Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora

by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Esther Lin, Janine Joseph

Overview

A lush tapestry of poetry created by undocumented and undocu-adjacent writers, Undocupoetics is an invitation to be a part of an integral component of contemporary American poetry.

“As a poet of African descent, I understand what it means to belong to two places at once. But I also understand what it means to be deserted by one as a result of the distance created by involuntary migration and displaced by one because of draconian laws. My sense of identity flows through my verse: through it I am coping, overcoming, surviving, and reaching joy. More than anything, poetry is an act of service for self-actualization and freedom.”—an anonymous undocumented contributor

From the indomitable writers and activists Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Janine Joseph, and Esther Lin comes an anthology gathering some of the best work from undocumented or undocu-adjacent writers from across the undocumented diaspora.

Here to Stay is a collection of 90 honest, heartfelt, searing, and evocative poems interspersed with short personal narratives, as culturally rich and diverse as the American quilt. Deeply intimate, these works explore what it means to exist in the liminal space between the familiar and the unknown, between past and future. Highlighting the significant talents of undocumented writers, this brilliant anthology challenges misconceptions of what it means to write and exist as an undocumented person in modern America.

Beautiful, poignant, and timely, this must-read collection is a rich and important new chapter in the ongoing story of the eclectic immigrant experience and the United States itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798874798307
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/03/2024
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Esther Lin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived as an undocumented immigrant in the United States for 21 years. She won the 2023 Alice James Award for her forthcoming debut book Cold Thief Place. Lin has been an artist-in-residence at Cité internationale, Paris; a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown; and a Wallace Stegner Fellow. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in Hyperallergic, New England Review, Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Currently she is a critic-at-large for Poetry Northwest. She lives in Seattle.

Born in the Philippines, Janine Joseph is a formerly undocumented poet, librettist, and the author of Decade of the Brain: Poems and the prize-winning Driving Without a License. Her poetry, essays, and critical writings have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, the Atlantic, Poetry Northwest, Orion, Poets & Writers, and the Smithsonian’s “What It Means to Be American” project, and she has created works commissioned for the Houston Grand Opera, Washington Master Chorale, and Symphony New Hampshire. A recipient of Fellowships from MacDowell, Bread Loaf, and the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, Joseph is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Virginia Tech. She lives in Blacksburg, VA.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Janine Joseph, and Esther Lin are the co-organizers of Undocupoets, a nonprofit literary organization that advocates for poets who are currently or who were formerly undocumented in the United States. Their work on widening the literary community and inspiring and uplifting forgotten and overlooked voices has won Undocupoets the B&N Writers for Writers award, among other recognitions.

Castillo is the author of the Children of the Land and the award-winning Cenzontle. He holds a B.A. from Sacramento State University and was the first undocumented student to graduate from the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan. His work has appeared widely in the media, including the New York Times, Paris Review, People Magazine, and the PBS Newshour. He lives in California where he works with incarcerated youth and teaches at the Ashland University Low-Res MFA program.