The Writer’s Block: A Q&A with Achy Obejas and Aurora Arias

Aurora Arias is a poet and fiction writer from the Dominican Republic. She has two books of poetry, Vivienda de Pajaros and Piano Lila, and three books of short stories, Invi’s Paradise y Otros Relatos, Fin de Mundo y Otros Relatos, and Emoticons. Achy Obejas is a Cuban-American translator and author of five novels including Ruins, and Days of Awe and one poetry chapbook, This is What Happened in Our Other Life. Her translation into Spanish of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was a finalist for Spain’s Esther Benítez Translation Prize from the national translator’s association. 

Sampsonia Way interviewed Arias and Obejas about how inhabiting two different countries can affect both their writing and their process, the themes and ideas that they obsess over in their writing and the limitations of trying to bring about change through writing.