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Marianna Levine

@dascinema

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Writer and Artist-in- Residence @harpersbooks just don't tell Harper. He may demand rent.
U of Cambridge
MSt in Creative Writing ‘25

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by @dascinema

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9 days ago

20 years ago today my mother passed away. For some reason this year I’m less sad although surprised that it has been so long. I think I’m not missing her as much because I feel like she’s been around a lot. In my thoughts as I write about Hawaii based on memories from childhood. She really wanted me to pursue my creative interests and live a life she couldn’t due to a multitude of unfortunate circumstances. She was a lively storyteller, a wonderful singer who enjoyed a party and a dance. One of my favorite memories of her is the time she taught me how to watercolor. Any time she had a moment to do art projects with me and my sister was precious. I always wanted more of that but she led a busy demanding life. She was a survivor in all senses and much stronger than I realized until she was gone and I felt the lack of it. I see her much more clearly now as I am aging. I am a late bloomer and I do regret not having more time with her in my delayed maturity. She like my father is one of a kind. An outlier in her family and escape artist and true Bohemian who had to navigate a more constrained housewifey life. Her words to me as she lay dying - don’t waste time doing housework. And Harper can tell you I don’t. Love you Mami you are always in my heart. Btw my mom and I sang this song together a lot when it came out and I was very little. It rains a lot in unexpected moments in Hawaii. The sun can even be out and we’d get caught in it our way to the park or beach. Happy Memories. by @dascinema

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23 days ago

I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t finish a book. I have spent months trying to get through this book - reading it like disgusting medicine I need to take. I just don’t get it. I got through Normal People which was ok, but the people didn’t seem that normal to me. Just young and clueless which is I suppose normal! But this book- none of the characters were interesting and Rooney’s description of minor mundane details did nothing to more the story forward or deepen my understanding of the characters. Everyone seemed flat like entirely emotionless and maybe that was the point but I just have no desire to spend more time with these characters. And yet several people I respect like this book. I guess not every book is for everyone. But usually I manage to power through. On to something that doesn’t fill me with disgust and dread every time I pick it up! Sorry if I offended any of you who found this compelling willing to hear positive reviews. Maybe you’ll change my mind. by @dascinema

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a month ago

Popping up @harpersbooks in East Hampton!

ICONS NYC—ISTANBUL
KATE SCHELTER

Opening Saturday, June 13, 5-7pm.

Harper’s Books
87 Newtown Lane
East Hampton, NY

@dascinema
@demetmuftuoglueseli
@istanbul74_
@74escape
@sarahlevine1 taken in East Hampton, NY by @dascinema

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4 months ago

A life long dream has come true. I am officially a graduate of Selwyn College Cambridge. What a joy it has been to study here and meet students from all over the world - all different generations. And what a beautiful day to march through the streets of Cambridge and celebrate this hard won accomplishment. Thank you to all of those who helped me through this process. I feel very humbled and honored by this experience. And now I’m ready for the next chapter! Literally in my case. by @dascinema

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5 months ago

Celebrating what would have been my mother’s 95th birthday today. It’s almost 20 years since she passed. That’s really incomprehensible to me - that it’s been so long. Here she’s picture with her mother on the balcony of our house in Manoa just uphill from Waikiki. My mom loved Hawaii. She told me she used to listen to a program called Hawaii Calls as a girl living in East Prussia on Voice of America. A dangerous thing to do as the Nazis forbade listening to it or the BBC world service. She dreamed of one day going to Hawaii and in the end she did. Marrying a professor at the University of Hawaii. Bringing up two daughters there and eventually passing away in Manoa in 2006. Her ashes are scattered in the Pacific off the coast of her beloved Hawaii nei. Aloha ‘Oe - until we meet again. by @dascinema

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7 months ago

by @dascinema

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8 months ago

by @dascinema

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9 months ago

Homage to @tessa_lumley - I loved her Venetian vlogging and decided on day two of our Tokyo trip to vlog while waiting for Harper to finish up at a bookstore. Was so entertained and delighted by Tessa’s posts that I thought I’d try one myself. Hope you don’t mind @tessa_lumley ! by @dascinema

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9 months ago

1972 - We had just moved to Munich from Honolulu and that winter was the first time I had ever seen snow. I thought it would be soft and fluffy to the touch. It was a bit of a shock to feel how cold it was and that the cold could sting on bare skin. This picture takes me back to a very painful time in my life. I was really homesick for Hawaii, I had to sell my toys and for some reason my parents didn’t get it together to register me for school. So I was very lonely. My grandmother whom I was very close to had a stroke, my father had a job in another city a only came on weekends, and generally people were much stricter than I was used to - in Hawaii everyone loved children. In Munich I felt children were meant to be seen not heard. I actually had to wear shoes and socks and curtesy! It got better the following year when we moved to a village in Hessen. But that first Christmas in Germany wasn’t really merry for me. by @dascinema

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10 months ago

30 years ago @harpersbooks and I met at a Christmas party on Summit Ave in St Paul, MN across the street from F Scott Fitzgerald’s home. A literary start to what has often been a literary relationship. This book was the first gift I ever received from Harper. A book of Christina Rossetti sonnets since I had mentioned I liked her poems. Do any of you reading this now know that both Harper and I started out as poets? Or at least wannabe poets. Harper’s University friend @colinjosephwolfgang said, when I told him Harper had impressed me with the reciting of poems on our first dates, “You are the girl that it finally worked on!” I guess it was meant to be. We are “two poets who may have lost our words” - a poem I wrote years ago when neither of us seemed to be writing anymore, but at least we found each other! by @dascinema

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10 months ago

For those of you who read my very short story “Doll” this is the creepy clown doll that inspired it. It’s not as scary looking as my memory of it. I liked the tricycle much more. The tree isn’t bad for a Hawaiian one. Always a bit Charlie Brown’s Christmas looking on the islands. But at least caroling was much more pleasant in the warm Honolulu nights. I remember watching all those 1960s Christmas specials that featured snow along with puppets and thinking it must be lovely and soft like cotton wool. I got a shock our first winter in Germany when I stepped barefoot onto it and it wasn’t quite up to my expectations. Still not a big fan of it. Except maybe for a day or two around Christmas. Or on a holiday in the mountains. by @dascinema

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10 months ago