F168.
Documenting the Undocumented: Writing the US/Mexico Border across Genres
Friday, March 25, 2022
12:10 pm to 1:25 pm
The border. ICE. The wall. Asylum. Human cages. How can we truthfully represent the current immigration crisis at the border in our writing? What are political and philosophical concerns, particularly when authors inherit stories they are in effect still living and when readers might expect a happy ending? Authors across categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young adult and children’s books—talk frankly about the struggles and benefits of writing la frontera.
Participants
Jennifer De Leon is the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From and White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, and Writing. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Framingham State University and a GrubStreet board member.
René Colato Laínez is the award-winning author of many bilingual/multicultural children's books. She earned her master's degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts in writing for children and young adults. She teaches at a bilingual elementary school in Los Angeles.
Aida Salazar​ is an author, translator, and arts activist. Her books include the multiple-award-winning verse novels, The Moon Within and Land of the Cranes. She is a founding member of Las Musas, a Latinx kidlit author collective. Learn about her forthcoming projects at AidaSalazar.com.
Ricardo Nuila is a practicing doctor, teacher, and writer. His nonfiction has appeared in the New Yorker and VQR, and his fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories. A former Yaddo, MacDowell, and Dobie Paisano Fellow, his first book on safety-net hospitals will be published by Scribner.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a poet, essayist, and translator. He is the author of Cenzontle, winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Prize, Dulce, and Children of the Land. A Canto Mundo Fellow, he cofounded the Undocupoets campaign.
