
Margaret Randall: Photo by Juan Pérez

“Then I saw what the calling was :

it was the road I traveled”

- Muriel Rukeyser

My life and work have been profoundly informed by parents who gave me love and adventure, and encouraged creativity; the dramatic desert canyons, rich colors and open skies of the southwestern United States; Socialist ideals; the second wave of feminism; and the generous mentorship of many great friends and colleagues. My children, grandchildren, and great grandchild are always with me, even when far away; and my spouse Barbara is bedrock. New York’s abstract expressionist painters in the 1950s, Mexico and her struggles of the 1960s, the Cuban revolution’s second brave decade in the 1970s, the Vietnamese people’s struggle against US attack and occupation in that same decade, and the Sandinista attempt to change Nicaragua in the early 1980s were places and events that shaped me. The exploration of ancient sites continues to be a source of nourishment, and I have long been involved with oral tradition. I deeply believe in humanistic values, combating our culture of violence and greed, and art as a tool for change. I invite you to enter my website, learn about my books, read my poetry and look at my photographic images.

next events

Our Voices / Our Lives: Stories of Women from Central America and the Caribbean

Invasion and Resistance: Guatemalan Women Speak (fragment)
Our arrival in Guatemala City brings us up hard against a state of colloquial violence that pervades earth, air, people’s eyes. A tourist may come and go and never see it. This is clear to me much later when, meeting a friend for tea at one of the elegant hotels in Zone Ten, I watch families with matched luggage and surf boards in the lobby. But now we emerge from a couple of hours flying over land that holds the (...)

Most recent articles

Latest articles

By Chely Lima
30 April 2017, by Margaret Randall

Confused, uncertain, murky, ambiguous
No one will take notice, that much is clear. You will be confused by your body, your voice trained to sound sweet, inoffensive. But you are you are you are you: A solitary man who lives between two worlds, looks in the mirror and sees only his (...)
By Alfredo Zaldívar
30 April 2017, by Margaret Randall

THE DOG / by Goya
If I had to pick one painting at the Prado Museum The Maidens wouldn’t be my choice / too much for me.
Nor The Surrender of Breda I contemplate sitting on a bench for hours that seemed centuries.
Not even those drunken faces by Velázquez /my favorite painter, /the piece of (...)
By Laura Ruiz Montes
30 April 2017, by Margaret Randall

NUMBERS
In some other city it’s always surprising to find what we expect of this country’s nights. Surprising to find that the scent my grandmother celebrated for years still exists.
1800 isn’t only an eau de cologne. Neither is it just a number, but something refused at every border yet still (...)
THE MORNING AFTER: POETRY AND PROSE IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD
16 March 2017, by Margaret Randall

The Morning After
—To the children
It’s the morning after and the polar bear licks blood from his foot’s white fur. Ice is jagged and cuts, its islands recede to the beat of human denial. Far to the south: a dying parrot’s heart cries.
It’s the morning after and beneath the wall long scarring (...)
EXPORTING REVOLUTION: CUBA’S GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
16 March 2017, by Margaret Randall

In her new book, Exporting Revolution, Margaret Randall explores the Cuban Revolution’s impact on the outside world, tracing Cuba’s international outreach in healthcare, disaster relief, education, literature, art, liberation struggles, and sports. Randall combines personal observations and (...)