Immigrant Strong: December 2023 Issue

On literature's role in fighting genocide; Christmas as a social tool, and speculative fiction

I know the title of this newsletter focuses on immigrants, but as the fine print on the bottom says, I also feature refugee writers (and I realize there are differences between the two groups). I’ve long appreciated Viet Thanh Nguyen’s writing and lectures—he is an authoritative voice who often dives into critical issues such as oppression, racism, and America’s problematic role within and outside its borders. In his new book, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial, he does that while sharing intimate stories about his parents, coming to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam as a four-year-old, and exploring how he finds home through writing. Nguyen plays with form in this book and writes in fragments, using line breaks, capital letters, and verses for visual and literary effect. In his classic polemic style, he dismantles the myth of the American dream, calls out America’s role in creating crises that lead people to become refugees and migrants, and dissects how Hollywood, publishing, and other institutions perpetuate harm.

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Essays and Interviews

Like so many others, I’ve been overcome with anger and grief over what is happening in Gaza—the heinous erasure of Palestinian lives, the U.S. government’s support of indiscriminate killings of civilians, and the inhumanity of allowing it all to continue unabated. I find myself explaining things like “international humanitarian laws” and “fundamental human rights,” and it saddens me those phrases even need to be uttered. No number of dead children seems to be high enough to justify even a temporary ceasefire, much less a permanent end to this unconscionable horror. If you feel as lost as I am, please start with Summer Farah’s great conversation for Electric Literature, Palestinian Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide.

“As Gaza’s poets are assassinated, as the libraries are destroyed, as Palestinians across historic Palestine (and all over the world) are arrested for dissent, as writers face censorship globally for speaking the truth of the genocide that is occurring, we must consider: if literature is your corner, what will you do to rid it of these violences?” 

I also deeply appreciated Fargo Nissim Tbakhi’s Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide for Protean Magazine.

“This is what Craft does to our writing: pressures and pressures until what matters, what we need to say, gets pushed to the margins or disappeared entirely. It is a Craft decision to describe Palestinians as human animals. It is a Craft decision to pressure U.S. officials not to use the word “ceasefire” or “de-escalation.” It is a Craft decision to describe Israelis as “children of light” and Palestinians as “children of darkness.” It is a Craft decision to begin interviews demanding Palestinians condemn violent resistance, a Craft decision to erase the perpetrators of bombings from headlines describing the bombings, a Craft decision to question the reliability of Palestinian death counts.”

This was one of those interviews where it was hard for me to pick just one quote as I loved so many things C Pam Zhang articulated about immigration, writing, and living under capitalism in this interview for the Rumpus on “Speculative Fiction as a Survival Tool.”

“To an immigrant, a place can be a form of magical thinking. Immigration often happens because immigrants have this kind of fantasy of a better place, right? That can both be a productive idea and an idea that eats away at you. If you’re always wondering about there being a better place, how do you situate yourself within your community?”

Hana Shafi wrote about immigrating to Canada, the holidays, and searching for belonging in A Very Muslim Christmas for the Walrus.

“Loving Christmas was a social tool. The cool white girls in class liked my hat. People shared candy canes with me. This is how you fit in, I remember thinking. You have to become one of them. And for a while, I felt like I was one of them—or, rather, that I could be both Muslim and popular. I could feel like I belonged.”

I published one of my favorite essays in Pigeon Pages, so it holds a dear spot in my heart. Check out On Falling in Love at Boarding School by Beth Little, winner of the journal’s 2023 flash contest.

“If you happen to be Korean, like me, and the boy who suddenly wants to hold your hand, share your snacks, kiss you, and take off your clothes is a white boy from New Canaan, his lacrosse buddies will nickname you AF (which stands for Asian Fetish). You will wish it surprised you that his next girlfriend, Thao, is from Thailand. (Thao will also get that nickname and the two of you will never talk about it.)”

I love coming across Grace Talusan’s work—her memoir was the first book I featured in this newsletter nearly five years ago. Here is her essay for the Seventh Wave, The Haunted. I encourage you to read the other pieces in the issue, centered on the theme of Proximities.

