This Exercise of Skin: My Mentors - Margaret Randall

Margaret Randall—poet, revolutionary, feminist—has inspired people beyond count in Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, and the United States. Here, she turns to those who inspired her: sixteen influential figures who shaped her life and work.

Some of these mentors are celebrated: poets Allen Ginsberg and Ernesto Cardenal, authors Grace Paley and Meridel Le Sueur, Chicana feminist Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez, biologist Ruth Hubbard. Others—thinkers, activist, artists, and friends—may be less well-known but are just as essential. Together, they span decades, movements, and cultures. Randall’s essays and the accompanying photographs pay homage to each one, presenting a sharp and affectionate study of how our own lives are shaped by those who teach us.

This paperback will be released in April 2027. Preorders will ship prior to publication.

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Praise for This Exercise of Skin: My Mentors:

“Margaret Randall’s extensive body of work is a revolution against oblivion. This is a book as essential as it is enjoyable, blending the personal with the collective, and memory with reflection.”
— Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, author of Night Badly Written

“The importance of [Randall’s] exploration … is her response to the learning, her willingness to carry it forward into a new place in her own life, while keeping the vital core of her commitment to the work—artistic, political, personal.”
— Judith McDaniel, author of Sanctuary: A Journey

“[A] timely and poignant reminder of the importance of radical interdependency, for if it describes the varied ways that Randall’s mentors sparked her creativity, it also reveals the extraordinary gifts that she freely offered them.”
— Sandra Soto, author of Reading Chican@ Like a Queer