Another America/Otra America - by Barbara Kingsolver (Paperback)

About the Book

"Before becoming the bestselling author we know today, Barbara Kingsolver was a fresh college graduate who had just moved to Tucson, Arizona with hopes of open space and adventure. What she found was quite different, "another America" that she chronicled through her poetry, in which she came to share her home with refugees and committed to paper their tragic stories of life at and beyond the borderland. Interweaving past political events from the US-backed dictatorships in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, to the government surveillance carried out in the Reagan years, Kingsolver's early poetry expands into a broader examination of the racism, discrimination, and troubled immigration system she lived beside. They coalesce in a record of her emerging adulthood, in which she confronts the realization that the national myth of America she'd signed on to was a hypocrisy -- a realization that would come to shape her not only as an artist, but as a citizen. Written with a balance of clarity regarding America's shortcomings and empathy for her subjects, Another America is a luminous book of poems, a deeply moving and beautifully crafted exploration of American society and our individual place within it. As in her fiction, Kingsolver's poetry rings with a richness of language and spirit, eloquently expressing her insights with great compassion. With a new introduction from Kingsolver that reflects on the current border crisis, Another America is a striking portrait of a country separated by those with privilege, those without, and the lives that are lived in between"--

Book Synopsis

From a bestselling and beloved author, an intensely personal collection of poetry "rich with political and human resonance" (Ursula K. LeGuin)

Before becoming the bestselling author we know today, Barbara Kingsolver, as a new college graduate in search of adventure, moved to the borderlands of Tucson, Arizona. What she found, she says, was "another America."

Interweaving past political events, from the US-backed dictatorships in South America to the government surveillance carried out in the Reagan years, Kingsolver's early poetry expands into a broader examination of the racism, discrimination, and immigration system she witnessed at close range. The poems coalesce in a record of her emerging adulthood, in which she confronts the hypocrisy of the national myth of America--a confrontation that would come to shape her not only as an artist, but as a citizen. With a new introduction from Kingsolver that reflects on the current border crisis, Another America is a striking portrait of a country deeply divided between those with privilege and those without, and the lives of urgent purpose that may be carved out in between.

Review Quotes

"Barbara Kingsolver belongs in the company of such poets as Clifton, Levertov, Hogan, Forché and Rich. Her pure American voice, chorded in both the great American languages, is rich with political and human resonance."--Ursula K. LeGuin

"[Kingsolver's] poems present a vision of an underprivileged America redressed, and are, in that respect, songs of hope and longing as opposed to howls of protest and despair."--Foreword Magazine

"Each poem is a true story; with some I was moved to tears."--Isabelle Allende

"The best of American political poetry, melding emotion and analysis, daily life and national issues, voice and heart."--Booklist

"These poems made me stop mid-book, telephone a friend and brave saying the unsayable - palabras del corazón that often go unsaid."--Sanda Cisneros

"This powerful collection of poetry deals with protest against political and social repression experienced by ordinary people, particularly women, under military regimes in Central and South America during the last 20 years. Through vivid imagery and compelling messages, Kingsolver makes a passionate appeal to end the suffering of victims of revolution, oppression, and war." --School Library Journal

About the Author

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of sixteen books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction and is the recipient of the National Humanities Medal. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.