We Are Nature Defending Itself: An Anthology of Women on Bodies, Borders, and Place

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Cordelia E. Barrera Shelley Armitage

We Are Nature Defending Itself

An Anthology of Women on Bodies, Borders, and Place

Cordelia E. Barrera, Shelley Armitage, Kimberly Blaeser , Norma E. Cantú

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English

Texas A & M University Press
31 October 2025

Anthologies (non-poetry); Ethnic studies; Hispanic & Latino studies; The natural world, country life & pets

Series: Wittliff Collections Literary Series

In the words of series editor Steven L. Davis, We Are Nature Defending Itself: An Anthology of Women on Bodies, Borders, and Place is “a revelation, a multicultural blend of well-known and emerging writers who come together to give nature a voice in our literature and our lives.” Not least of the many benefits to readers are its contributions from prominent Latina writers, presented here as advocates for the environment. Though this theme has long existed in Chicana literature, it has never been positioned as front and center as it is in this anthology.

Volume editor Cordelia E. Barrera also includes notable Anglo, African American, and Indigenous contributors, crafting a true cultural blend of distinctive writing that will appeal to older generations while inspiring new ones. By incorporating these border voices, this collection effectively challenges long-dominant mythologies of the American West and offers a prominent place for literatures of social justice and the environment.

The mix of poems, stories, and essays are divided into three sections: Bodies, Landscape, and Practices. Part I begins with the idea of experiencing and feeling a history of the body’s contact with landscapes and places as repositories of knowledge. Part II extends beyond particulars of private or public life to consider issues of place as sites and locations of radical action. Part III features ruminations and traditions of remembering, highlighting reciprocal relationships to the natural world that extend outward to the ways “women’s work” in and around the home shapes communal processes that reinforce continuity across time and space.

We Are Nature Defending Itself adds important new work to the growing canon of nature and borderlands writing by women of color. In turn, these new voices deepen and broaden our understanding of humanity and its relationship to the natural environment.

Contributions by: Shelley Armitage, Kimberly Blaeser, Norma E. Cantú, Sandra Cisneros
Edited by: Cordelia E. Barrera
Imprint: Texas A & M University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781648433733
ISBN 10: 1648433731
Series: Wittliff Collections Literary Series
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 31 October 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Cordelia E. Barrera is a professor of English at Texas Tech University, where she specializes in Latinx and borderlands literatures. She is also the author of The Haunted Southwest: Towards an Ethics of Place in Borderlands Literature.

Reviews for We Are Nature Defending Itself: An Anthology of Women on Bodies, Borders, and Place

""Barrera's collection provides us a torrent of essential wisdom from writers well known and newly discovered, one that moves us beyond borders and binaries. Not all contributors are Texas-affiliated, but many are, and it is refreshing and revealing to hear these voices represent gender, land, place, ecology, and embodiment in Texas. These are much needed perspective on our world.""--Alex Hunt, author of Postcolonial Green: Environmental Politics and World Narratives--Alex Hunt ""This carefully curated collection of fiction, poetry, and narrative offers diverse perspectives showcasing women's complex relationships with their specific landscapes and with nature more generally--nature as living, sentient being, as partner and foundation. We Are Nature Defending Itself reminds us of our radical interconnectedness with this beautiful planet from which we've emerged and to which we are entirely indebted. I look forward to sharing this book with my students, colleagues, and friends.""--AnaLouise Keating, author of The Anzaldúan Theory Handbook--AnaLouise Keating