Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. In THE ART OF EXILE, William Archila asks readers in the United States to engage with a subject seldom explored in American poetry: the unrest in El Salvador in the 1980s and its impact on Central American immigrants who now claim this country as home. In language that is poignant and often harrowing, the poet takes us on a journey from Santa Ana, El Salvador, to Los Angeles, California. Archila bridges race and class, metaphor and reality with astuteness, mingling humor and pain with a skill that denigrates neither.

Author Hometown: LOS ANGELES, CA USA



About the author: William Archila was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, in 1968. When he was only 12, he and his family immigrated to the United States to escape the civil war that was tearing his country apart. He eventually became an English teacher ad earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon.