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by Sarah Rafael Garcia (Editor), Monica Teresa Ortiz (Editor)
Pariahs is a book full of wild flames, of tigers, of tigers, burning bright, in the forests of the night. The construction of this book may at first glance resemble poetry, prose, nonfiction and art, but if you look and listen more closely you'll find it is more like flickering flames displaying visions from the past, present and future: tragedy lifted off headlines, lost children of our nation, violence against our queer and trans family, human beings invisible because of disabilities, success built off the backs of slaves and wrung from laborers' hands.During a brief visit to the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, there was an area set up for comments from visitors. Someone named Charles James wrote: "I hear the sounds of the dead children/We are the children of those survivors." Pariahs is also a book comprised of survivors.
These experiences force us to collaborate and create our own narratives, and build spaces for the voices whose stories are excluded or silenced. This anthology is our attempt at deconstructing silences and challenging the accepted narratives of U.S. literature. Not everyone will agree with the writings and thoughts found in these, pages but if everyone did, we would not be pariahs.
Author Biography
SARAH RAFAEL GARCIA is a writer, community educator and traveler. Since publishing Las Niñas in 2008, she founded Barrio Writers and obtained her MFA in creative writing. Her writing has been featured in Connotation Press, Label Me Latina/o, La Bloga, and LATINO Magazine, among others. She has forthcoming publications in the anthologies ContraPuntos III and Outrage. Sarah Rafael is the editor for the Barrio Writers annual anthology and the newly published Pariahs anthology.
