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Another America / Otra America
@2ndlead = Nature photography at its most mind boggling and immaculate; pure artistry that will leave you spellbound @2ndcola = Expensive, but amazing value if you feel the weight of the book! @2ndcola = Chronicles the colourful, often mystical quality of ancient trees, rock formations, cave paintings, seascapes, ruins and botany of the North American continent @2ndcola = Will remind readers of Andy Galdsworthy's natural art work @BREAK = ADDITIONAL @Body text = David Muench, one of America's most outstanding photographers, presents a vision of the pre-Colombian American wilderness, showing how the natural world has played a significant role in the shaping of the national character. Eight themed chapters of colourful, mystical, and sometimes surreal images portray the ancient soul of nature as it is found throughout a sunburst hitting the clouds above a desert ruin, a steaming volcanic crater surrounded with snow, moonlight reflected in icy blue northern waters, a mountain range struck by vibrant lightning bolts. Anthropologist Brian Fagan puts Muench's work in context, while Patrick O'Dowd and Karen Zinsheimer provide an in-depth interview with the phot
103 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
35 people are currently reading
4371 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Kingsolver
80 books28.5k followersBarbara Ellen Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments.
Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011 and the National Humanities Medal. After winning for The Lacuna in 2010 and Demon Copperhead in 2023, Kingsolver became the first author to win the Women's Prize for Fiction twice. Since 1993, each one of her book titles have been on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Kingsolver was raised in rural Kentucky, lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood, and she currently lives in Appalachia. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. In 2000, the politically progressive Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change".
Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011 and the National Humanities Medal. After winning for The Lacuna in 2010 and Demon Copperhead in 2023, Kingsolver became the first author to win the Women's Prize for Fiction twice. Since 1993, each one of her book titles have been on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Kingsolver was raised in rural Kentucky, lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood, and she currently lives in Appalachia. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. In 2000, the politically progressive Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
August 7, 2013
I did not know that Barbara Kingsolver was a poet, and was delighted to encounter this book which address both personal and political stories with the power to change our lives. As Margaret Randall says in her introduction, "we will read them to ourselves and to our children, quietly and aloud, as anthems to a possible future as well as memories of a past that is not dead. We will read them in English and Rebeca Cartes' Spanish-- because these two languages linked give birth to a third”. Kingsolver also prefaces the five sections of this slim volume with an introduction that touches the core of what it is to write poetry. Unlike prose, it is not something you make happen, but rather something that happens to the poet. Her questions remind us of the contradictions that surround us; her poems recreate language to express "the voice that lives and sings in this time of failure, in a world based in greed".
Several weeks ago, I was involved in a discussion about anger and its place in poetry. There is no ready-made answer or "one-size-fits all" poem out there to address all that we can be angry about. However, Kingsolver provides the reader with a voice that is neither rant, nor self-pitying, neither filled with rage nor bitterness about injustice, but rather, a light, that contains "howl, cry, laugh" all at once.
Here is a poet who will demonstrate the power of line breaks, irony, paradox and layered meaning to twist away any callous defense against the contradictions of the human condition. Take "For Richard After All". The title will not tell you what "after all" means... nor spoil the fact that by the end of the poem, you will have a sense of at least three meanings of it.
The first line breaks "after all/these years" allowing different associations with “after all”. I first think of how we excuse our indifference, lack of action, "but that's not my problem, I have important things to do for me" – but then the poem allows the reader to see Richard, “after all” the others like him, who have died, and the value of each life,
each person to be "read with care, to the end, like/borrowed books".
You will read about the Nicaraguans killed by the Contras between 1980-1990 with the title, "Our Father Who Drowns the Birds". There are references to Ecclesiastes, and to the environment for all creatures and skillful handling of paradox: the "old grudges/fall, one by one,/on the roof of your house/sounding so much alike/they lull your babies to sleep.
