BOOKS
Silt: Prose Poems
This collection of prose poetry was sparked by reading the words of a 19th century US politician who claimed that Cuba should belong to the US because it was made of Mississippi River mud, which is both ridiculous and untrue. But I began to think of the real relationships between the river and the Caribbean and to write about the natural and social landscapes of that relationship. Silt was written during two residencies, many years apart, at A Studio in the Woods in New Orleans and a Fall 2018 journey down the Mississippi River with Naiomi Robles.
Silt speaks from the land and from my body, tracing the flows of water and history, from our paleo past into the dangers and hopes of the future.
Read "Rain" and other selections from Silt.
Silt speaks from the land and from my body, tracing the flows of water and history, from our paleo past into the dangers and hopes of the future.
Read "Rain" and other selections from Silt.
Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals
I am pleased to announce the publication of a revised and expanded edition of my book Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals (Duke University Press), which weaves together the insights and lessons learned over a lifetime of activism to offer a new theory of social justice, bringing clarity and hope to tangled, emotionally charged social issues in beautiful and accessible language.
"Aurora Levins Morales's work should absolutely be supported. She has an impeccable progressive and visionary politic. Her prose has the literary eloquence of a pure poetry. A necessary and timely read."— Cherríe Moraga, author of Native Country of the Heart
“A poetic, deeply personal memoir of the intellect and the soul. Aurora Levins Morales embraces genres, political movements, and spiritual awakenings to tell one multifaceted story of a life searching for justice and serenity, in community, in society, and with one's own body.”— Sarah Schulman
For more information, and to order the paperback at a 30% discount, please visit https://www.dukeupress.edu/medicine-stories and enter coupon code E19LEVMR during checkout.
"Aurora Levins Morales's work should absolutely be supported. She has an impeccable progressive and visionary politic. Her prose has the literary eloquence of a pure poetry. A necessary and timely read."— Cherríe Moraga, author of Native Country of the Heart
“A poetic, deeply personal memoir of the intellect and the soul. Aurora Levins Morales embraces genres, political movements, and spiritual awakenings to tell one multifaceted story of a life searching for justice and serenity, in community, in society, and with one's own body.”— Sarah Schulman
For more information, and to order the paperback at a 30% discount, please visit https://www.dukeupress.edu/medicine-stories and enter coupon code E19LEVMR during checkout.
Cosecha and Other Stories, with Rosario Morales
Twenty-eight years after the groundbreaking and genre-busting mother-daughter collaboration, Getting Home Alive, Palabrera Press presents a new collection of short stories, factual and fictional, by Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales. Read short excerpts from Cosecha and Other Stories.
Kindling: Writings On the Body
This collection of essays, poetry and creative prose explores the body as a site of pleasure, pain and political struggle. Disabled and chronically ill writer, historian and activist Aurora Levins Morales writes about epilepsy and stroke, the social control of dark skinned women's sexuality and the erotics of chronic fatigue, epigenetics and healing justice, community based science and what it's like to get health care in Cuba. Go here to read excerpts and reviews of Kindling.
From the back cover...
"A lifelong feminist and radical, artist and activist, storyteller and historian, Aurora Levins Morales' writing bridges the gap between the intimately personal and the global, between sensual experience and theory.
In Kindling she explores the meanings of sickness and healing, suffering and pleasure, through the story of her own body, of all our bodies, of the body of the planet.
This new collection of essays, poetry and creative prose explores the body as a site of pleasure, pain and political struggle. Disabled and chronically ill writer, historian and activist Aurora Levins Morales writes about epilepsy and stroke, the social control of dark skinned women's sexuality and the erotics of chronic fatigue, epigenetics and healing justice, community based science and what it's like to get health care in Cuba."
From the back cover...
"A lifelong feminist and radical, artist and activist, storyteller and historian, Aurora Levins Morales' writing bridges the gap between the intimately personal and the global, between sensual experience and theory.
In Kindling she explores the meanings of sickness and healing, suffering and pleasure, through the story of her own body, of all our bodies, of the body of the planet.
This new collection of essays, poetry and creative prose explores the body as a site of pleasure, pain and political struggle. Disabled and chronically ill writer, historian and activist Aurora Levins Morales writes about epilepsy and stroke, the social control of dark skinned women's sexuality and the erotics of chronic fatigue, epigenetics and healing justice, community based science and what it's like to get health care in Cuba."
