“Truth to Power: Writers Respond to the Rhetoric Of Hate And Fear” is a special collection of poetry, essays, fiction and nonfiction that addresses the rise of hatred and fear in public rhetoric prompted by the 2016 presidential campaign and election.
The book was published earlier this year by Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts, on February 1.
Pamela Uschuk an American Book Award winner who graduated with honors with a MFA in Poetry and Fiction from the University of Montana, introduced the idea of a book that would allow authors to proactively respond to the 2016 presidential elections.
“I wanted to do a collection where we solicit poems from people and give them a forum, a venue, from which to speak,” Uschuk said.
When asked about the significance of the title “Truth to Power”, Uschuck explained that she has always treasured the adage, “Speak truth to power,” an old phrase dating back to the 1950s.
“We need truth to power,” she said.
There are over 358 pages of material in the book, including 137 poems. The book also contains short stories, essays and a page full of tweets and letters to America.
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“Right now, we are reading for an online serial for this,” Uschuk said. “This will be the next issue of ‘Truth to Power: Writers Respond to the Rhetoric of Hate and Fear’ online.”
Uschuk explained that there have been many submissions for the online version of the book, which Uschuk hopes to have published online by the beginning of Fall 2017.
Most of the proceeds from the book have been donated to other organizations.
“We have donated to American Civil Liberties Union, Standing Rock Sioux Water Protectors, Friends of the Earth, Southern Poverty Law Center, and recently to Planned Parenthood,” Uschuck said. “We try to pick organizations where the administration does not get a lot of money, but the money actually goes to whatever cause they are working for. And the ACLU has just been terrific litigating for human rights here in this country.”
Uschuk said the members of the editorial board contributed a lot of their time to editing “Truth to Power”.
William Pitt Root, currently the poetry editor for Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts, was one member of the editorial board for this project.
Root has many collections available, including”Strange Angels”and”Sublime Blue: Selected Early Odes of Pablo Neruda”(2013),which has been translated into approximately 20 languages.
Root’s work found in “Truth to Power” focuses on taking a stand for the workers that are struggling for equality in today’s economy–even those faced with the political struggles from changes made by President Donald Trump and Congress.
Karen Brennan, an author of seven books within a variety of genres, was another member of the editorial board for “Truth to Power”. Brennan’s own works in fiction, poetry and nonfiction have appeared in many anthologies; fromGraywolf, MichiganandGeorgia, Norton, Penguinand many more.
Bill Wetzel was another member of the editorial board that contributed a lot of time and energy into the book. Wetzel’s own, “One Drop”, is an anthology that begins with a story about a man, further exploring the hardships the man endured before successfully overcoming the dark times in the nation’s history.
Wetzel compares one individual to one drop of water. In order to explain this, Wetzel explained that if one individual is equivalent to one drop of water, by coming together we can become a powerful force of nature that can overcome any hardship thrown our way, and this is what we must do to be a great nation.
Terry Acevedo, the Director of Children’s Services for Head Start Child-Parent-Centers Inc., was the last member of the editorial board.
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A few weeks ago, there was a reading of selections of the book at Antigone Books at 411 N. 4th Ave., where eight of the 118 authors presented a piece or more from the book.
Alison Hawthorne Deming is one of authors found in “Truth to Power”. Deming is the author of”Stairway to Heaven”; “Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit”and”Death Valley: Painted Light”,a collaboration piece with photographer Stephen Strom.
Deming’s anthology is a letter to America after the 2016 presidential election.
Deming states that the election results threatened to undermine every cause that she has worked for “In the last fifty years, such as women’s rights, civil rights, environmental justice, science literacy, civil discourse and empathy.”
“Only 25 percent of the American electorate voted for Donald Trump,” Deming said. “That means that 75 percent of Americans did not vote for deportation of Mexicans, banning of Muslims, denying science, wasting this glorious planet for the sake of personal and corporate gain, hate speech, racist and misogynist words or autocratic decision-making.”
For more information on the digital version of “Truth to Power: Writers Respond to the Rhetoric Of Hate And Fear”, visit https://cutthroatajournalofthearts.submittable.com/submit.
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