Marianne Murphy Zarzana
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"A Salty Sweet Nothing" in Notre Dame Magazine Online

4/24/2013

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One of my essays, "A Salty Sweet Nothing," was published in Notre Dame Magazine online yesterday. In the essay, I reveal how after 25 years of being married to Jim Zarzana, I finally gave him  what he really wanted all along.

Kerry Temple, editor of ND Magazine, and his staff do a terrific job covering not only the University but tackling the bigger issues around the globe. Check it out.
 
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Shakespeare's Twelfth Night & Reality TV at SMSU

11/5/2011

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Last night my husband Jim and I joined some friends to see SMSU's production of Shakespeare's ever-popular Twelfth Night. The play has a light tone, is accessible, and we recommend it highly. Tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 6, is the last show, a matinee at 2 p.m. Get thee to the SMSU Theatre for high-quality acting and lots of great laughs.

The 50's style costumes are terrific (bravo, Sheila Tabaka!), and the beachfront set is beautiful (bravo, Ray Oster!). 
In the Director's Note, Nadine Purvis Schmidt writes, "One thing that struck me in preparing for this production is how modern the play feels. With their colorful personalities, conflicts, pranks, and confusing love lives, many of the characters in Twelfth Night would be right at home on today's reality TV shows. The way scenes flow and are structured reminds me of film and television--scenes shift quickly and often, there are few extended monologues and there is much interaction between characters who come and go and reappear." 

Shipwrecks, survivors, gender-bending, comic sub-plots are all part of the fun. And nobody beats Will Shakespeare for snappy word-play, great dialogue, and the ability to capture our full humanity from the foolish to the arrogant to the noble. As writers we need to "fill the well," expose ourselves to the best writing whether that's in print, on the screen or on the stage. And you can't do better than Shakespeare on that score.

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A New Blog on the Block

6/1/2011

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Check out an interesting review of a top box office movie at the Marshall Independent blog forum.
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Kitchen Scraps

3/29/2011

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 Kitchen Scraps is a newly launched by-invitation online and print publication created by editor Chris Oveson for author’s “leftovers.”  

On the website www.talkingdogpress, Oveson writes, "So often, I am cooking in the kitchen and always making more than I need. Many of the best things don’t fit on the plate and go into the refrigerator only to be forgotten.  These usually end up becoming scraps for the dog." For Kitchen Scraps, "We are looking for works that didn’t quite fit in your other collections for whatever reason.  Once a year, we send out invitations to authors whose work we have been impressed with. The theme of this publication is 'there is nothing too fatty, sweet, hard, or grisly.' If you have pieces that may have been too harsh, or not 'quite right' for other editors, they will find a home here."

Oveson's first issue of Kitchen Scraps includes poems by SMSU professor emeritus Leo Dangel as well as current SMSU writing professors Susan McLean, Adrian C. Louis, David Pichaske, Anthony Neil Smith, and myself.

Many thanks to Chris Oveson, my colleague in the SMSU English Department, for creating Kitchen Scraps and for generously inviting me and other writers to submit our work. 
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Landing on Cloudy Water

2/26/2011

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I discovered a new blog yesterday that I want to share: landingoncloudywater.blogspot.com. The writer, Emily Brisse, also a Minnesotan, had been led to this blog by a Bill Holm poem, "Blizzard." I've always been fascinated by connections, how one person leads us to another, how that can happen even after the person is gone but their writing remains. Check out Emily's blog--beautiful words, photos, music and energy. 
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First Family: Abigail & John Adams

1/4/2011

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In addition to reading books of our own choosing, my husband Jim and I like to read books together out loud. It's a great way to wind down and end the day or pass the time on road trips. Currently we're reading My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. We loved the movie Julie/Julia, and that got us interested in the book. Now as we near the end of this wonderful book, we've been talking about what we'll read together next. I gave Jim a Kindle for Christmas, which he loves, and we've decided to download the new book by historian Joseph J. Ellis First Family: Abigail and John Adams. We both love history and a good love story, and with this book we'll get both.
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Not My Angels

1/2/2011

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Writer Philip Dacey recently had a set of three brilliant poems published in the Winter Issue of Fox Chase Review, an online literary journal. My husband Jim and I just watched the movie Doubt, and the images in Phil's poem "Not My Angels" connected with the Roman Catholic Church of that same era.

I love being able to hold a book or a literary magazine in my hands and turn the pages, but I also appreciate being able to access and share poems so widely online. 
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    Author

    I love to play with words. To capture moments on the page. To explore the physical and spiritual geography of what I call "fly-over country." I write from imagination, observation and my own experience of wandering in fly-over country--the literal, physical spaces of my life on the Minnesota prairie and the inner territory of the soul. 

    I teach writing at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I enjoy cooking and traveling with my husband Jim, reading, practicing yoga, playing tennis, biking, hiking and gardening.

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