I Don’t Live Here – But I Will Tell the Story (A Cultural Poetic Approach to I Live Here by Mia Kirshner)

In 2001, Mia Kirshner, actress and writer turned journalist, embarks on a seven year quest to compile stories (read experiences) from areas of conflict. I Live Here, a 2008 publication, is an anthology of little narratives, some fiction, others non-fiction. Following the cultural poetic approach, this article illustrates that the nature of anthology I Live Here asks for an analysis that puts the personal in the foreground, as each segment – be it fiction or non-fiction – was inspired by a direct contact with the issue discussed. The project is capturing a glimpse of the Western mentality mirrored in the stories told in the anthology. The arrays of voices, those that belong to the Western world, are extracted as a result.