We are finished proofreading and copy editing Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration (but for some technical details we want to double-check). The next step is finalizing the cover and getting everything to the printer (perhaps in the next few weeks).We are excited about this book, for many reasons: the rich and enduring theme (how it touches virtually everyone); the extraordinary beauty of the writing – much of it is quite moving; the humor, candor, and insight. The truth of the book is vibrating with color. As you might imagine, language comes up quite often, as does food. These are essential, fundamental stories that really hit home, that really get to some basic, core issues about all of us.
We could go on, but let’s all just wait a little longer until the book is out. One of our readers said that he was “impressed with the quality and variety of the writing.” That is true, but when you read the book through (as we have done many times over the course of the past weeks), the coherence of the sequence is such that we all have made more than an anthology – this is a real, solid book that has shape, that moves and builds to a conclusion.
We love our writers, and all of them should take pride in their work and their accomplishments. Just to give you a peek, here is the sequence of contributors/contents:
- Fredericka A. Jacks, Preface; - Jason Dubow, Foreword; - Patty Somlo, “How He Made It Across”; - Cassandra Lewis, “Pedro’s Monologue from Migrations”; - George Rabasa, “The Unmasking of El Santo” and “La Santa Papa”; - Rivka Keren, “Islamorada”; - Janice Eidus, “The Color of Cinnamon”; - Mitch Levenberg, “The Plain Brown Envelopes”; - Ruth Sabath Rosenthal, “Into the Light: Safe Haven 1944”; - Rivka Keren, “They Set Sail in Springtime”; - John Guzlowski, “Wooden Trunk from Buchenwald”; - Dagmara J. Kurcz, “Cheekago”; - Rewa Zeinati, “Beginning in the Midwest”; - Roy Jacobstein, “Emigrées,” “Ceremony,” “Passover,” and “Beyond the Gauze Curtain”; - Ruth Knafo Setton, “Living Between Question Marks” and “My Father Eats Figs”; - Eva Konstantopoulos, “Fig”; - Nahid Rachlin, “What We Call Home”; - M. Neelika Jayawardane, “Pass”; - Omer Hadžiselimović, “An Immigrant’s Deal: Two Lives for the Price of One”; - Muriel Nelson, “Exodus,” “The Widow Kramer,” “Emotional,” “Uneasy Space,” and from Pieces; - Azarin A. Sadegh, “Being a Foreigner”; - Tim Nees, “Blue Painted Field.”
Back to work . . . and nearing completion . . .
