"Another America" is a deeply moving book of poetry that gives voice to themes ranging from resistance to violence to finding one's inner courage and strength as a woman. Kingsolver's poetry rings with a richness of language and spirit, eloquently expressing her insights and compassion as one of this century's most admired writers.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The citizens of Kingsolver's ( The Bean Trees ) other America are demonstrators whose silent vigil on the eve of Desert Storm defies the "opera of assent" to war. They are Nicaraguan peasants whose arrival at voting polls is "like a pulse," though they risk "any foreign bullet." In this first volume of poetry Kingsolver identifies with the other America's struggles so powerfully that she has her poems translated into its mother tongue--Spanish. This identification sometimes makes for strong, moving poetry. The reader shares the life sentence of emotional entrapment and betrayal that a rape victim endures when her trust, like her "kitchen knives / and other things of mine . . . have been used against me." Frequently, however, Kingsolver's representations are far less compelling. "For Sacco and Vanzetti" fails to move beyond a tearful plaint for the unjustly executed immigrants. Stylistically, too, Kingsolver is uneven, offering intriguingly detailed descriptions of a sleeper's R.E.M.s--"Your eyes swim quick strokes / in sealed wet caves"--and abstract uses of abstract terms, wishing for a day "when justice / is not a word / because it is air and we breathe it."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA-- 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. The face-to-face bilingual presentation makes for an exciting language comparison for students who speak Spanish, but the poems, charged with emotion, stand by themselves in English. Mature YAs will see how people cope under conditions of extreme poverty and danger, and will identify with the rich characterizations and profound voices full of courage and the will to survive.
-Deanna Kuhn, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
-Deanna Kuhn, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, and grew up in rural Kentucky. She counts among her most important early influences: the Bookmobile, a large family vegetable garden, the surrounding fields and woods, and parents who were tolerant of nature study but intolerant of TV.
Beginning around the age of nine, Barbara kept a journal, wrote poems and stories, and entered every essay contest she ever heard about. Her first published work, "Why We Need a New Elementary School," included an account of how the school's ceiling fell and injured her teacher. The essay was printed in the local newspaper prior to a school-bond election; the school bond passed. For her efforts Barbara won a $25 savings bond, on which she expected to live comfortably in adulthood.
After high school graduation she left Kentucky to enter DePauw University on a piano scholarship. She transferred from the music school to the college of liberal arts because of her desire to study practically everything, and graduated with a degree in biology. She spent the late 1970's in Greece, France and England seeking her fortune, but had not found it by the time her work visa expired in 1979. She then moved to Tucson, Arizona, out of curiosity to see the American southwest, and eventually pursued graduate studies in evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. After graduate school she worked as a scientific writer for the University of Arizona before becoming a freelance journalist.
Kingsolver's short fiction and poetry began to be published during the mid-1980's, along with the articles she wrote regularly for regional and national periodicals. She wrote her first novel, The Bean Trees, entirely at night, in the abundant free time made available by chronic insomnia during pregnancy. Completed just before the birth of her first child, in March 1987, the novel was published by HarperCollins the following year with a modest first printing. Widespread critical acclaim and word-of-mouth support have kept the book continuously in print since then. The Bean Trees has now been adopted into the core curriculum of high school and college literature classes across the U.S., and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
She has written eleven more books since then, including the novels Animal Dreams , Pigs in Heaven, The Poisonwood Bible, and Prodigal Summer ; a collection of short stories (Homeland ); poetry (Another America ); an oral history (Holding the Line ); two essay collections (High Tide in Tucson, Small Wonder ); a prose-poetry text accompanying the photography of Annie Griffiths Belt (Last Stand ); and most recently, her first full-length narrative non-fiction, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She has contributed to dozens of literary anthologies, and her reviews and articles have appeared in most major U.S. newspapers and magazines. Her books have earned major literary awards at home and abroad, and in 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal, our nation's highest honor for service through the arts.
In 1997 Barbara established the Bellwether Prize, awarded in even-numbered years to a first novel that exemplifies outstanding literary quality and a commitment to literature as a tool for social change.
Barbara is the mother of two daughters, Camille and Lily, and is married to Steven Hopp, a professor of environmental sciences. In 2004, after more than 25 years in Tucson, Arizona, Barbara left the southwest to return to her native terrain. She now lives with her family on a farm in southwestern Virginia where they raise free-range chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, and an enormous vegetable garden.
Beginning around the age of nine, Barbara kept a journal, wrote poems and stories, and entered every essay contest she ever heard about. Her first published work, "Why We Need a New Elementary School," included an account of how the school's ceiling fell and injured her teacher. The essay was printed in the local newspaper prior to a school-bond election; the school bond passed. For her efforts Barbara won a $25 savings bond, on which she expected to live comfortably in adulthood.
