Mariela Griffor

Heartland (Crossing Point) Mariela Griffor

Poetry. Latino/Latino Studies. "The word 'cosmopolitan' has unfortunately come to connote a kind of haughty (perhaps affected) sophistication, so some other adjective is needed to convey the unusual combination of worldliness and immediacy that pulses in Ms. Griffor's poems. While she is capable of acknowledging and dramatizing ghastly geopolitical realities with stark veracity, she always--yes, always--approaches the momentous historical complexities she is uniquely situated to describe with a tenderness most people (including most poets) can only summon for their home life. Indeed, Mariela Griffor is entirely at home in the world at large, and in her poems she chronicles an unbroken continuum from her closest familial and companionable relationships to the hazards of true citizenship in our gigantic globalized society. I would say that Mariela Griffor has a sacramental sense of artistic vocation. She is dedicated, intellectually penetrating, and endlessly curious"--Jim Schley.