Starting with "Beating Time" commemorating the removal of poetry as a requirement in Arizona's schools, the collection ends with "Your Mother's Eyes", which pays tribute to a daughter conceived by rape, but once born (since seed never remains what it was) allows the bells to ring with the promise of kindness, "the oldest/ kind of tomorrow".
To quote the excerpt from Animal Dreams on her website, “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”
Several weeks ago, I was involved in a discussion about anger and its place in poetry. There is no ready-made answer or "one-size-fits all" poem out there to address all that we can be angry about. However, Kingsolver provides the reader with a voice that is neither rant, nor self-pitying, neither filled with rage nor bitterness about injustice, but rather, a light, that contains "howl, cry, laugh" all at once.
Here is a poet who will demonstrate the power of line breaks, irony, paradox and layered meaning to twist away any callous defense against the contradictions of the human condition. Take "For Richard After All". The title will not tell you what "after all" means... nor spoil the fact that by the end of the poem, you will have a sense of at least three meanings of it.
The first line breaks "after all/these years" allowing different associations with “after all”. I first think of how we excuse our indifference, lack of action, "but that's not my problem, I have important things to do for me" – but then the poem allows the reader to see Richard, “after all” the others like him, who have died, and the value of each life,
each person to be "read with care, to the end, like/borrowed books".
You will read about the Nicaraguans killed by the Contras between 1980-1990 with the title, "Our Father Who Drowns the Birds". There are references to Ecclesiastes, and to the environment for all creatures and skillful handling of paradox: the "old grudges/fall, one by one,/on the roof of your house/sounding so much alike/they lull your babies to sleep.
Starting with "Beating Time" commemorating the removal of poetry as a requirement in Arizona's schools, the collection ends with "Your Mother's Eyes", which pays tribute to a daughter conceived by rape, but once born (since seed never remains what it was) allows the bells to ring with the promise of kindness, "the oldest/ kind of tomorrow".
To quote the excerpt from Animal Dreams on her website, “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”
May 30, 2017
I've always struggled with poetry, but I love her fictional works so much that I wanted to attempt her poetry as well. I still struggled, but there were portions from numerous poems that made me stop and contemplate my immediate connection to them. That alone makes me, an admittedly unskilled poetry reader, really appreciate this work.
March 10, 2024
I did not know Kingsolver wrote poetry until recently, and unsurprisingly, she’s wonderful in this format. Themes in her novels are present here, but more distilled. Standouts are 10:44, what the janitor heard in the elevator, reveille, the house I cannot leave, and family secrets.
July 29, 2017
I'm a huge Kingsolver fan, but reading this collection I couldn't shake the feeling that her brand of revelations comes across better in prose. Maybe that's because I'd already read her novels and essay collections that dealt with the themes in this poetry collection, and found them more moving the first time. There are 5 sections in here (with poems mostly about war, parenting, personal/national trauma, and social justice), and the 4th section ("The Believers") really stood out as the one that meshed most beautifully with the poetry form. Those were the pages I read and thought, "I can see why she couldn't have captured this feeling as well in an essay." If you're not a poetry person, you can skip this one, but if you are then I think this is a great way to get into Kingsolver's work.
January 7, 2022
This is a tough book to read, a tough book to give a rating to. Did I like it? No, not exactly. It is dark and disturbing at many points with poems on war, torture, rape, etc. Do I think it is important book? Yes. The best way I can describe this book is if Margaret Atwood and BloodAxe publishers created a group project, it would be this. I commend the author for her strength.
June 2, 2024
why is barbara's poetry so slept on?
October 5, 2024
Some moving poems in this collection.
January 7, 2023
Deep beautiful and true are all of these poems. Even when I do not know the exact stories, or do not know contexts, Kingsolver’s words echo in my head and leave me thinking, feeling.
May 27, 2019
Margaret Atwood is a novelist and poet who also writes essays on occasion. Ron Rash is an equally and highly skilled writer of fiction, short stories and poetry. Joyce Carol Oates is an amazing writer in many genres. Her short stories and novels are equally good, but her poetry disappoints me. I'm afraid that this collection of poetry by Barbara Kingsolver is also disappointing. Kingsolver writes beautiful novels, excellent short stories, and great nonfiction. But her poetry fails to move me. Don't get me wrong, I love socially conscious and anti-war poems. I just don't love these.
The ones about rape are powerful and put me right in the shoes of the narrators. But many of the ones about war torn countries, primarily in South America, fail to elicit the emotion that other poems about war and injustice do. Atwood has written searing indictments of torture and brutality inflicted on prisoners of war. She also writes about the missing, those whom war has obliterated. Kingsolver poems are prosaic at worst and thought provoking at best, but they lack the emotional pull that I expect from her based on her rich, moving novels and short stories. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
The ones about rape are powerful and put me right in the shoes of the narrators. But many of the ones about war torn countries, primarily in South America, fail to elicit the emotion that other poems about war and injustice do. Atwood has written searing indictments of torture and brutality inflicted on prisoners of war. She also writes about the missing, those whom war has obliterated. Kingsolver poems are prosaic at worst and thought provoking at best, but they lack the emotional pull that I expect from her based on her rich, moving novels and short stories. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
January 16, 2009
One of the most powerful books of poetry I've read. What more to say? Not for the faint of heart, though--some of them had me in tears, but they said what needed to be said. Especially "Your Mother's Eyes"--last poem of the volume written to a young woman who was born as a result of rape. Whew.
December 7, 2020
I have read this book twice. I found myself in thrall after the first reading, her poetry stayed with me for years. After this second reading, I found myself amazed at how fresh it was, how relevant to our days and times. I had forgotten so much; I just remembered the beauty of her writing. This time I saw for the first time again the pain, the blood, but still, the beauty.
This book speaks of love, of tenderness, of cruelty, of loss. This book speaks of life in all its beauty and its grit, and does so with a poetic elegance accessible to anyone who reads it.
Although I do not speak Spanish, I enjoyed having the left-hand page in Spanish, and the right hand page in English. Someday maybe I’ll learn Spanish, and then I can read all the even numbered pages.
This time through, I read it in conjunction with another book of poems, also with a great deal of Spanish, but within the poems, Songs Older Than Any Known Singer —by John Phillip Santos. The books blended and complemented each other as if they had been written one for the other.
This book speaks of love, of tenderness, of cruelty, of loss. This book speaks of life in all its beauty and its grit, and does so with a poetic elegance accessible to anyone who reads it.
Although I do not speak Spanish, I enjoyed having the left-hand page in Spanish, and the right hand page in English. Someday maybe I’ll learn Spanish, and then I can read all the even numbered pages.
This time through, I read it in conjunction with another book of poems, also with a great deal of Spanish, but within the poems, Songs Older Than Any Known Singer —by John Phillip Santos. The books blended and complemented each other as if they had been written one for the other.
February 16, 2024
Going back to the time I read The Bean Trees in the mid 1990s, and having read every novel, short story collection, and essay collection Barbara Kingsolver has written and published since then, I am an almost reverent admirer of her skill with words.
There is much to be admired in this collection of poetry, her first published book in 1992, reissued in 2022 with a new introduction by the author giving comments regarding our current southern border crisis. Thought-provoking, heartbreaking, sometimes shocking, these poems address issues of social justice in ways that narrative writing cannot. It takes a bit of brainwork to understand the imagery, what’s being alluded to, what exactly is she saying? And well worth the effort. This is a book to be savored slowly. I read it over five days and intend to reread at a much slower pace.
There is much to be admired in this collection of poetry, her first published book in 1992, reissued in 2022 with a new introduction by the author giving comments regarding our current southern border crisis. Thought-provoking, heartbreaking, sometimes shocking, these poems address issues of social justice in ways that narrative writing cannot. It takes a bit of brainwork to understand the imagery, what’s being alluded to, what exactly is she saying? And well worth the effort. This is a book to be savored slowly. I read it over five days and intend to reread at a much slower pace.
