Puerto Rican Voices in English: Interviews with Writers

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Description

Puerto Rican writers living in the United States and writing in English find themselves astride two cultures, two languages, and two ways of looking at life. They also find two sets of prejudice: racial, cultural, and linguistic bias in the United States; and rejection from Puerto Rican society. In this vibrant collection of interviews, Hernandez presents portraits of 14 of the most prominent Puerto Rican writers living in the United States and offers the first chance for them to speak directly about their lives and their literary tradition. Taken as a whole, the diverse experiences of these writers provide an insight into the effects of early displacement from a national culture, and how perceived prejudice and hostility can breed, in turn, either violence and hate, or a wish to excel and to communicate.

Reviews

"The choice of writers is broad and thorough, and the interviewer provides a general introduction as well as a comprehensive though schematic overview of each subject's biography and literary production....[an] essential contribution to the understanding of the genesis and development of Puerto Rican literature in English."-World Literature Today
Anyone interested in Puerto Rican studies or Latino literature in the United States will find Hernandez' text a valuable starting point.-MultiCultural Review
The choice of writers is broad and thorough, and the interviewer provides a general introduction as well as a comprehensive though schematic overview of each subject's biography and literary production....[an] essential contribution to the understanding of the genesis and development of Puerto Rican literature in English.-World Literature Today
"Anyone interested in Puerto Rican studies or Latino literature in the United States will find Hernandez' text a valuable starting point."-MultiCultural Review

Author Bio

CARMEN DOLORES HERNNDEZ is a literary critic for El Nuevo Da, San Juan's largest newspaper. She earned a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Puerto Rico where she has taught. She is author of two books in Spanish.