December 6, 1995
Bookpeople
When I think of Naomi Shihab Nye, the first adjective that comes to mind is
“gracious” — as in, unfailingly gracious. Although she continues to build on
her ever-mountainous volume of work, she has been regularly involved with
editing anthologies she believes need to be out there. For her, there’s also a
freedom in promoting anthologies; where she feels conflicted in being
aggressive about her own work, she says with an anthology, it’s easy to say
“you really need to get this book” without hesitation.
That was the point of her latest Austin visit, a Book People stop for her
latest editing project, The Tree Is Older Than You Are. Clearly, Nye has
a lot of fans — readings were squeezed in between signing sessions for a
snaking line of fans, friends, and well-wishers. Although her readings were
short, they were sweet, smooth, and inclusive.
Nye focused on the latest book, a collection of poems from Mexican authors
printed in both Spanish and English. She handed the reins to Liliana
Valenzuela, the Spanish-speaking reader accompanying her, asking her to “pick
the ones you like.” Nye interspersed her choices, especially a droll piece on
motherhood and a piece about a campfire in the mountains (making up the red,
white, and green of the Mexican flag), with tales of their origins and
histories of their authors. Including Valenzuela was a wise choice — her
Spanish readings were beautiful and allowed the audience a sense of how the
poems were originally conceived.
Nye also read from her most recent published collection, Red Suitcase.
Her “Nails in the Attic” is a masterful example of how Nye finds the universal
in the everyday, and her surprising “Escape” serves as a reminder of the
dangers in getting what we want. When she received a personal encore request
for “The Travelling Onion,” she not only told an entertaining anecdote about
its origins but neatly turned the onion into a metaphor for the hard work and
relative invisibility of the translators who helped in her latest project. Nye
was, as always, a class act. — Phil West
This article appears in January 19 • 1996 and January 19 • 1996 (Cover).