by Michele Genthon | Oct 22, 2013 | MUSINGS, Traveling
GONDOLAS (Written October 2, 2013) This morning, while fixing breakfast in our apartment, I heard a gondolier singing, not an unusual occurrence in Venice, but his voice sounded like it was in the next room. I pulled back the curtains and shutters, and a gondolier was...
by Michele Genthon | Nov 8, 2012 | MUSINGS, Reflecting
There is an adage that “History is written by the winners.” This might be more precise if we added that the winners were men of means. I am in the midst of drafting a novel centering around Elena Piscopia, the first woman to receive an academic degree (in 1678)....
by Michele Genthon | Aug 29, 2012 | MUSINGS, Reflecting
One woman leads to another and all women flow in a circle. I am drafting a historical novel about Elena Piscopia, the first woman to receive an academic degree and she was on my mind when I was reading Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. When he referenced Hypatia I saw an...
by Michele Genthon | Aug 6, 2012 | MUSINGS, Reflecting
After reading about her in Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, I have been pondering the story of Hypatia. Sensing some parallels between Hypatia’s life and Elena Piscopia’s, I researched further to clarify my suspicions. Many of the facts of...
by Michele Genthon | Feb 8, 2012 | MUSINGS, Reading
The book Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life provoked my thinking about women’s stories. I read the book because I was intrigued by the title, imagining an autobiography with an imaginative twist. I was surprised to find that Mrs. Nixon was simply the...