After high school graduation she left Kentucky to enter DePauw University on a piano scholarship. She transferred from the music school to the college of liberal arts because of her desire to study practically everything, and graduated with a degree in biology. She spent the late 1970's in Greece, France and England seeking her fortune, but had not found it by the time her work visa expired in 1979. She then moved to Tucson, Arizona, out of curiosity to see the American southwest, and eventually pursued graduate studies in evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. After graduate school she worked as a scientific writer for the University of Arizona before becoming a freelance journalist.
Kingsolver's short fiction and poetry began to be published during the mid-1980's, along with the articles she wrote regularly for regional and national periodicals. She wrote her first novel, The Bean Trees, entirely at night, in the abundant free time made available by chronic insomnia during pregnancy. Completed just before the birth of her first child, in March 1987, the novel was published by HarperCollins the following year with a modest first printing. Widespread critical acclaim and word-of-mouth support have kept the book continuously in print since then. The Bean Trees has now been adopted into the core curriculum of high school and college literature classes across the U.S., and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
She has written eleven more books since then, including the novels Animal Dreams , Pigs in Heaven, The Poisonwood Bible, and Prodigal Summer ; a collection of short stories (Homeland ); poetry (Another America ); an oral history (Holding the Line ); two essay collections (High Tide in Tucson, Small Wonder ); a prose-poetry text accompanying the photography of Annie Griffiths Belt (Last Stand ); and most recently, her first full-length narrative non-fiction, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She has contributed to dozens of literary anthologies, and her reviews and articles have appeared in most major U.S. newspapers and magazines. Her books have earned major literary awards at home and abroad, and in 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal, our nation's highest honor for service through the arts.
In 1997 Barbara established the Bellwether Prize, awarded in even-numbered years to a first novel that exemplifies outstanding literary quality and a commitment to literature as a tool for social change.
Barbara is the mother of two daughters, Camille and Lily, and is married to Steven Hopp, a professor of environmental sciences. In 2004, after more than 25 years in Tucson, Arizona, Barbara left the southwest to return to her native terrain. She now lives with her family on a farm in southwestern Virginia where they raise free-range chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, and an enormous vegetable garden.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Poetry,
By A Customer
This review is from: Another America / Otra América (Paperback)
Barbara Kingsolver's recent reprint of Another America: Otra America through Seal Press is easily the best poetry I have ever read. The enormously popular novelist of such titles as The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible is also an amazing poet. Another America's poems range from powerfully political, such as "Our Father Who Drowns the Birds," to intensely intimate, as in "Refuge." Yet all of the poems are tightly woven together in this collection by ribbons of feminine strength and rebellion. Kingsolver's poetic art is further magnified by the Spanish translation provided by Rebeca Cartes, and as the introduction states, "these two languages linked give birth to a third." A third language that bypases the ears, eyes, and mind, and slowly seeps into the heart of the reader. This collection of poetry will inspire all women to look at the world, and their role in the world, in a new uplifting and powerful light with the mantra, "I remain because / the potential of my body is a universe."
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh my God, what a book,
By Maura Capps (Greenville, South Carolina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Another America / Otra América (Paperback)
I am still in awe over this fabulous collection of poetry. Never have I read poetry with such passion, craft, and art. Barbara Kingsolver has truly touched my heart with her chosen words. What I would kill to have her gift. These peoms dig deep into the heart of political struggles and triumphs of central america. And as it is said, "the political is the personal." You will read these peopms and your stomach will hurt. The very center of your soul will burn. It takes a great writer to make you feel such emotions. My favorite peom, I say that even though I could never chose a favorite, was a fabulous five part poem called The Loss of My Arms and Legs. You will cry, and if you don't, you have no heart. I am sixteen and in a residential writing school and i feel like quitting now becasue I will never write a poem like This House I cannot Leave. I give my upmost respect to Ms. Kingsolver for a true work of art.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kingsolver's Most Beautiful Writing,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Another America / Otra América (Audio Cassette)
Poems are like songs. And like songs, they should be heard. Listening to Barbara Kingsolver's soothing, lilting voice recite these personal and brilliant poems in the audio version of "Another America" made a long day's drive through the desert a deep and meaningful experience.Her opening essay, outlining her take on how to call oneself a "poet" and how society judges poetry in terms of importance/relevance, was a thought provoking piece for anyone valuing poetry as an art or form of self-expression. Following the essay, her poems are presented in five sections, each separated by acoustic guitars playing with a south-of-the-border flair. Through her poetry, Kingsolver gives much of her soul. It's her most beautiful writing. It ranges from trite and funny observations, "What the Janitor Heard in the Elevator," and, one of my favorites written from the perspective of a one-year-old, "Baby Blues," which made me laugh out loud, to the raw and gritty, "Street Scenes," to the deeply moving and personal. "This House I Cannot Leave," and "Ten Forty-Four," made me shake with emotion. Through these two poems in particular, she turns horror into beauty with true grace. The collection ends with "Your Mother's Eyes," which like many, was a personal dedication. I will listen to this tape again and again and use it to share the beauty of poetry with those I love. This would make a wonderful gift for an artistic, intelligent friend. Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
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