Writing Without Borders: Achy Obejas on Language, Identity, and Motherhood
We are honored to feature Achy Obejas this June in celebration of Pride and Immigration Heritage Month. Achy is the author of the forthcoming The Boy Kingdom/El Reino de los Varones, a bilingual collection of prose poems that offers a powerful meditation on queer motherhood and raising sons.
Tell us about your journey:
My journey's a long one. I was born in Cuba and left at six with my family and 40 other people on a 28-foot boat. I think that experience has marked my whole life. I started writing because, unlike my spoken English, writing didn't betray an accent. It helped avoid violence; it helped make sense of things. In high school, I discovered journalism and went to college, which led to a career as a reporter, spending many years at the Chicago Tribune.
I published my first book in 1992, a collection of stories titled We Came All the Way From Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?, which received very positive press notices. I followed up with a novel in 1994, Memory Mambo, which won a Lammy. Then I published Days of Awe in 2001. At that point, I began doing translations and published the Spanish version of Junot Díaz's Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I've since translated more than 30 titles. I followed up in 2009 with Ruins and The Tower of the Antilles in 2017. My last book was Boomerang/Bumerán, a bilingual collection of poetry, and the book that'll come out in September is The Boy Kingdom/El reino de los varones, also bilingual, about being a lesbian raising sons.
What pivotal experiences shaped your current path?
Being a refugee, an immigrant, and being queer. Those things create perspective, take you slightly off the center line, make you more sympathetic to others, I think, and force a constant reckoning.
What are the most valuable lessons you've learned about yourself through your life and career?
Since having children, all I want is the world to be kind, so I've become hyper-focused on that: on extending a hand, on courtesy, on giving people the benefit of the doubt.
What drives your desire to contribute and make a difference?
I feel like I've been immensely lucky in life, that the universe has always provided what I needed with impeccable timing. So I try not to take that for granted: to give back, to contribute, to use my voice and my platform but, most importantly, to listen.
At GlobalMindED, we are proud to feature voices like Achy’s—stories shaped by perseverance, creativity, and a deep commitment to understanding others. Her work invites us to reflect, connect, and imagine new possibilities across generations and experiences.
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