In Delphine Pontvieux’s new novel ETA- Estimated Time of Arrest, her main character, Lartaun, is forced to flee his native Basque Country when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Living under an assumed name in Mexico, he is given a chance to return by his childhood friend Patxi, but with a price.

Estimated Time of Arrest is a fast-paced action thriller, combining politics, romance, and the best of police dramas into one superb tale. In this interview, Delphine describes her motivations, her interactions with reknowned musician Fermin Muguruza, and her experiences in writing and self-publishing her first novel.

Mikel Morris, an American with dual US/Spanish nationality living in Zarautz, Spain, has written the definitive Basque-English dictionary and is currently working on the Morris Magnum which promises to be the largest bilingual Basque dictionary in existence.

In the first part of this interview, Mikel shared his thoughts and hard-hitting observations on
the status of the Basque language, the efforts the Basque government is making to promote Euskara, and his own tribulations in getting his dictionary published.

In this part 2, Mikel describes how difficult it has been for him to work within the Basque system, his views of the future of the Basque language and the bright spots in the current efforts to promote the Basque language, and gives an update on the status of the second edition of his Magnum dictionary.

A historian’s greatest challenge is to convey the excitement and drama of history.  This is especially true for more obscure subjects, as the reader doesn’t already come with some emotional attachment.  But this is exactly where Christine Bender excels.  By using fiction as her vehicle to explore historical events, Christine is able to delve into the hearts and minds of her subjects, imagining how they thought and felt during some of history’s most exciting and crucial times.  Using her own Basque heritage as inspiration, she focuses on the adventures of Basques during the Age of Discovery, when the world was being explored to extents previously unheard of.  Her most recent book, The Whaler’s Forge, examines that time when Basques first found the North American coast in their search for new hunting grounds.

In this interview, Christine describes how she chooses her subjects and how she puts herself into their shoes to explore both their character and the world around them, and she even gives us a glimpse of the subject of her next novel.

Eskerrik asko, Christine!

I just got a note from Roslyn Frank, a researcher into Basque prehistory. She found this podcast featuring Mikel Morris, who I recently interviewed. Thanks Roz!

Some of you may recognize the name Mikel Morris.  He has written the definitive Basque-English dictionary, the Morris Student Plus. Mikel, born in the United States, has lived in the Basque Country since 1978.  As part of his efforts to live in Euskadi, he created the Morris Academy, an English language school in Zarautz.

As a foreigner who has immersed himself in to Basque culture and Euskara, he has a unique perspective on the language. In this interview, Mikel describes his tribulations in getting his dictionary published, shares his thoughts on the Basque government’s policy regarding Euskara, and teases us with hints on his next project, the Morris Magnum, which promises to be the largest bilingual Basque dictionary yet.

Mikel is very blunt in his observations of the state of Euskara, not because he is in any way anti-Basque, but because of the opposite, because of his love for the language, because of his desire to see Euskara not only survive but thrive.

This interview is the first in a series of interviews with Mikel.