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Huizache: The Biggest Little Secret in Texas
As far as literary journal subscriptions go, I only maintain three. I’m one of those writers, and for my sins I mostly miss the great early pieces of writers I come to love years later. This is...
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Voice and Chorus: Cristina Henriquez and “The Book of Unknown Americans”
I saw Cristina Henriquez read just a few weeks ago at Book Court in Brooklyn, where my poet buddy, Sally Wen Mao, took me after a long day in the city. Generally, I’m horrible at readings. I’m the guy...
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Is Chicana/o Literature Dead? (A: No, not really): A Teacher’s Ramblings
It used to be that I didn’t know what Chicana/o literature was. Sometimes I still think I don’t, which is embarrassing because I teach classes on Chicana/o lit. The dictionary definition is easy—it’s...
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The Millennial-Gen X Rift Part II: the MFA System And A Digital Latina/o...
Hector Tobar wouldn’t be the first to speculate about a contemporary Latina/o literary renaissance. That hype has been around for a long, long while. It surrounded the work of Gen X Latina/o writers...
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Half the World More: Juan Felipe Herrera and the Centering of Chicana/o Letters
Juan Felipe Herrera being named our 21st U.S. Poet Laureate is special for a few reasons. He is the first Latino U.S. Poet Laureate in history, but also an unlikely if necessary one. It’s no obscure...
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Deliberate Accidents of Discovery: The Trouble With Finding New Latina/o Writers
In an exercise of radical honesty I’ll share this with you: I almost always find great new Latina/o writing by accident. I think part of this is my pell-mell strategy of finding new books (at literary...
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The Argonauts Is A Direct Descendant Of Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera...
On my desk, Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts and Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera sit one atop the other. I didn’t plan it that way. It just sort of happened like that—I read one and then I read...
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Chicanas in Literature
For most of the last year I’ve been reading every book written by, about, or for Chicanas that I could get my hands on. I’ve been doing a Master’s Degree at Oxford and had chosen Chicana Writers as...
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“Post-Truth” is the Anti-Poetry of Our Time: Why I’m Reading Carmen Tafolla...
The humanity of Carmen Tafolla’s poetry collection, Salsa and Sonnets (Wings Press) brings me back to the year I was living in Mexico City when in 2014, forty-three Ayotzinapa students were disappeared...
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Big Picture, Small Picture: Context for Sandra Cisneros’ THE HOUSE ON MANGO...
This blog series, Big Picture, Small Picture, provides a contextual collage for a chosen piece of literature. The information here is culled from newspapers, newsreels, periodicals, and other primary...
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