Carolyn Forche

About

Carolyn Forché is an acclaimed American poet, memoirist, translator, and human rights advocate whose work explores political violence, memory, and the moral responsibility of bearing witness. Her experiences in El Salvador during the years leading up to its civil war profoundly shaped her writing and commitment to human rights. Her poetry collections include Gathering the Tribes (1976), which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, The Country Between Us (1981), and The Angel of History (1994). She also edited Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness, an influential anthology bringing together poetry shaped by war, persecution, and political oppression. Her memoir What You Have Heard Is True was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. She is a Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University.

Books on TheBookRoads

All genres Memoir

All themes Revolution & Change

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What You Have Heard Is True

In 1970s El Salvador, a young American poet is drawn into a country on the brink of civil war. When the enigmatic Leonel Gómez Vides invites twenty-seven-year-old Carolyn Forché to witness his homeland, she encounters military repression, impoverished communities, courageous clergy, and people risking their lives to resist injustice. As violence escalates and death squads hunt their opponents, Forché’s journey becomes a profound political and personal awakening. Part memoir, part testimony, this lyrical account explores the moral responsibility of bearing witness—and how confronting human suffering can transform the way we see the world. A finalist for the 2019 National Book Award, it is a powerful reflection on empathy, resistance, and the courage to speak when silence is easier.

2020 El Salvador