get a big advance on my book...soon to be sent out to publishers!) so I can't promise immediate action on your requests but anything you tell me will help shape the evolution of this blog so I can serve you better. And knowing where you are all finding me will help me in the future when I try to actually sit down and make an effort to be visible on search engines. I'm just trying to keep up with posting right now. Anyway, I am hoping that down the road, perhaps MFA programs or low-residency programs will want to advertise on my site so that can help it keep going. And I promise I will never put any flashing annoying pop-up ads on it, ever! That is one of the reasons I created this site. I cannot stand those hard-to-navigate-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink flashy arts websites that not only are impossible to read but they also charge money. I never want to charge for this site if I can help it. So please, if you have a second, tell me where you found me in a brief message and let me know if you are looking for anything in particular. Here at Mira's List, we live to serve. Well. We also live for art, dogs, music, food, graphic novels, baby animals, love, dreams, and the luminous sea. Cheers y'all. Mira