Through rich imagery and figures of speech, poets and writers engage the reader's senses to create a vivid, layered experience.
Conversations with poets and authors often reveal deep insights into their creative processes, sources of inspiration, and life experiences that help shape their work. These discussions illustrate that writing is a challenging and intricate skill requiring determination, endurance, and openness to vulnerability. Through their work, they participate in cultural dialogues by serving as social critics, safeguarding traditions, and examining the human experience. Their engagement can vary from strong acts of protest to gentle contemplations, both mirroring and influencing the cultural environment. These interviews offer insight into the inner lives of several remarkable poets, writers, and cultural activists.
Simon Ortiz: Woven in Stone
“Indian Summer,” Vol. 1, No. 2
CAN ONE SINGLE WRITER make such an impact on a whole literary genre of writers? Simon J. Ortiz appears to have done so. By the time he published his poetry collection, A Good Journey (1977), which exemplified Ortiz’ journeys literally (he traveled throughout the country to teach and share his voice), as well as figuratively (his journey as it relates to Acoma culture), Ortiz’ role of traditional Acoma Pueblo storyteller became firmly established.
Janice Mirikitani: Revisiting the Poets of the 1960s
“Summer 1960s Special,” Vol. 3, No. 2
JANICE MIRIKITANI IS AN IMPORTANT FIGURE in the Asian American community and in the literary world. Her unique trajectory of activism — from her participation in the San Francisco State Third World Student Strike in 1968, to her current work with the Glide Foundation — has unequivocally informed her literary works. Mirikitani also helped spearhead an Asian American movement that helped to define and carve out a place for Asian American writers and their own literature, as well as promoting ways in which ethnic minorities can come together to achieve positive literary and sociocultural results.
Oscar Hijuelos: Identity, Memory & Diaspora
“What’s in a Nombre?,” Vol. 3, No. 4
THE WAYS IN WHICH CUBAN AMERICANS have been able to keep a living memory of Cuba while developing and thriving in America are both intriguing and complicated. What’s even more interesting is that Cuban American literature experienced a “boom” during the 1990s and, consequently, some of its writers have risen to national and even international prominence. Oscar Hijuelos, whose work has been noted for his rich, detailed descriptions of Cuban American life, is one of those writers.
Kimberly N. Ruffin, Driving Home The Point:
A Closer Look at African American Eco-Literature
“Spring Has Returned,” Vol. 3, No. 1
IN THE VAST REALM OF NATURE WRITING — nonfiction writing with a focus on nature and the environment – the contributions of writers of color have been overlooked. However, these points-of-view have the potential to widen the breadth of eco-criticism and environmental writings. With African-American nature writing being such a rarely noticed art form, it has come to the attention of several scholars and organizations that American culture needs to be more informed, open, and accepting of nature writing by African-Americans in the present as well as in the past. Because there have been so many Caucasian writers and poets in the Eco-literature genre, African-Americans have often felt alienated from nature, perceiving an invisible division between their culture and nature. Kimberly N. Ruffin seeks to change that.