
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.

This Is About Incest

THE GREEN CLOTHES HAMPERRain almost hides my mountains today. Low clouds snag the rocky skirts. Colors of rain and clouds clean everything. I speak of the rain, the clouds, the living colors of this land because it seems impossible to cut this silence with the words my grandfather was a sick and evil man posing as healer. Now I retrieve his hands and eyes his penis filling my tiny infant mouth as he forced himself into a body, mine, that still finds reason easier than feeling. This (...)

Most recent articles

Latest articles

CHE ON MY MIND
29 December 2016, by Margaret Randall

Salil Biswas did the Bengali translation of Che on My Mind, originally published in English by Duke University Press in 2013.
MONTHLY REVIEW: Bernardine Dohrn on CHE ON MY MIND
22 September 2016, by Margaret Randall

MONTHLY REVIEW, May 2014: 66.1
che on my mind Margaret Randall
Duke University Press, 2013
If you have not been thinking about Che, now you will. Our gifted poet, feminist author, and revolutionary thinker has given us a spare and ethical meditation on the lingering life and death of (...)
SEATTLE BOOK MAMA reviews ONLY THE ROAD / SOLO EL CAMINO: EIGHT DECADES OF CUBAN POETRY
22 September 2016, by Margaret Randall

Seattle Book Mama Where Books Are for Everybody!
Only the Road/Solo el Camino: Eight Decades of Cuban Poetry, by Margaret Randall, editor****
Posted on July 28, 2016 Margaret Randall is an old-school feminist and socialist, and I recognized her name when this volume of Cuban poetry became (...)
PETER McLAREN writes in Truthout about HAYDEE SANTAMARIA, CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY: SHE LED BY TRANSGRESSION
22 September 2016, by Margaret Randall

"She Led by Transgression": Margaret Randall on Cuban Feminist Haydée Santamaría Tuesday, 16 August 2016 00:00 By Peter McLaren, Truthout | Interview • • font size • Print • (Image: Duke University Press)The award-winning author and oral historian Margaret Randall first met Cuban revolutionary (...)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS revews HAYDEE SANTAMARIA, CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY: SHE LED BY TRANSGRESSION
22 September 2016, by Margaret Randall

FOREIGN AFFAIRS September/October 2015 Issue In This Review Listen, Yankee!: Why Cuba Matters Tom Hayden Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression Margaret Randall Raúl Castro and Cuba: A Military Story (Studies of the Americas) Hal Klepak Three Books on Cuba by Tom (...)