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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Book cover for Ink Knows No Borders
Book cover for Ink Knows No Borders

Foreword by Javier Zamora

Afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud

With poems by:

ELIZABETH ACEVEDO | SAMIRA AHMED | KAVEH AKBAR | EAVAN BOLAND | CHEN CHEN | SAFIA ELHILLO | MARTÍN ESPADA | CARLOS ANDRÉS GÓMEZ | JOSEPH O. LEGASPI | ADA LIMÓN | EMTITHAL MAHMOUD | BAO PHI | ALBERTO RÍOS | ERIKA L. SÁNCHEZ | GARY SOTO | CHRYSANTHEMUM TRAN | OCEAN VUONG | JAVIER ZAMORA | SEE COMPLETE LIST HERE

With authenticity, integrity, and insight, this collection of poems addresses the many issues confronting first- and second- generation young adult immigrants and refugees, such as cultural and language differences, homesickness, social exclusion, human rights, racism, stereotyping, and questions of identity. Poems by Elizabeth Acevedo, Erika L. Sánchez, Samira Ahmed, Chen Chen, Ocean Vuong, Fatimah Asghar, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Bao Phi, Kaveh Akbar, Hala Alyan, and Ada Limón, among others, encourage readers to honor their roots as well as explore new paths, offering empathy and hope for those who are struggling to overcome discrimination. Many of the struggles immigrant and refugee teens face head-on are also experienced by young people everywhere as they contend with isolation, self-doubt, confusion, and emotional dislocation.

Ink Knows No Borders is the first book of its kind and features 64 poems and a foreword by poet Javier Zamora, who crossed the border, unaccompanied, at the age of nine, and an afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud, World Poetry Slam Champion and Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Brief biographies of the poets are included, as well. It's a hopeful, beautiful, and meaningful book for any reader.

Edited by Alyssa Raymond and Patrice Vecchione

Check out our Ink Knows No Borders Teaching Guide here.

Book cover for Ink Knows No Borders
Book cover for Ink Knows No Borders

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“This collection cuts right to the heart of the matter at a time when it is most relevant. . . . This symphony of poetry is a necessary series of bruises and balms that will comfort those who have endured, uplift those who continue to struggle, and educate others”

“Vecchione and Raymond have gathered 64 poets from all over the world, their poetic voices as diverse as their experiences. Yet, they hold one element in common: a belief in dignity as an essential human right. . . . These stories should resonate with youth who feel life deeply.”

“I was moved again and again by the poems in this brave, beautiful and necessary collection. I found echoes of myself in many of the pieces, and I know so many young immigrants and Americans will find themselves, too. But it goes beyond that. I wish this book would be taught in homogenous communities, too, so readers with little understanding of immigration will have the chance to see its humanity. This is the most important book we will read this year.”

“An intricate, hard-won tapestry of poetic experience, with density best suited to thoughtful browsing or individual readalouds rather than reading straight through but with many resonant poems that will strike a chord either of recognition or realization with young readers.”

“Poems are good for the soul and these poems in particular are a reminder that art and writing know no borders.”

“Though aimed at teens, this vivid, vital collection . . . should find a ready audience with adults as well. . . . With bravura and hard-won insight, these poems explore identity, survival and home from first- and second-generation perspectives, offering a multiplicity of impressions and memories.”

“We are a nation of immigrants, but as we grow further away from our roots we tend to forget. These poems help us to reconnect to both negative states (poverty, separation-anxiety, fear of the unknown etc.) and new opportunities and challenges”

“An urgent and timely new poetry collection.”

blog — March 01

Read "Author's Prayer" by Ukrainian-American Poet Ilya Kaminsky, From: "Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience"

 

The following piece by Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky appears in the collection Ink Knows Know Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond.

Author's Prayer

If I speak for the dead, I must leave
this animal of my body,
I must write the same poem over and over,
for an empty page is the white flag of their surrender.
If I speak for them, I must walk on the edge
of myself, I must live as a blind man
who runs through rooms without
touching the furniture.
Yes, I live. I can cross the streets asking “What year is it?”
I can dance in my sleep and laugh
in front of the mirror.
Even sleep is a prayer, Lord,
I will praise your madness, and
in a language not mine, speak
of music that wakes us, music
in which we move. For whatever I say
is a kind of petition, and the darkest
days must I praise.


Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. His poems have been translated into over twenty languages, and his books are published in many countries, including Turkey, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, France, Mexico, Macedonia, Romania, Spain and China, where his poetry was awarded the Yinchuan International Poetry Prize. In 2019, Kaminsky was selected by BBC as “one of the 12 artists that changed the world.”

Patrice Vecchione

Poet, nonfiction writer and teacher, PATRICE VECCHIONE is the author of My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth. Vecchione is the editor several highly acclaimed anthologies for young adults, most recently, Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, called a “vivid and vital collection” by The Washington Post. She's the author of Writing and the Spiritual Life and Step into Nature: Nurturing Imagination and Spirit in Everyday Life, and as well as two collections of poetry. For many years, Vecchione has taught poetry and creative writing to young people through her program, The Heart of the Word: Poetry and the Imagination. She is also a columnist for her local daily paper, The Monterey Herald. Patrice offers writing workshops for adults and children through her program The Heart of the Word.

Alyssa Raymond

Alyssa Raymond is a freelance editor of adult and YA fiction and nonfiction. She hails from Massachusetts and Colorado, where she taught writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a veteran bookseller at her favorite independent bookstore, the Boulder Book Store.