Wendy Call
Wendy Call (she/her) wrote the award-winning nonfiction book No Word for Welcome, co-edited Telling True Stories and Best Literary Translations, and translated three collections of trilingual poetry by Indigenous Mexican women. She lives on Duwamish land (Southeast Seattle) and Mixtec/Zapotec land (Oaxaca City) and teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop.
2024 Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series:
How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, by Mikeas Sánchez, co-translated from Spanish and Zoque by Wendy Call and Shook, includes selections from six books by the only woman to have published a book of poetry in Zoque. Called a “groundbreaking and deeply passionate poetry collection that celebrates language and feminine power” by Library Journal, this trilingual book received a Booklist starred review and glowing coverage in the New York Times Book Review.
How to Be a Good Savage
My grandfather Simón wanted to be a good savage,
he learned Spanish,
and all the saints’ names.
He danced before the altar
and was baptized with a smile.
My grandfather had the force of Red Thunder
and his nagual was a tiger.
My grandfather was a poet
who healed with words.
But he wanted to be a good savage,
learned to eat with a spoon,
and the Nhkirawa’s electric lamps impressed him.
My grandfather was a powerful shaman
who spoke the gods’ language.
He wanted to be a good savage,
but he never quite learned how.
Artist Support Program 2011 (with Irma Pineda): A trilingual (Zapotec-Spanish-English) audio collection of poems.