August 14, 2024
While I love Barbara Kingsolver's novels, I found this book of poetry difficult to "interpret". The poems were powerful but for many, I was uncertain or did not know exactly what they were referring to. That said, I have two favorite poems from this book of poetry:
**In Section IV - The Believers, the poem "Babyblues" dedicated "for Lily on the verge" and
**In Section V - The Patrioet's, the poem "Our Father Who Drowns The Birds", written "in memory of Nicaraguans killed by the Contras (1980 - 1990)".
The poetry in this book continue to be relevant as war and power struggles continue in the present.
**In Section IV - The Believers, the poem "Babyblues" dedicated "for Lily on the verge" and
**In Section V - The Patrioet's, the poem "Our Father Who Drowns The Birds", written "in memory of Nicaraguans killed by the Contras (1980 - 1990)".
The poetry in this book continue to be relevant as war and power struggles continue in the present.
February 23, 2022
This book is a collection of poems about “Another America,” that is different for those with privilege than for those who don’t. Each poem tells a story and examines racism and discrimination that the author witnessed at a close range.
Overall, this is a good poetry book to read over several sittings. The poems themselves are powerful and each able to tell a unique story. This is a book that I would like to read again and would recommend to poetry readers.
Overall, this is a good poetry book to read over several sittings. The poems themselves are powerful and each able to tell a unique story. This is a book that I would like to read again and would recommend to poetry readers.
February 27, 2022
Kingsolver and translator Cartes present a bilingual collection of poetry, written by Kingsolver during her time living in Tucson, Arizona after graduating from college.
To me, the most striking part of the book was the new introduction which contextualized the volume in the 2020s (it was originally published in 1998). As someone who moved to Arizona after college and experienced the different world that existed there, it really resonated with me. Some of the poems also resonated but many seemed too person and just didn't strike for me. I did love that all the poems exist in both English and Spanish side-by-side in the book.
Thanks to Seal Press and #netgalley for a copy of this book!
To me, the most striking part of the book was the new introduction which contextualized the volume in the 2020s (it was originally published in 1998). As someone who moved to Arizona after college and experienced the different world that existed there, it really resonated with me. Some of the poems also resonated but many seemed too person and just didn't strike for me. I did love that all the poems exist in both English and Spanish side-by-side in the book.
Thanks to Seal Press and #netgalley for a copy of this book!
January 16, 2022
This was interesting because it was a Spanish translation of a previously published poems. So each poem is listed in both Spanish and English as well as the intro section. But oddly that leaves about 50 pages of actual content (x2 for the translation) and then the English and Spanish translation of the introduction. It was just extremely short for a book collection.
May 13, 2023
Loved it! Kingsolver is as talented a poet as she is a novelist. Beautifully written and full of resonant meaning.
Some personal favourite poems for future reference :
• Apotheosis
• What the Janitor Heard in the Elevator
• For Richard After All
• Babyblues
• Ten Forty-Four
• This House I cannot leave
A lot of deep sadness in this collection, but also resilience and beauty and hope.
Some personal favourite poems for future reference :
• Apotheosis
• What the Janitor Heard in the Elevator
• For Richard After All
• Babyblues
• Ten Forty-Four
• This House I cannot leave
A lot of deep sadness in this collection, but also resilience and beauty and hope.
August 8, 2023
I couldn't finish this. Not because of bad quality of writing, but because of good quality. I felt too much, and when I realized the heavy, aching topics she was covering--although important!--were making me dread opening the book every evening, I decided it was time to put the book down. Well done, Barbara. But as a collection, I can't do it.
April 25, 2022
I recently read her newest poetry book. This was her very first book. Her talent was onvious then, as now. The subject matter as relevant now as then. She can fit the horrors of authoritarianism into poetry to bring such touching clarity.
