Immigrant Strong: Third Issue
On Persian poetry, a border park, and finding humor in immigration news
Book Recommendation
One of my favorite reads this year has been How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, a collection of essays by Alexander Chee, who describes himself as “Half-Korean, all queer.” New York Magazine, NPR and Time are among the outlets that have named it a Best Book of 2018. Chee, who is also the author of two novels, discusses everything from activism and identity to literature and politics, and his essays are filled with wisdom and gorgeous writing. I think writers in particular will enjoy this book as he discusses his life as a writer and shares writing tips in the process.
Essays
I enjoyed this Catapult essay by Elham Khatami, How I Find Home in the Persian Poetry of Hafez. It touches on many issues immigrants grapple with, such as the complexity of returning home and speaking your native tongue.
“My words are clunky, elementary, drained of emotion. They stumble and stammer their way out of me, the insecure battle cry of my Iranian-American generation.”
The Park of Tears, a Gen (Medium) essay by Suketu Mehta on a park along the U.S.-Mexican border, is heart-wrenching as it describes some of the cruelty—and hope—that takes place along the barrier between the two countries. Mehta’s latest book, THIS LAND IS OUR LAND: An Immigrant’s Manifesto, was just published.
“If you’ve ever stopped speaking to someone in your family, go to this park and watch the families separated by a government trying to talk to one another through the wire mesh, trying to force their pinkies into the little holes to touch their mother’s or their grandmother’s finger.”
Another shoutout to Catapult for this essay by Aja Gabel, A Cure to Feeling Like You Need to Be Cured: Talking to Sayaka Murata in Tokyo.
“In the four years since that first trip, I’ve been back twice more, pulled like a magnet, to investigate this feeling—to see what is mine, undiscovered or forgotten; to see what will never be mine; and to find some way to reconcile the two.”
I mentioned Melissa Rivero’s debut novel in the last newsletter; here is her touching BuzzFeed Father’s Day essay, I Said Goodbye To My Grandfather When My Family Left Peru — But This Blanket Keeps Him Close To Me.
“My parents sold everything they could: pots and silverware they received as wedding gifts, our beds, a hair dryer. They did not know when or if they’d come back, but they were convinced that a better future awaited us abroad.”
Since our government is only supplying us with horrific news about immigrants, here is a funny McSweeney’s piece from Felipe Torres Medina, Self-Care Tips for Immigrants.
If you missed my New York Times essay on tennis, immigration and identity, you can find it here.
Twitter Follow Recommendation
I started following Nicole Chung even before I read her adoption memoir All You Can Ever Know and appreciate her tweets on everything from race and food to her family life. (If you are in New York, she’ll be at the Strand in October for an event around the book’s paperback release).
Thanks for reading,
Vesna