First published 2019
Viet Thanh Nguyen curates voices from writers who fled their homelands across continents and decades. The collection spans seventeen contributors originally from Mexico, Bosnia, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Ukraine, Hungary, Chile, Ethiopia, and beyond. These accomplished authors include MacArthur recipients, National Book Award finalists, filmmakers, and professors who arrived as refugees in cities from London to Minneapolis. Reyna Grande examines the boundary between official refugee status and illegal immigration while documenting family separation. Aleksandar Hemon shares a gay Bosnian's migration story. Kao Kalia Yang remembers children's bravery in Thai refugee camps. Fatima Bhutto explores Alejandro Iñárritu's virtual reality border installation. David Bezmozgis uncovers fresh details about his past while attending asylum hearings. Thi Bui contributes graphic panels that capture displacement visually. Against the backdrop of 68.5 million people currently fleeing persecution worldwide, these writers transform statistics into human experience.
Genres: literary-fiction, anthologies, politics, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-narrative
Setting: Mexico, Bosnia, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Hungary, Chile, Ethiopia, London, Minneapolis
Period: Contemporary
240 pages · Hardcover · Abrams Press