New Mexico author Margaret Randall to read from latest work in Las Cruces, Silver City

Albuquerque author and social activist Margaret Randall will make several stops in southern New Mexico this July to read from her collection of work and sign copies.

According to the Poetry Foundation, Randall was born in New York City but grew up in New Mexico. In the 1960s, she lived in Mexico City where she co-founded and co-edited “El Corno Emplumado/The Plumed Horn", a bilingual literary journal.

Randall fled Mexico in 1968 due to her participation in the Mexican student movement. She relocated to Prague then to Cuba for 11 years. In 1980, she moved to Nicaragua for several years and then returned to the U.S. in 1984.

At that time, Randall was threatened with deportation because her writings were found to be “against the good order and happiness of the United States,” based on the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The case went on for five years before she won.

According to the Poetry Foundation, Randall was awarded “a Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett grant for writers victimized by political repression and a PEN New Mexico Dorothy Doyle Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing and Human Rights Activism.”

Randall now lives in Albuquerque with her partner Barbara Byers, a painter. Randall has written over 90 works of poetry and prose, as well as translated many other works.

At 6 p.m. Sunday, July 9, Randall will be at Casa Camino Real Bookstore in Las Cruces to read from “Vertigo of Risk,” her latest collection of poetry. The reading is free and open to the public.

Randall will be on hand following the reading for a reception and to sign copies of her work. Bookstore owner Denise Chavez said in a news release that multiple works of Randall’s will be sold at the event.

Chavez described Randall’s latest poetry collection as the author’s “Master Opus.”

“Testimonio to a life lived in the blessed search of Truth,” Chavez said in the news release.

Casa Camino Real Bookstore is located at 314 S. Tornillo St.

Randall will also read to an audience at noon July 8 at the Tranquibuzz Coffee Shop in Silver City, located at 300 N. Arizona St. A book signing and sales will also follow the event. 

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico author Margaret Randall to read from latest work in Las Cruces