Foreword by Javier Zamora
Afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud
With poems by Elizabeth Acevedo, Erika L. Sánchez, Samira Ahmed, Chen Chen, Ocean Vuong, Fatimah Asghar, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Bao Phi, Kaveh Akbar, Hala Alyan, Ada Limón, and more.
This collection of sixty-four poems by poets who come from all over the world shares the experience of first- and second-generation young adult immigrants and refugees. Whether it’s cultural and language differences, homesickness, social exclusion, racism, stereotyping, or questions of identity, the Dreamers, immigrants, and refugee poets included here encourage readers to honor their roots as well as explore new paths, offering empathy and hope. Many of the struggles described are faced by young people everywhere: isolation, self-doubt, confusion, and emotional dislocation. But also joy, discovery, safety, and family. This is a hopeful, beautiful, and meaningful book for any reader.
Check out our Ink Knows No Borders Teaching Guide here.
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 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.
