Writing from the Immigrant Experience Author Panel - Edwidge Danticat / Suma Subramaniam

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and now lives in New York, and many of her books capture moments special to each space she's lived in. Watch Out For Falling Iguanas captures a quintessential Florida experience Edwidge remembers from her many years of living in Florida. 

Edwidge also captured a darker and less quintessential Florida experience that even ten years after it's publication is unfortunately still occuring: Her book Mama's Nightingale, came from Edwidge's visits to detention centers in Miami. Places like Boystown where there were often young or very young unaccompanied minors forced to appear alone in their immigration court hearings. The book was recently banned specifically for supporting open borders proving it's still unfortunately a very relevant book. Other titles from Edwidge: Anacaona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Untwine, My Mommy Medicine, and a travel narrative, After the Dance. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow among many other honors.

Suma Subramaniam was born in a bustling city in South India and now lives in Washington state. She is the author of the V. Malar chapter book series set in India, My Name Is Long As A River, and Crystal Kite Award Winner, Namaste Is A Greeting. Her poems have been published in the Young People's Poetry edition of Poetry Magazine from Poetry Foundation. 

STEM and STEAM issues dealing with severe weather, nature conservation, and animal welfare are present in Suma's V. Malar series right alongside celebratory and joyful explorations of holidays and cultural rituals because everything we have done seasonally as a society, including holidays, has been impacted by climate change.

Both Suma and Edwidge talked about the importance of storytellers in their own childhoods, namely their grandparents and older family members sharing oral histories of their cultural past, with both celebratory and cautionary tales being told, and both authors strive to carry on in those traditions of sharing and telling.

The subject of book bans came up again in this session. Edwidge, who grew up under a dictatorship, reminds us that tyrants in power go after writers and artists first because like us they know the power of the written word and drawn image.