“Together now for half of our lives as husband and wife, we are so intertwined that I sometimes forget that we are not exactly the same. People are generally happy to see me, especially if I am smiling, which I have learned to do a lot and very pleasantly as a kind of grease for the wheels of my life. The worst things that have happened to me in interpersonal encounters are the occasional, insulting ideas about Asian women’s subservience or the shortsighted assumption that my English is very good for an Oriental. Conversely, besides the sociological consequences of structural racism, almost every aspect of Alonso’s life is haunted by anti-Blackness.”

Aldo Amparán conducted this great interview with Leslie Sainz for the Rumpus. Here is Every Line Break, an Elegy.

“Over time, the details of my mother and father’s early lives either revolved, faded entirely, or could only be expressed in Spanish. What they choose to remember about the environment in which they raised their children contradicts with my understanding of my own childhood. I feel strongly that our personal histories are made complete by their various discrepancies, not undermined by them. To tell these stories with any degree of confidence or ethics, the language we use to describe them most orbit all truths.”

Here is Susan Kiyo Ito’s powerful Guernica essay, Allegiance. (She was born in the United States and I believe her parents were as well, but I wanted to include the piece because it touches on themes such as racism, belonging, and home, which often make it into this newsletter). I just finished reading her gripping memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, in two evenings. It was riveting and heart wrenching, and left me in tears several times.

“But I felt safe on Girl Scout days. The gravel parking lot was always filled with cars, and Mrs. Crevier was there. She would chase the boys away from the cannon long before the meeting time, and nobody would bother me. Plus, they couldn’t call me a Jap when I was wearing a Girl Scout uniform. It was too American. It was like a shield.”

Looking back at 2023 in terms of my own work, I did not get nearly as much writing done as I’d hoped, but I’m trying not to be hard on myself as I’ve had a lot on my plate with my nonprofit writing work and parenting. I’ve had a privilege to work with some fantastic clients, such as an affordable housing organization and a UN-based organization for parliamentarians from around the world. On the creative writing side, I published an essay in the Connecticut Literary Anthology 2023 (now on sale for 1/2 price!) and continued supporting immigrant writers through this newsletter.

Looking ahead to 2024, I have an essay coming out in the Back Where I Came From anthology from Book hug Press in the fall. In the spring, I’ll again be teaching an online workshop on writing about immigration for Cooper Street Writing Workshops. And I’m excited to share I was accepted into the 2024 Tin House Winter Workshop, which kicks off next month.

I’m truly grateful to everyone who reads this newsletter, shares it, and supports immigrant literature. In a world filled with so much violence and demonization, we desperately need these stories to light the way.

I’m glad my immediate family has long had a no-gifts-for-adults policy, which makes the holidays somewhat less stressful. And for years, my husband and I have been sending e-cards instead of paper cards—saving some trees, money, and stress in the process. I’ve heard many friends complain recently about mailing holiday cards and stress about buying gifts for their spouses. It puzzles me why so many people do things without questioning whether it’s time to change things up—and often times, these changes happen to be more environmentally friendly, less costly, and less time consuming.

I know this is a difficult time for many, and I hope you find a way to prioritize your health, well-being, and joy over any pressures imposed by our society and capitalism. Things are bad enough out there as it is, so I hope you take time to grieve, or rest, or write, or create, or do whatever you need to take care of yourself.

Wishing you peace and love—and thank you for reading,

Vesna

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About this newsletter: Writing about immigrant and refugee life—the struggles, triumphs, and quirks—by immigrants and refugees, and children of immigrants and refugees. For more info, here is a Q&A I did with Longreads about the newsletter. Photo in the logo: Miguel Bruna/Unsplash.

About me: I grew up in the former Yugoslavia, then immigrated to Canada, and now live in the United States, where I work as a writer and communications consultant for nonprofits focusing on human rights and social justice. I have written about my immigrant experience for the Connecticut Literary Anthology 2023, The New York Times, Catapult, Pigeon Pages, the Washington Post and the New York Daily News. In 2021, I attended Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing conference as a parent-fellow, and participated in the Tin House Summer Workshop. Find me on twitter, @vesnajaksic; Instagram, @vesnajaksiclowe; or my website, www.vesnajaksic.com.