Jason Allen-Paisant’s Self-Portrait as Othello begins with a hesitation towards the titular comparison: ‘How could I resurrect you to speak, / when your burial is in no ground / that I can pilgrimage to’ (‘Ringing Othello’). Yet, the character of [...]

Tim Z Hernandez is an American writer, poet, and performer. His first poetry collection Skin Tax (2004) received the 2006 American Book Award and his debut novel Breathing in Dust (2010) was awarded the 2010 Premio Aztlán Literary Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award. In 2014, he received the Colorado Book Award for his poetry collection Natural Takeover of Small Things (2013) and the International Latino Book Award for his historical fiction novel, Mañana Means Heaven (2013). Most recently he was recognized for his research on locating the victims of the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, the incident made famous by Woody Guthrie’s song of the same name, which is chronicled in Hernandez’s documentary novel All They Will Call You (2017). Hernandez is currently an associate professor in the University of Texas at El Paso’s bilingual MFA in creative writing program. Following the publication of his latest collection, Some of the Light: New and Selected Poems (2023), he spoke to our Reviews Editor, Isabelle Baafi, about the role of witness and mindfulness in his work.