Old and beautiful:
Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas
"There is no other book like Remedios. It is history, anthropology, poetry and myth; it is a song and a prayer. Aurora Levins Morales is a Jewish Latina curandera who embraces diverse legacies with passion and eloquence. In stories so beautifully told they soar off the page...she offers us remedies that heal our bodies and souls and feed the spirits of our many forgotten ancestors." Ruth Behar
"Written in passionately lyrical prose, Remedios will astonish and nourish its readers...Re-imagining women within a global sweep as they struggled through slavery, patriarchy, and poverty in Africa, europe and the Americas, Aurora Levins Morales embraces her characters in prose so delicate and fierce that it hurts." Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
Read excerpts and learn about the background research for Remedios
"Written in passionately lyrical prose, Remedios will astonish and nourish its readers...Re-imagining women within a global sweep as they struggled through slavery, patriarchy, and poverty in Africa, europe and the Americas, Aurora Levins Morales embraces her characters in prose so delicate and fierce that it hurts." Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
Read excerpts and learn about the background research for Remedios
Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios
Crafted through a seven year collective process of interviewing, writing and editing, Telling to Live gathers the voices of a diverse group of eighteen Latina feminist writers and scholars to bear witness to our own lives.
"Through coalitional politics, these women have forged feminist political stances about generating knowledge through experience. Reclaiming testimonio as a tool for understanding the complexities of Latina identity, they compare how each made the journey to become credentialed creative thinkers and writers. unleashes the clarifying power of sharing these stories." from the back cover
"Twenty years after the publication of This Bridge Called My Back, this stunning collection of writings by Latina feminists raises the stakes of collaboration across race, class, nation, and sexuality. Telling to Live challenges prevailing research practices and forges a model of deep collaboration for future generations of scholars." Angela Davis
Order from DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
"Through coalitional politics, these women have forged feminist political stances about generating knowledge through experience. Reclaiming testimonio as a tool for understanding the complexities of Latina identity, they compare how each made the journey to become credentialed creative thinkers and writers. unleashes the clarifying power of sharing these stories." from the back cover
"Twenty years after the publication of This Bridge Called My Back, this stunning collection of writings by Latina feminists raises the stakes of collaboration across race, class, nation, and sexuality. Telling to Live challenges prevailing research practices and forges a model of deep collaboration for future generations of scholars." Angela Davis
Order from DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Other books in process...
Cartas Abiertas/Open Letters
This new, bilingual collection of essays, in the form of open letters, tackles everything from the power of metaphor to the misuse of boycotts, from the banning of books to the trafficking of children, anti-Semitism in Latin America, addiction and colonialism, feminism and transphobia, the Cuban Five and the Boston Marathon bombing, why Telesur should have an English language broadcast, the legacies of Tecumseh, Muna Lee, and my long literary and political collaboration with my mother.
Filigree, A Norma Morales Mystery
The time is 1897, the last year of Spanish rule over Puerto Rico, in a society only a generation removed from slavery. Antonia Rivera, daughter of an aristocratic family, has been found dead in the street, only moments after a violent quarrel with her brother's dark skinned lover, María Luisa, knows as La Negra Malú. Malú's best friend, laundress and part time radical journalist, Norma Morales, must join forces with Malú's privileged lover Josema, to find out who really killed Antonia. The answers go deep into the roots of the small town society they thought they knew. Read sneak preview excerpts from Filigree.
Poet On Assignment
On the day after 9/11 I wrote a long protest poem called "Shema" which was broadcast on Pacifica Radio's Flashpoints and went viral. Producer Dennis Bernstein hired me to be a "poet on assignment" and write poetry commentaries on the news.
Dark of the Year
These are poems that came out of the wreckage of a marriage, my attempts to wrestle with love found and lost, to understand betrayal and solidarity in a larger context than my immediate and personal pain. It's a work still in process, but I like to let people know what I'm chewing on.
Getting Home Alive
Groundbreaking in both genre and content, this 1986 collaboration with my mother, Rosario Morales, was hailed as a landmark in US Latina/o literature, and has been widely anthologized, translated and taught. It is currently out of print, but a new edition is forthcoming.