Re-visiting THE ART OF EXILE

"Carolyn Forche brought the traumatic to powerful witness. But her voice was not a voice like this: quiet, tender, the voice of a Salvadoran who escaped but who never escaped. Archila shows us his country’s fragile and exquisite terrain, his people’s untrammeled spirit, the wounds an immigrant hides, an LA where he comes to manhood, where he becomes a teacher, where he carries the dead & lost: Memo, Chico, his mother who could never have his safety.  They carry him, too. His poems carry us. In America he goes to the place of the forgotten and recognizes himself."

Comments stream:

“That book got a wonderful review in the magazine I edit, MultiCultural Review. After the review came in, I went out and ordered my own copy of The Art of Exile.”