 |  | | Patricio Maya Solis |
Contributor
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as of May 19, 2012
Patricio has been influenced by the lives of extraordinary personalities such as Baudelaire, Borges, and Schopenhauer. The latter, who was floating barely alive in a fishbowl atop a dilapidated piano for two months, provided a great source of creative inspiration. Watching Schopenhauer take his last few laps around his bowl, Patricio first dreamed up turning his play The Converts, about two Mormon missionaries in LA, into a comedic novel that he is still wrestling with.
Schopenhauer was not, however, responsible for Patricio hosting late night art events at his apartment in Echo Park: he was dead by then.
After being awarded a poetry prize at Cal Sate LA, co-producing an independent Colombian feature film (El Amanecer), and being quoted as "Don Patricio" in reference to a poem about Fidel Castro he submitted to Miami’s El Nuevo Herald, he drove across country from Los Angeles to Syracuse, New York. He earned a Master’s degree from Newhouse School’s Goldring Arts Journalism program, but was not too keen on snow storms, so he quickly came back to California by way of Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas—to name a few.
Now he lives in Sonoma County, where he enjoys the empty beaches and overall epicurean culture. He is currently infatuated with Martin Parr's eye for the vulgar and King Tubby’s mixes featuring electronic beats and sounds of birds and waterfalls in the background.
Some of his recent highlights include a photography review for Nueva Luz Photographic Journal, articles in Spanish about American pop culture for Ecuador’s Saludable Light Magazine (owned by his father) and ongoing theatre reviews for Edge, San Francisco. A couple of his poems and short stories have been published in literary magazines in New York and Los Angeles.
Patricio was born in Ecuador and sometimes misses the old country to an unhealthy degree, but he can't help being an American and caring deeply about American culture and politics. He moved to California at age 12, so he does not have a Spanish accent except when he is angry, sleepy, tired or drunk.
You can read more of his work at www.mantarayglow.com
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