Poetry in Dangerous Times: Two Women, Two Worlds

Demetria Martínez and Susan Sherman will read from and discuss their new book, Poetry in Dangerous Times: Two Women, Two Worlds. This collaboration features a dialogue between the two authors, followed by their new & selected poems. Reading begins at 3 pm, with questions and book signing to follow. Books will be available for purchase, with thanks to Collected Works.

Poetry in Dangerous Times: Two Women, Two Worlds

A dialogue and new & selected poems by Demetria Martínez and Susan Sherman.

In this collaborative volume, these two women and their new & selected poems engage in dialogue about their experiences in such different eras—and the continuing power of the written word in dangerous times.

Praise for Poetry in Dangerous Times

“These are dangerous times indeed. In such times, again and again, we turn to poets like Demetria Martínez and Susan Sherman. Here are two poets who have faced dangerous times before, always with courage, patience, compassion, and eloquence. In the face of danger, they not only speak, but sing. The proof is in the pages of this unique and necessary collection, two women from two different worlds showing us our common ground, the path we must walk, illuminated by the fire in these poems, to find our common humanity, to find the way home.”

—Martín Espada, author of the National Book Award-winning Floaters and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Republic of Poetry

“Meet two women from two worlds: Demetria Martínez, a Chicana rooted in family history passed on, and Susan Sherman, a Jewish woman self-exiled from a family who wanted to forget. Martínez whispers poems down the page in images so tender it feels like being let in on a secret: ‘Dreams opening/Like the fist of an infant.’ Sherman’s is a seasoned philosopher’s voice simmered in ‘the usual detritus of Manhattan nights’ resulting in a rich stew of insights to be savored, even better the second time around. When strong/queer/activist poets craft a gift this magnificent, take it.”

—Mary Oishi, Albuquerque Poet Laureate Emerita and author of Sidewalk Cruiseship

“What are some poets doing when they're not writing poetry? As Poetry in Dangerous Times: Two Women, Two Worlds reveals, they are trying to repair the world.… Free of didacticism and slogans, these poems address a wide range of themes and passions, always deeply moving as they remind us to struggle for social justice but also to rest and remember the people and things we love and struggle for; they are enriching and engaging.”

—Irena Klepfisz, author of Her Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems 1971–2021

Susan Sherman

Poet, playwright, essayist, a founding editor of IKON magazine, Susan Sherman has had twelve plays produced off-off Broadway including an adaptation from Spanish of Pepe Carril's, Shango de Ima (Doubleday, 1971), which won eleven AUDELCO awards for a 1996 Nuyorican Poets Café revival. Publications include seven collections of poetry; a critically acclaimed memoir, America’s Child: A Woman’s Journey through the Radical Sixties (Curbstone Press, 2007) which chronicled her activist and literary life in the 1960s including the Fifth Street Women’s Building Action, the Cuban Cultural Congress of Havana (1968), and the opening of IKONbooks, a cultural and activist center. Her poetry collection The Light that Puts an End to Dreams (Wings Press, 2012) was a finalist for Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Other awards include a 2018 Acker Author’s Award, a NYFA Creative Nonfiction Literature fellowship, a NYFA Poetry fellowship, and a Puffin Foundation Grant.

Linda Hogan, author of Indios and People of the Whale, called The Light that Puts an End to Dreams...a book of commitment and witness... a giving, generous collection that reveals a world of human experience, growth and change through different times and significant historical events and Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories wrote …Susan Sherman’s poems have both urgency and elegance. The suite of poems dedicated to Sor Juana is an exquisite evocation of that poet’s fiery brilliance which is mirrored in Sherman’s own.

Bob Holman, proprietor Bowery Poetry Club, author of A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, Producer of PBS series, The United States of Poetry stated that Sherman’s poetry ...burns with truth, spreading a light that makes you see things as they are, and pushing you to do something about it.

Sherman’s memoir, America’s Child: A Woman’s Journey through the Radical Sixties received critical acclaim from the MultiCultural Review, ALA Booklist, Lambda Book Report, Kirkus, and the National Catholic Reporter among others. The New York Times Book Review wrote that …like (Carl) Oglesby, she traveled to Cuba and was deeply affected by what she saw. But Sherman tells a much more personal story. Her writing is evocative... Sherman’s subject is finding herself — discovering and accepting her love of women — and learning her art. ...Sherman’s account, like Oglesby’s, ends in 1970, but for her the experience of the women’s and gay liberation movements still lies ahead. —New York Times Book Review

Demetria Martinez

Writer, poet and activist, Demetria Martinez was born and raised in Albuquerque. She earned a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. She went on to pursue journalism, covering religion for the Albuquerque Journal and writing for the National Catholic Reporter, where she was a national news editor and a columnist.

Her widely translated novel, Mother Tongue (Ballantine), set during the Sanctuary Movement, won a Western States Book Award and received critical acclaim from Publisher’s Weekly, The Washington Post Book World, The Nation and Kirkus Reviews. The novel was inspired by her 1987 indictment on charges of conspiracy in connection with allegedly transporting Central American refugees into the United States. The U.S. government attempted to use her poem, “Nativity: For Two Salvadoran Women, 1986-1987,” against her. A jury acquitted her on First Amendment grounds.

Alice Walker called Mother Tongue, “a great beauty of a book. I am so proud of Demetria Martinez for standing with and for the disappeared.” At the invitation of novelist Manlio Argueta, Martinez spoke about her book in El Salvador, at a conference on post-war Salvadoran literature.

Her poetry collections include The Devil’s Workshop (University of Arizona Press) Breathing Between the Lines (University of Oklahoma Press), and Turning, which appeared in an anthology of three Chicana poets, Three Times A Woman (Bilingual Review Press). She is the author of a short story collection, The Block Captain’s Daughter, a recipient of the 2013 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Martinez coauthored an eBook with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, These People Want to Work: Immigration Reform. Her essay collection, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (University of Oklahoma Press) won an International Latino Book Award. She has been a recipient of the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. With Rosalee Montoya-Read, she coauthored Grandpa’s Magic Tortilla (University of New Mexico Press), which won a New Mexico Book Awards Young Readers Award. Besides reading from her work throughout the United States, she participated in the Festival Internacional de Poesía de Granada, Nicaragua, y el Festival de Libros en Guadalajara, México

In 2024, her translations of her grandfather’s corridos—which she worked on with Mexican poet Hector Contreras—appeared in the New Mexico Historical Review along with an essay about his career. Martinez lives with her wife in La Cienega, New Mexico. She facilitates writing retreats, Poetry in Dangerous Times: From Witness to Resistance, at Jules Poetry Playhouse in Placitas, New Mexico.

Copies of the book will be for sale at this event through Collected Works Bookstore!