20: #FamiliesBelongTogether: a Conversation

Writers Cristina Henriquez and Edwidge Danticat talk with V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell in an episode about the urgent issue of keeping immigrant families together and resisting their mass incarceration and detention. Henriquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans, talks about the tragic real-life inspiration for her short story “Everything Is Far from Here” and the differences between Obama-era immigration policy and the policy of the current administration. Danticat, a National Book Award Finalist and author of The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story and Breath, Eyes, Memory, discusses the treatment of Haitian immigrants, the impossible choices immigrants face while pursuing better lives for their families, and what might lie ahead for detained children after the news coverage fades. Readings • The World in Half, The Book of Unknown Americans, and “[Everything Is Far from Here](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/24/everything-is-far-from-here)” by Cristina Henriquez • “[Cristina Henriquez on Immigration, Detention, and Missing Names](https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-this-week-cristina-henriquez-2017-07-24)” by Cressida Leyshon from The New Yorker • “[The Trump administration changed its story on family separation no fewer than 14 times before ending the policy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/06/20/the-trump-administration-changed-its-story-on-family-separation-no-fewer-than-14-times-before-ending-the-policy/)” by JM Rieger from The Washington Post • “[The History of The Flores Settlement and Its Effects on Immigration](https://www.npr.org/2018/06/22/622678753/the-history-of-the-flores-settlement-and-its-effects-on-immigration)” from NPR • [The Immigration Act of 1990](https://immigration.laws.com/immigration-act-of-1990) • Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town by Mirta Ojito • The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea • Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli • Maras: Gang Violence and Security in Central America by Thomas Bruneau, Lucia Dammert, and Elizabeth Skinner • When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson • Breath, Eyes, Memory, Krik? Krak!, The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story, The Dew Breaker, Claire of the Sea and Light, and Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat • “[NYC Hospitals Are Treating Children Separated from Parents at Border for Mental Illness](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/nyc-hospitals-are-treating-children-separated-from-parents-at-border-for-mental-illness.html)” by Elliot Hannon from Slate • [The Guantánamo Public Memory Project](https://gitmomemory.org/timeline/resisting-and-protesting-guantanamo/hunger-strike-at-haitian-camps/) on the hunger strike at Haitian camps • Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran • “[White Extinction Anxiety](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/opinion/america-white-extinction.html)” by Charles M. Blow from The New York Times

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices