
Speaking with the Ancestors
Raquel Vasquez Gilliland and Ben Weaver
31st October, 2019
From our new Dark Mountain collection: two poems of return by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland and Ben Weaver. With deer drawing by Rebecca Clark
Raquel Vasquez Gilliland is a Mexican-American poet, novelist and painter.
She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in
2017. When not writing, Raquel tells stories to her plants and they tell her
stories back. She lives in Tennessee with her beloved family and mountains.
(Issue 7). ‘Excerpt from Letter to the Ancestry Company’ was originally published in Catamaran Literary Reader, and in Raquel’s debut collection, Dirt and Honey (Green Writers Press).
Ben Weaver is a songwriter and poet who travels by bicycle. He uses his music as a tool to strengthen relationships between people and ecosystems. Given the choice he will side with the animals, lakes, rivers and the trees. benweaver.net