I've been happy with lxml.builder which would look something like this:
from lxml.builder import E
doc = (
E.author(
E.name('Terry Pratchett'),
E.genre('Fantasy/Comedy'),
E.novels(
E.novel('Small Gods', year="1992"),
E.novel('The Fifth Elephant', year="1999"),
E.novel("Guards! Guards!", year="1989"))))
