Prairie Schooner Food Portfolio

“The very concept of food, the physical presence of it, the way it triggers all of the senses is a central part or live, human and otherwise. Whether abundant or scarce it occupies a part of our daily lives. The pleasure of it, the struggle for it, the fast from it, the feast in it, the joy of it, the worry for it, the nourishment from it, the gift of it, and sadly, in these times, the poison of it. It is, simply put, the inescapable commonality for all living things.” So opens Guest Editor Matthew Shenoda’s introduction to the Food Portfolio in the Winter 2016 issue of Prairie Schooner.

“In the following pages of this portfolio, each of the contributors approaches the topic with stunning attention in an exploration of the nuanced realities of food and the roles it plays in our lives. . . . To be sure, this topic is largely unending, woven so deeply into our very existence that we may never have enough to say about it. But here you will find a small sampling of the myriad ways we can understand the food of life through the food of language.”

Authors whose works are featured in the portfolio include Craig Santos Perez, Uoumna Chlala, Evie Shockley, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Quincy Troupe, Chris Abani, LeAnne Howe, Aimee Nuzhukumatathil, Patricia Smith and Afaa Michael Weaver among others.