Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers

Abstract

Embracing Chicana, Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican writers and writers descended from a combined US and Latin American heritage, Latina literature is one of the fastest growing and most exciting fields in fiction. This literature is characterised by revisionist views of recent history, a concern with exile and borders, a blending of genres, and a complex understanding of the term feminist. In these ten interviews, Kevane and Heredia give writers the opportunity to talk about how they began to write, the craft of writing, the conjunction of life, art and politics, literary influences, and their goals as artists. Readers will meet Julia Alvarez, Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Rosario Ferre, Cristina Garcia, Nicholasa Mohr, Cherrie Moraga, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Esmeralda Santiago, and Helena Maria Viramontes. The writers' personal and literary journeys vividly portrayed in these interviews will enrich and enhance the readers' understanding of this exciting field. The volume also includes bibliographies of the writers' work.