Foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen
A unique collection of groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by forty-one migrants, refugees, and dreamers—including award-winning writers, artists, and activists—that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today
“Wide-ranging yet consistently affecting, these pieces offer a crucial and inspired survey of the immigrant experience in America.”—Publishers Weekly
“This collection is not only a great read, but an important one.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Devil’s Highway
In the overheated debate about immigration, we often lose sight of the humanity at the heart of this complex issue. The immigrants and refugees living precariously in the United States are mothers and fathers, children, neighbors, and friends. Individuals propelled by hope and fear, they gamble their lives on the promise of America, yet their voices are rarely heard.
Created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, Somewhere We Are Human is a journey of memory and yearning from people newly arrived in the US, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported. Through their storytelling and art, the contributors offer nuanced portraits of their existence before and after migration, the factors behind their choices, the pain of leaving their homeland and beginning anew in a strange country, and their collective hunger for a future not defined by borders.
Somewhere We Are Human reveals how joy, hope, perseverance, and dreams can take root in the toughest soil and bloom in the harshest conditions.
