Things We Do Not Talk About is a natural companion to the study of Latino/a literature. In this candid, wide-ranging collection of personal essays & interviews, Daniel A. Olivas explores Latino/a literature at the dawn of the 21st century. While his essays address a broad spectrum of topics from the Mexican-American experience to the Holocaust, Olivas always returns to queries that have no easy answers-questions about writing and Chicano identity; literature; and the politics of everyday life, among others. Olivas has explored similar questions through almost a decade's worth of interviews with Latino/a authors. Olivas dives deep to discover how these authors create prose and poetry while juggling families, facing bigotry, struggling with writer's block, and deciphering a fickle publishing industry. Interviewees include:
Aaron Abeyta • Daniel Alarcón • Francisco Aragón • Gustavo Arellano • Gregg Barrios • Richard Blanco • Margo Candela • Susana Chávez-Silverman • Sandra Cisneros • Carlos E. Cortés • Carmen Giménez Smith • Ray González • Rigoberto González • Octavio González • Reyna Grande • Myriam Gurba • Rubén Martínez • Michael Luis Medrano • Aaron Michael Morales • Manuel Muñoz • Salvador Plascencia • Sam Quinoñes • Ilan Stavans • Héctor Tobar • Justin Torres • Sergio Troncoso • Luis Alberto Urrea • Helena María Viramontes
"Olivas's penetrating meditations on all facets of the life of Latino fiction writing-including his own situation as a Latino lawyer eking out a living in Los Angeles's global conundrum-dazzle! His cornucopia of incisive interviews-incorporating many of our great contemporary Latino/a poets, novelists, short story, and non-fiction authors-astound! Wide-ranging and yet laser-focused, Olivas gives us a total portrait of Latino/a letters today."
Frederick Aldama, Professor, OSU
