Carolyn Forché

Carolyn Forché is an American poet and the author of What You Have Heard is True. Writing in the twenty-first century, Forché reflects on her experience in El Salvador when she was in her mid-twenties. Though the older Forché is more worldly and knowledgeable, the young Carolyn is relatively naïve. At the time that the book opens, in 1977, Carolyn is an aspiring poet who has just returned from a summer spent in Spain trying to translate the work of Central American poet Claribel Alegría. Carolyn has also spent time with a Native Indian family during a writing residence.

When Leonel enters Carolyn’s life, she decides to go to El Salvador. Carolyn appears to the reader ambitious and curious. Even if she is not particularly knowledgeable about the world, she takes a keen interest in it. Throughout the book, Carolyn listens carefully to Leonel...