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A collection of letters exchanged between the author and four “outriders”—artists, writers, and activists who risk everything to confront censorship, injustice, and the constraints of convention
In More Letters from the Edge, Margaret Randall continues her exploration of the power of correspondence, revealing the intimate and unguarded exchanges that define lives lived at the margins of convention. Through letters, interviews, and fragments of memory, she invites us into conversations with four fearlessly radical writers, artists, and activists: Arturo Arango, Kathy Boudin, Jane Norling, and Robert Schweitzer. Their voices—translated, remembered, and preserved—offer urgent reflections on risk, resistance, and the act of making meaning in a world that, now more than ever, seeks to silence dissent. More than historical artifacts, these conversations bridge past and present, proving that the fight for creative and political integrity is never confined to a single era. More Letters from the Edge is a testament to those who push against the edges, opening doors for all who follow.
— Bill Ayers, author, When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer.
Deep friendship and generosity are at the heart of this book, which proves that the political is personal. A rare and compelling record of the inseparability of art, life, and politics, MoreLetters from the Edge is at once a history of ongoing activist (and sometimes militant) resistance since the 1960s and the emotional lives of the four amazing protagonists. It also functions as another chapter in editor Margaret Randall’s memoirs, of her years in a turbulent Latin America, and ever since. Motherhood, incarceration, family, social responsibility, poetry, and revolution are only a few of its focuses. The book is especially fascinating on the layers of recent Cuban history, a mixture of hope and realism, changing times and retrospective pride and regrets. Friendship is the soil, enduring faith in the value of resistance is the crop, which continues to nourish us.
— Lucy R. Lippard
All over the globe, Margaret Randall has been an eyewitness to revolutions, both violent and cultural. She has walked among the homes of the ‘miserably poor’ with ‘violence in the air,’ where the women are “always waiting, anguished.’ Even so, she lives with ‘an innate sense of justice, even if it’s mostly a justice deferred. One feels a sense of solidarity, of empathy for the impoverished of the world’ Both politically astute and personally intense—her children have ‘drawn more love from [her] than anyone or anything else’—this wise book is both a mirror of and a model for our times. Here in 2025, looking back is foresight: Randall’s inherently creative resistance to both materialism and fascism is to maintain a fierce and inspiring optimism. So may we all.
— Bryce Milligan, poet, critic, and publisher/editor of Wings Press.
More Letters from the Edge is blessed by the intimate bravado of truth, the storyteller’s gift. In this series of riveting and relentless testimonies gathered lovingly and with great respect and honor by Margaret Randall, we are offered histories of suffering, transformation, and love. These intimate testimonies of lives lived offer hope in the form of political activism alongside deep personal and spiritual introspection. We are witness to the inner essence of souls turned inside out. The reader is grateful for this incredible gift. The story of these extraordinary lives rooted in social justice are banners for our century, beacons of light in a world seemingly dark without moral compass. I left the book with my heart afire.
— Denise Chavez, author of Street of Too Many Stories.
Margaret Randall is a poet, writer, translator, photographer, and activist who has lived in New York, Mexico City, Havana, Cuba, Managua, Nicaragua, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with short stays in North Vietnam and Lima, Peru. Her time in these places often coincided with major sociopolitical upheavals or pivotal historic moments. She edited an important bilingual literary magazine for eight years out of Mexico City and has known some of the great minds of her generation. When she returned to the United States, the US government ordered her deported because of opinions expressed in some of her books, and she was forced to wage a five-year battle for restoration of citizenship. Her correspondence with those she met along the way makes for exciting reading.
Randall is the recipient of numerous international awards and the author of over 200 books, four of which were published by New Village Press: My Life in 100 Objects, Artists in My Life, Risking a Somersault in the Air, and Luck.