Writing the Southwest - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452273943 ISBN 13: 9780452273948

Publisher: Penguin, 1995

Synopsis

A region where dances for rain and prayers to the santos mix with New Age and high-tech jargon has produced some of the most exciting writing in America today. The common thread that links such writers as Edward Abbey, Tony Hillerman, Joy Harjo, Barbara Kingsolver, and Terry McMillan is an understanding of the interplay between humans and the earth. This compelling collection offers outstanding selections of contemporary Southwestern literature along with a biographical profile, a bibliography, and an original interview with each of the fourteen authors included. Here are the words of rangy Frank Waters, who at ninety-three is still the "dean of Western writers"; the rhythms of Navajo songs, in the poetry of Native American Luci Tapahonso; the political, highly charged prose of John Nichols, in his classic The Milagro Beanfield War; and the magical realism of Rudolfo Anaya, one of the founders of Chicano literature. Diverse in style and focus, the authors of the Southwest are united by a sense of place and an awareness of the heritage and textures of this multicultural, multilingual land.

About this title

Review

"This highly entertaining and instructive potluck contains excerpts from the works of fourteen of the southwest's most important writers along with their biographies and their comments on the meaning and process of writing. . . . If you can read only one book about the southwest, it should be this one. If you have any inclination to be a writer, you must read this book and listen to the CD." "David Dunaway and Sara Spurgeon offer a hybrid of biography, interview, and excerpts about fourteen Southwestern poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists in "Writing the Southwest," . . . A very worthwhile, attractive package. It is in some way a snapshot or voiceprint of the major Southwestern writers in the early 1990s, and we hear their own voices as they articulate their concerns and aspirations."

From the Inside Flap

This assemblage of interviews, bibliographies, excerpts, and criticism on fourteen of the Southwest's most important authors has been updated to provide more background material. Includes a 74-minute compact disc containing discussions with authors such as Tony Hillerman and Terry McMillan.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452273943
• ISBN 13: 9780452273948
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Dunaway David, Allen Paula, Anaya Rudolfo