Extranjera

This book is about Latina identity, a timely subject in today's America. The author's journey begins as she, full of love for Mexico and its culture despite her closest blood connection being her bisabuela, boards a bus. She starts out determined: "Yes foreign is a word for fear. Yes I am coming home." But then, because "it is afraid, staying in a language where you were not born," she retreats, hiding first behind we, then behind masks. But when it becomes clear that the masks are her true self, she loses her fear, and barrels ahead as I, fully committed, all the way to the end.

Story Line Press was created in 1985 by Robert McDowell and Mark Jarman, two young poets who wanted to create a home for new work that might not be published by mainstream commercial or academic presses. Story Line soon gained an international reputation as an independent-minded press that championed narrative and formal poetry, innovative anthologies, and criticism written in a public voice rather than academic style. The press also had a strong allegiance to West Coast writers. Despite its limited resources, Story Line became one of the most influential literary presses of the era publishing a mix of new and established writers including Donald Justice, Rita Dove, Christian Wiman, Donald Hall, David Mason, Amy Uyematsu, and Weldon Kees.