December 6, 2022
This bilingual poetry book was originally published in 1992, though the 2022 edition I read had a new forward by Kingsolver explaining some of the differences that thirty years has made though the immigrant issue is still a big ongoing concern.
August 15, 2025
Worth reading. The introductions of the 2021 edition especially. These did not speak to me as much as her other works, but I am happy to see her as a younger writer. Great subjects; these just did not speak to me as I read.
December 17, 2019
A fine collection of poems based on Kingsolver's experiences in Arizona.
December 16, 2020
Kingslover writes a powerful book.
February 17, 2022
Considering this was first published in 1992, it’s amazing (and depressing) how relevant these themes remain today.
November 3, 2022
3 and 1/2 stars.
December 12, 2023
I think I would appreciate these poems more If I were an avid or good poetry reader
September 3, 2024
I'm not a huge poetry person but I do love Kingsolver. A couple of really lovely poems, even for somebody that's not in love with poetry!
May 9, 2025
A reminder to myself that the economy required of good poems renders the beauty and brutality of the human experience with shocking precision. I need to sit on a few of these for a bit. 💕
May 15, 2021
I love Barbara Kingsolver. She definitely has a way with words. But somehow I like her prose better. I liked the Spanish translations of the poems, I liked the flow of words and images, but these poems were a little too raw and angry for me. That impression may have something to do with the fact that I read many of them with my 2-year-old beside me asking me to read them to him. He seemed to enjoy the cadence of the words, but sometimes I had to stop reading just in case he was capturing the images! Really my favorite part of the book was the introduction. Here's my two favorite quotes:
"Most great poets are more like me, and more like you, than not. They raise children and chop onions, they suffer and rejoice, they feel blessed by any poem they can still remember at the end of the day."
"One afternoon lately, while my one-year-old stood on a chair reciting the poems she seems to have brought with her onto this planet, I heard the news that our state board of education was dropping the poetry requirement from our schools. The secretary of education explained that it takes too much time to teach children poetry, when they are harder pressed than ever to master the essentials of the curriculum." He said that we have to take a good, hard look at what is essential, and what is superfluous.
'Superfluous,' I said to the radio.
'Math path boo!" said my child, undaunted by her new outlaw status. This one was not going to get away. I threw down my dishtowel, swept the baby off her podium, and carried her under my arm as we stalked off to find a pencil. In my opinion, when you find yourself laughing and crying both at once, that is the time to write a poem. Probably, it's the only honest living there is."
I love that. I love it that she's a real person with kids and I love that description of the emotional overflowing that incites us to write poetry.
"Most great poets are more like me, and more like you, than not. They raise children and chop onions, they suffer and rejoice, they feel blessed by any poem they can still remember at the end of the day."
"One afternoon lately, while my one-year-old stood on a chair reciting the poems she seems to have brought with her onto this planet, I heard the news that our state board of education was dropping the poetry requirement from our schools. The secretary of education explained that it takes too much time to teach children poetry, when they are harder pressed than ever to master the essentials of the curriculum." He said that we have to take a good, hard look at what is essential, and what is superfluous.
'Superfluous,' I said to the radio.
'Math path boo!" said my child, undaunted by her new outlaw status. This one was not going to get away. I threw down my dishtowel, swept the baby off her podium, and carried her under my arm as we stalked off to find a pencil. In my opinion, when you find yourself laughing and crying both at once, that is the time to write a poem. Probably, it's the only honest living there is."
I love that. I love it that she's a real person with kids and I love that description of the emotional overflowing that incites us to write poetry.
May 21, 2008
Kingsolver's poetic themes range from dealing with war, man's inhumanity to man, abuse, and rape to family and human rights. She tends to be quite political...but not offensively so. I especially like "Middle Daughters," which she read outloud at the American Library Association conference in SLC, "Deadline" and "The Loss of My Arms and Legs." My copy of the book is signed by Kingsolver.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews