{"product_id":"immigrants-in-our-own-land-and-selected-early-poems-9780811211451","title":"Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems","description":"\u003cem\u003eImmigrants in Our Own Land \u0026amp; Selected Early Poems\u003c\/em\u003e is a new, expanded edition of Jimmy Santiago Baca's best-selling first book of poetry (originally published by Louisiana State University Press in 1979). A number of poems from early, now unavailable chapbooks have also been included so that the reader can at last have an overview of Baca's remarkable literary development. The voice of \u003cem\u003eImmigrants\u003c\/em\u003e will be familiar to readers of the widely praised \u003cem\u003eMartín \u0026amp; Meditations on the South Valley\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBlack Mesa Poems\u003c\/em\u003e (New Directions, 1987 and 1989), but the territory may not be. Most of the poems in this collection were written while the author was in prison, where he taught himself to read and write. All the poems are concerned with the incarcerated or the disenfranchised; they all communicate the sting from the backhand of the American promise. As Denise Levertov has noted, Baca \"is far from being a naive realist,\" but of poverty and prejudice, of material that is truly raw, he \"writes in unconcealed passion.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBaca, Jimmy Santiago:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eJimmy Santiago Baca\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1952. His parents abandoned him at the age of two, and he lived with his grandmother for several years before being placed in an orphanage. A runaway at age thirteen, Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison at the age of twenty-one for drug offenses. It was in prison that he learned to read and write and began to compose poetry. His book \u003cem\u003eMartín \u0026amp; Meditations on the South Valley\u003c\/em\u003e, a pair of long narrative poems, won an American Book Award in 1988. In addition to his poetry collections and stories, Baca wrote the screenplay for the movie \u003cem\u003eBound by Honor\u003c\/em\u003e, which was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1993.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50613449916690,"sku":"9780811211451","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_eda5b84b-62e4-4a31-9b45-59aa0a8bd08b.jpg?v=1732402138","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/immigrants-in-our-own-land-and-selected-early-poems-9780811211451","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}