In the words of series editor Steven L. Davis, We Are Nature Defending Itself: An Anthology of Women on Bodies, Borders, and Place is “a revelation, a multicultural blend of well-known and emerging writers who come together to give nature a voice in our literature and our lives.” Not least of the many benefits to readers are its contributions from prominent Latina writers, presented here as advocates for the environment. Though this theme has long existed in Chicana literature, it has never been positioned as front and center as it is in this anthology.
Volume editor Cordelia E. Barrera also includes notable Anglo, African American, and Indigenous contributors, crafting a true cultural blend of distinctive writing that will appeal to older generations while inspiring new ones. By incorporating these border voices, this collection effectively challenges long-dominant mythologies of the American West and offers a prominent place for literatures of social justice and the environment.
The mix of poems, stories, and essays are divided into three sections: Bodies, Landscape, and Practices. Part I begins with the idea of experiencing and feeling a history of the body’s contact with landscapes and places as repositories of knowledge. Part II extends beyond particulars of private or public life to consider issues of place as sites and locations of radical action. Part III features ruminations and traditions of remembering, highlighting reciprocal relationships to the natural world that extend outward to the ways “women’s work” in and around the home shapes communal processes that reinforce continuity across time and space.
We Are Nature Defending Itself adds important new work to the growing canon of nature and borderlands writing by women of color. In turn, these new voices deepen and broaden our understanding of humanity and its relationship to the natural environment.
Contributions by: Shelley Armitage, Kimberly Blaeser, Norma E. Cantú, Sandra Cisneros, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Anel I. Flores, Christine Granados, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, María Eugenia Guerra, Lisa Lee Herrick, ire'ne lara silva, Diana López, Pat Mora, Gris Muñoz, Michelle Otero, Emmy Pérez, Petra Salazar, Sara L. Spurgeon, Carmen Tafolla, Margo Tamez, Luci Tapahonso, Laura Tohe, Naima Yael Tokunow, Krystal Monique Toney, Leeanna T. Torres, Diane Wilson, Diane Hueter Warner
