Dani Putney is a mixed-race Filipinx, non-binary poet who grew up in Sacramento and Fernley, and now lives in Reno. Their second full-length poetry collection, Mix-Mix, set to be released on April 8 by Baobab Press, is a fearless excavation of their heritage, their personal history, and the history of colonialism as they’ve searched for selfhood and belonging.
Putney’s father was a white American man, and their mother was a mail-order bride from the Philippines—with a 33-year age gap between them.
“I do feel displaced being a mixed-race person growing up in America who did not have access to the languages my mom spoke,” they said. “My dad forbade her from teaching my brother and me Tagalog, because he wanted us to be more American.”…