
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 grandchildren 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.

Panel on the Borderlands

Panel on the Borderlands, held at Barnard College, New York, in September of 2011

Most recent articles

Latest articles

12 poetas, antología de nuevos peotas estadounidenses
27 October 2017, by Margaret Randall
EL RIZOMA COMO UN CAMPO DE HUESOS ROTOS
28 September 2017, by Margaret Randall

El rizoma como un campo de huesos rotos
De lúpulos a orquídeas, del jengibre a la flor santificada que llamamos alcatraz, un tallo horizontal o cuerpo de raíz se mueve bajo el suelo buscando su camino, escogiendo dónde despertará y se alzará en otro espejo multiplicador que alzamos a la historia. (...)
THE OVAL PORTRAIT by Soleida Ríos, translated by Margaret Randall
13 August 2017, by Margaret Randall

To be read in solitude
Thirty-five women undress . . . but this isn’t a striptease. The performance is open to the public, the game takes us deep. Each begins by choosing a mask. With it she spins her story and in that story her own image appears as well as the connection (always mysterious) (...)
Del pequeño Charlie Lindbergh y otros poemas
22 July 2017, by Margaret Randall

Cosas 1
Dos bebieron de esta vasija, de sus afluentes contrarios, hace diez mil estaciones. ¿Eran amantes? ¿Acusado y acusador? ¿Madre y niño?
Una pequeña espiral desértica pudiera haber señalado un manantial o un ojo de agua. Pudo haber acuñado una visión supernova.
El cabo del hacha dormía en el (...)
LA COMANDANTE MAYA
31 May 2017, by Margaret Randall

Who was Rita Valdivia? In October 2017, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara’s death in Bolivia, occasion for tributes throughout the world. Margaret Randall defies the absence of women’s stories in Che’s myth, bringing us the brilliant poetry and powerful personal history of this (...)