The latest in the Seedbank series, the debut in English of a groundbreaking Indigenous poet of the Americas. In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice, prolific contemporary poet Mikeas Sánchez explores the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico. Her paced, steely lyrics fuse cosmology, lineage, feminism, and environmental activism into a singular body of work that stands for the self and the collective in the same instant. “I am woman and I celebrate every vein,� she writes, “where I guard my ancestors’ secrets / every Zoque man’s word in my mouth / every Zoque woman’s wisdom in my spit.� How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems examines the intersection of Zoque struggles against colonialism and empire, and those of North African immigrants and refugees. Sánchez encountered the latter in Barcelona as a revelation, “spreading their white blankets on the ground / as if they’ll soon return to sea / flying the sail of the promised land / the land that became a mirage.� Other works bring us just as close to similarly imperiled relatives, ancestors, gods, and archetypal Zoque men and women that Sánchez addresses with both deeply prophetic and childlike love. Coming from the only woman to ever publish a book of poetry in Zoque and Spanish, this timely, powerful collection pairs the bilingual originals with an English translation for the first time. This book is for anyone interested in poetry as knowledge, proclaimed with both feet squarely set on ancient ground.

A story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and their partner who waits at home. Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater / Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ / La Nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos is a trilingual collection by one of the most prominent Indigenous poets in Latin America: Irma Pineda. The book consists of 36 persona poems that tell a story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and that person’s partner who waits at home, in the poet’s hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca. According to Periódico de Poesía, a journal based at UNAM (Mexico’s national university), when it was published in 2007, this book established Pineda “one of the strongest poets working in Zapotec, the [Mexican] Native language with the largest literary production.�

Inspiring stories and practical advice from Americaas most respected journalists

The countryas most prominent journalists and nonfiction authors gather each year at Harvardas Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. "Telling True Stories" presents their best adviceacovering everything from finding a good topic, to structuring narrative stories, to writing and selling your first book. More than fifty well-known writers offer their most powerful tips, including:
a[ Tom Wolfe on the emotional core of the story
a[ Gay Talese on writing about private lives
a[ Malcolm Gladwell on the limits of profiles
a[ Nora Ephron on narrative writing and screenwriters
a[ Alma Guillermoprieto on telling the story and telling the truth
a[ Dozens of Pulitzer Prizeawinning journalists from the "Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post" and more . . .

The essays contain important counsel for new and career journalists, as well as for freelance writers, radio producers, and memoirists. Packed with refreshingly candid and insightful recommendations, "Telling True Stories" will show anyone fascinated by the art of writing nonfiction how to bring people, scenes, and ideas to life on the page.

Wendy Call visited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec--the lush sliver of land connecting the Yucatan Peninsula to the rest of Mexico--for the first time in 1997. She found herself in the midst of a storied land, a place Mexicans call their country's "little waist," a place long known for its strong women, spirited marketplaces, and deep sense of independence. She also landed in the middle of a ferocious battle over plans to industrialize the region, where most people still fish, farm, and work in the forests. In the decade that followed her first visit, Call witnessed farmland being paved for new highways, oil spilling into rivers, and forests burning down. Through it all, local people fought to protect their lands and their livelihoods--and their very lives.
Call's story, "No Word for Welcome," invites readers into the homes, classrooms, storefronts, and fishing boats of the isthmus, as well as the mahogany-paneled high-rise offices of those striving to control the region. With timely and invaluable insights into the development battle, Call shows that the people who have suffered most from economic globalization have some of the clearest ideas about how we can all survive it.