{"id":37723,"date":"2024-04-30T23:06:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T03:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37723"},"modified":"2024-04-30T23:07:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T03:07:06","slug":"review-of-ink-knows-no-borders-edited-by-patrice-vecchione-and-alyssa-raymond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37723","title":{"rendered":"Review of Ink Knows No Borders, edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ink Knows No Borders<\/p>\n

Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience<\/em><\/p>\n

edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond
\nforeword by Javier Zamora
\nafterword by Emtithal Mahmoud<\/p>\n

Seven Stories Press, 2019. 183 pages.
\nReview written May 18, 2020, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Ink Knows No Borders<\/em> is a collection sixty-four poems by skilled poets with stellar credentials \u2013 who are all immigrants or children of immigrants and many have been refugees.<\/p>\n

Our library has this in the young adult section, but there’s no reason old adults wouldn’t enjoy these poems as well.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a wide variety in the poems \u2013 in style, form, and the ethnicity of the authors. But they\u2019re all well-crafted poems, and they\u2019re all hard-hitting. They each succeed in shining a light on one aspect of the immigrant experience. I had considered very few of these aspects before.<\/p>\n

I read this book slowly, a poem or two per day. They made me think \u2013 and they helped me feel empathy for those who have had to leave their homes to come to America.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a bit of what the editors say at the front of the book:<\/p>\n

Ink Knows No Borders<\/em> celebrates the lives of immigrants, refugees, exiles, and their families, who have for generations brought their creative spirits, resilience and resourcefulness, determination and hard work, to make this land a home. They have come from the Philippines, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Vietnam, El Salvador, Sudan, Haiti, Syria, you name it. Enter the place of these poems, bordered only by the porousness of paper, and you\u2019ll find the world\u2019s people striving and thriving on American soil\u2026.<\/p>\n

These poets know that the pen holds a secret, a secret that can only be uncovered by putting that pen to paper, in a crowded coffee shop or some solitary place, maybe in the middle of night or when the dawn won\u2019t let you sleep, inspired, as you are, by birdsong or your own song. They know that \u201cThis story is mine to tell.\u201d These lived stories, fire-bright and coal-hot acts of truth telling, are the poet\u2019s birthright \u2013 and a human right.<\/p>\n

Whether you were born in this country or another, whether you came here with the help of a \u201ccoyote,\u201d crammed in a too-small boat, or with a visa and papers in order, whatever your skin color or first language may be, whomever you love, writing poems is a way to express your most authentic truths, the physical ache of despair, the mountaintop shout of your joy. Writing poetry will help you realize that you are stronger than you thought you were and that within your tenderness is your fortitude.<\/p>\n

Not only does ink know no borders; neither does the heart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

patricevecchione.com<\/a>
\nsevenstories.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teen_Nonfiction\/ink_knows_no_borders.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ink Knows No Borders Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond foreword by Javier Zamora afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud Seven Stories Press, 2019. 183 pages. Review written May 18, 2020, from a library book Starred Review Ink Knows No Borders is a collection sixty-four poems by skilled poets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,42,404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-starred-review","category-teen-nonfiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37723"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43706,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723\/revisions\/43706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}