Writing stories culled from your travels is a dream assignment. I rarely get paid to do it! But in this case I did, and what's more, the topic is tied to the work I do as a literary translator.
For the PBS website, Next Avenue, I wrote about tiny public memorials to victims of the Holocaust and other targets of the Nazi-Fascist forces. These memorials are copper-plated cobblestones embedded in the streets of Italy, Germany and other countries. I learned about the stepping stones while researching Italian women writers -- and others -- who have borne witness to the Holocaust.
And last summer while I was in Italy, I was able to visit some of these stones in Rome, Milan and Florence.
The stones in some ways are a paradox: tiny but powerful, open to the public at all hours for free but especially poignant when you're able to do some additional research. Under foot -- which some people object to -- but also in the way, in your face, in a way that supporters like. You can't avoid this historical moment -- it's right under your foot.
(Editor's note: the Next Avenue site has been pared down because of budget shortfalls and many of the stories it once published are no longer hosted on the site. Click on 'Next Avenue' at the top of this post for a PDF of my story).
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