MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Minneosta poets Diane Glancy and C. W. Truesdale about the book “Two Worlds Walking: Short Stories, Essays, and Poetry by Writers of Mixed Heritages" that they edited. Segment includes Glancy doing short readings.

Transcript:

(00:00:00) Bill and Diane good morning. Good morning. Glad you're with us. Thanks Bill. I'm gonna throw the first question to you talk about the premise of this collection.
(00:00:09) Okay. Well New Rivers has done a lot of ethnic anthologies in the past particularly with it many many Minnesota's project and this book The idea for this book grew out of some conversations that Diane and I had about the need to address a really major minority or perhaps majority because people of mixed Heritage has in this country who have had prior to this book no literary voice whatsoever that I know of have no constitute a huge number of people at least sexy, maybe even 70 percent of all Americans are come from Um at least two Bloodlines and we wanted to present a very high-quality ontology of literary expression from many many different ethnic about people of many different ethnic backgrounds. And that's what we put together here
(00:01:21) going through the book. What are the different themes that jump out at
(00:01:25) you? Oh, I think the first one that and I really wasn't aware of that this would happen. The the first one that came comes to mind from from reading so much of this material some of which is our mum much of which was published here. But some not is a question of identity that people really don't know whether they are Native American or Anglo or black or whatever Asian or you know, and what what Asian group they belong to A real question in their minds of which which group they can identify with and so the question of identity comes into many many pieces in this in this
(00:02:12) Anthology Diane is an offshoot of that identity. Do you find a lot of writers talking about the struggle with that too? Oh very definitely I think that's the theme the trend right now in writing and I had some ideas also for this Anthology and I just began writing them down. I thought Two Worlds King would be a matter of blood anyone who had parents of different races, but the theme turned many ways. I guess like any project and Two Worlds walking became an eisegesis, which is a reading of one's voice into the text and whatever came from it. We live in America The Melting Pot but we found that character and culture don't melt may be under some conditions but not ordinary life. Our strength is in our diversity, which is a theme now emerging everywhere. And then I go on to talk about these issues and the importance of finding one's voice. Did you when you talk did you have an opportunity to talk to that many authors some personally and did did you did they also personally tell you these
(00:03:14) things? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think the two of the ones that I met during the course of testing where the lease McLeod and and hide are drug court sisters. They're also sisters. Louise erdrich who's a very well-known American writer and a very good one and they were both preoccupied with these things, but they're also preoccupied with being very good writers and that wasn't so much a question of you know, presenting identity as as an issue as doing it very very well and with Ennis amazing the variety of takes you get on that side. Cameras in this
(00:04:01) collection. We were also we've been talking about the theme of identity in this book and some of the struggle around that theme but how about the celebration of that identity, which is also in the book too. We should mention that. Yes. Definitely. Hmm. Could you do me a favor Diane and read a little something for our listeners? I also think one of the strengths of this volume is a diversity in the genres themselves. There's one piece in here, which I'm not going to read all of it because it's a long prose poem is one sentence and it goes on two pages, but I'm going to give you a flavor of it. It's called democracy by WR Rodriguez. It was decided by the noisier of the people who are delegated such Powers by those who just don't give a damn that America was not such a bad place after all it being. Why and who needs heat or hot water in this weather anyway, and at night when everyone is out in the tenements don't look quite so bad and who sees them in the daytime when everyone is sleeping away the Heat and on and on it goes with that one voice.
(00:05:08) And then on the 10th the tenements by the way are in the South Bronx and he's got three books of poetry. One of which has been published a phones from his childhood experiences in the South Bronx in New York in New York city. So wonderful, poet
(00:05:28) Diane give another reading and so from the Bronx we moved to Lithuania and a man named Martin a dose who picks a folk character a Coyote trickster type of person named kooky des and he writes a series of poems on this character. Kooky describes his hat have I got a Hut with two ends. I look through the window. The sun is rising. I look through the other the sun is already setting at one end. The orchard is blossoming in the other apples are falling through one window. I see work just started through the other I see it's already rotted do one end. I brought home my bride in the other. I see she's already laid out at one end I danced with the Onions and in the other my teeth are falling out. I have a Hut with two ends in one end. I'm walking still alive while in the other aisle. I already dead. That is Diane Glenn see a reading from a new book that she's helped edit in the book is called Two Worlds walking short stories essays and poetry written by writers with mixed Heritage. Also with us Bill Truesdale bill is a poet himself and the publisher of the new Rivers, press we're talking about this new book. Did you all have any difficulty editing all these many many submissions for this collection? It must have been difficult to go through all of them and and pick out the best ones. I would
(00:06:52) think I think the hardest decision was to leave out some very very good material. There was just too much. I mean we could easily have done another Anthology on this subject.
(00:07:02) Well, you do it
(00:07:03) possibly hmm.
(00:07:05) There's such a flourishing of riding in this country. It's very hard to go through so many manuscripts and know that you have to leave some out. Is it a risky business? Sure to publish an anthology of poems and short stories by writers of mixed Heritage.
(00:07:20) Mmm no more so than any other Anthology. I mean a small press publishing is always a risky business because you know, we're very dependent on grants support and stuff like that as MPR. Yes, and but our anthologies have been doing the increasingly well, In recent years perhaps because of their unusual subject matter like this
(00:07:49) one and I think in this time of diversity and many voices and inclusion that that it is a time of risk and I'm very glad to see
(00:07:57) that but that that's exciting. I think that the very risk itself is exciting that suggested that there is an abundance of directions that our culture can go and some of them are I think very very good
(00:08:10) reaction so far to the book, how's it been
(00:08:13) very good. Very good. We had one letter from one of the contributors Tehran Massey that just really pleased me it was so it was so affirmative about the editing experience sheet at and by work pretty closely with her that on the two pieces that we used a verse and it was difficult, but I thought very rewarding and she apparently great. And wrote us. I just totally unsolicited letter saying how much he loved the book and how valuable the editorial experience was for her because a lot of a lot of commercial presses these days. We're not really doing much in the editorial aspect of things and I think editing is really
(00:09:03) important now folks want a little taste of the book. They can actually get it live and in person tomorrow night at 8 o'clock at the Loft in Minneapolis. Some of the contributors will be We'll be talking about the book and reading sections of the book. And again, it is called Two Worlds walking short stories essays and poetry by writers with mixed Heritage. Thanks to Diane glance E4 coming in and reading. Thank you Diane Diane is one of the editors. She's also the author of several books including the award-winning claiming breath and also with us build Truesdale. He is a poet another of the editors on this book and the publisher of the new Rivers press.