Writer Feature: Ana Reisens
The Writer's Notebook
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The Writer's Notebook *
Originally from the United States, Ana Reisens currently lives in Spain. She is one of IHRAM’s treasured writers. In this interview, she shares her musings, inspiration, and honest thoughts on her experience with us as an author and activist.
Her latest publication with IHRAM Press is Fifteen, featured in IHRAM Quarterly: Reflections of Feminine Empowerment.
Thank you for all you do, Ana.
Now be honest, how has your experience been with IHRAM Press? How did you find us and why did you choose to publish with us?
I found IHRAM Press through an online listing of places to submit poetry, and I was so excited when I did. I love the IHRAM mission, and it was clear right away that this was a press deeply aligned with the values I hold as a writer. Working with IHRAM Press has been an absolute joy; they're thoughtful, engaged, and genuinely supportive of the voices they publish.
Would you recommend IHRAM Press to other writers/artists?
Absolutely! There’s so much about IHRAM Press that aligns with what I believe makes a publisher truly poet-friendly (and world-friendly). Their commitment to publishing work that speaks to urgent, global issues, their dedication to fostering an international community, their investment in their contributors (including paying them!), and their efforts to nominate work for prizes - all of these things make them an invaluable space for writers who want their work to matter.
Share a couple of quotes from your written piece/s published in IHRAM Literary Magazine 2024!
“The neighbors hover
on their balconies as fifteen young women
block the street, their voices rising like doves
from the debris”
Now for the fun questions! What compels you to pick up a pen or open your laptop to free-write? And what inspires/influences your writing, particularly when it comes to addressing human rights issues?
To write is to pay attention. The need to write always comes to me as an urge - a deep, urgent need to process, to understand, and to transform. This always begins with myself, but when it comes to human rights issues, the need expands beyond the self. It becomes a way to bear witness, to shed light, and to call attention to what is often ignored. I like to think that this individual act of paying attention sparks transformation not just within the self, but in the world as a whole.
The human rights concerns addressed in the IHRAM literary magazine are often complex and challenging to navigate. How do you navigate the balance between highlighting these challenges and maintaining a sense of hope or optimism in your writing?
I think it's impossible not to maintain a sense of hope in my writing, because it is this very hope that calls me to write to begin with. To write with hope is such a transformative act. It seems to say, "I see your pain. I validate it. But what else exists here?" And the answer, to me, is always light, is always love.
It reminds me of a piece of a poem by Rumi:
"I said: What about my heart?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said: Pain and sorrow.
He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
I believe these concerns - these wounds - are the place where the light enters us.
How do you personally connect with our mission? Particularly on the power of art and literature to influence social change, and our values of beauty as a fundamental creative principle, sincerity, vulnerability, celebrating diversity, and opening doorways of engagement.
IHRAM’s mission deeply resonates with me because I believe that art and literature are not just reflections of the world but forces that shape it. I believe writing is an act of radical openness; sincerity and vulnerability are crucial to my own creative practice. And I think that beauty, in the broadest sense, is inseparable from this - not just aesthetic beauty, but the beauty of truth, of connection, of bearing witness to something essential. IHRAM’s dedication to these values makes it feel like a true home for the kind of writing I gravitate towards.
The IHRAM magazine aims to celebrate authors contending with their identities within the context of their environments. How does your environment influence your view of the world (your home country, city, and surrounding culture)?
I’ve been fortunate to have lived in several different countries, and this experience has shaped me in profound ways. It's allowed me to step outside the belief systems I inherited as a child, to question them, and ultimately to choose the beliefs that feel most compassionate, most expansive, and most aligned with the world I want to live in.
In comparison, how does your intersectionality influence your view of the world (your personal beliefs, gender expression, religious affiliations, etc.)?
For me, intersectionality is less a lens through which I see the world and more a departure point - a way of recognizing the specific position I occupy while also using that awareness to cultivate a deeper awareness for the experience of others. My own experiences, particularly around gender, have shaped me in ways that I am still unpacking.
But what I find most important is the way these experiences invite me to ask larger questions: How do we limit ourselves? How do we limit each other? How do we step outside of those limitations? More than anything, my awareness of my own identity pushes me to explore other identities, to listen more deeply, and to write in a way that (I hope) invites expansiveness rather than confinement.
Support Activist Writers
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Support Activist Writers *
Read and enjoy all of Ana’s previously published work:
“(In)divisible” on The Ex-Puritan.
“Tidal Pull” on The Bombay Literary Magazine.
“Of beige plates and silver buttons” on SIXFOLD.
