Alex Poppe est une enseignante et une instigatrice créative dont le travail s'inspire des divers lieux et personnes rencontrés au cours de sa carrière d'enseignante en Pologne, en Turquie, en Ukraine, dans le nord de l'Irak, en Cisjordanie, en Allemagne et aux États-Unis. Sa fiction et sa non-fiction ont orné les pages de magazines des deux côtés de l'Atlantique, lui valant des nominations à des prix. Entre expériences extraordinaires, elle se consacre à l'écriture, créant des récits qui reflètent sa perspective globale et son esprit d'aventure.
"Jinwar is a feminist collective that has formed in northern Syria (Western Kurdistan) near the village of Afrin and the border with Turkey. Here, the character in Alex Poppe's lead story comes for solace and healing after suffering sexual abuse in the US military"-- Provided by publisher
Sixteen-year-old Lava lives peacefully enough with her imperfect mother, Lila, and their boarder, Cody, an Iraqi war vet suffering from PTSD. Lava's ex-addict father, Jesse, is released from prison, and Lava's life in Detroit is upended when Jesse pressures Lava for her urine so he can pass his mandatory drug tests. After an altercation, Lava is sent to live with her mother's cousin Lola in Seville. Lola is a larger-than-life flamenco dancer who teaches Lava the language of flamenco dance; Lava's life opens outward as she becomes fluent in flamenco's structure, giving her new modes of expression as she experiences first love, friendship, and betrayal, and uncovers family secrets. Rich with lyrical, sensual prose, Duende is a coming-of-age novella about mothers and daughters, about legacy, about self-expression, about defining a way to live