Writing the Southwest

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.