We The Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa

by Andrea Wilson (Editor), Alisha Jeddeloh (Editor)

Overview

Untold stories from the American heartland of living between two worlds

At six years old, Antonia Rivera crossed the border from Mexico with nothing but the doll in her hands. Ajla Dizdarević’s family brought traditions across an ocean after leaving a home torn apart by the Bosnian War. Sarah Elgatian’s grandmother played cards and spoke of a country her Armenian-American grandchild had never known. Hieu Pham couldn’t relate to all of her mother’s Vietnamese traditions, but when she became a mother herself, everything changed. Rana Hewezi grappled with tragedy in her Egyptian family’s past and the power of a name in determining her fate. Anthony Mielke couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to his birth story than he had been told. A member of the Meskwaki Nation, Dawson Davenport was born into a world that was not told in the history books.

How do we make our way in a society that looks nothing like the one our families once knew? How do we find a sense of belonging in a past and a place we’ve never been, or in a world that feels as if it’s changing faster than we are?

These seven stories take us on a ride through the heart and the moral conscience as they explore how we find identity and make a future in an America that is still deciding on its own.

“...In the quest of all people to find freedom, it is heartening that Antonia and others can find a home in Iowa, which has not forgotten its own immigrant story.” —Art Cullen, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781732420625
Publisher:	Iowa Writers' House
Publication date:	06/29/2019
Series:	We The Interwoven , #2
Edition description:	Paperback
Pages:	220
Sales rank:	1,236,701
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Andrea Wilson is the founder and Executive Director of the Iowa Writers' House, the creator of the Bicultural Iowa Writers' Fellowship, and the series editor of We the Interwoven. She grew up in Columbus Junction, a small Iowa farming community experiencing a cultural shift from the meat-packing industry and seasonal agricultural work. In her early adulthood, she lived in Toronto, Canada, and began to write cultural stories. She traveled and lived throughout Latin America before returning to Iowa City and founding the Iowa Writers' House. She is dedicated to working with underrepresented voices and helping them tell their stories.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Andrea Wilson

Acknowledgments

Artist Statement by Antonia Rivera

"I, Antonia: An Undocumented Story" by Antonia Rivera

In collaboration with Andrea Wilson

"The Life of an Undocumented Immigrant: A Timeline" by Antonia Rivera

"Dear Ciel" by Antonia Rivera

"Querida Ciel" by Antonia Rivera

Translated into Spanish by Nieves Martín López

Artist Statement by Ajla Dizdarević

"A Drink to End all Drinks" by Ajla Dizdarević

"Šta da Vam Kažem" by Ajla Dizdarević

"What Can I Tell You" by Ajla Dizdarević

Translated into Bosnian by Sulejman Dizdarević

Artist Statement by Hieu Pham

"What We Owe Our Mothers" by Hieu Pham

"Những Điều Chúng Ta Nợmẹmình" by Hieu Pham

Translatied into Vietnamese by Phung Nguyen

Artist Statement by Sarah Elgatian

"A New Diaspora" by Sarah Elgatian

"Նոր սփյուռքը" by Sarah Elgatian

Translated into Armenian by Lilit Petrossian

Artist Statement by Rana Hewezi

"A Gateway to Jenna" by Rana Hewezi

"البوابة إلى بارادايس" by Rana Hewezi

Translated into Arabic by Hend Saeed

Artist Statement by Anthony Mielke

"Stranger in My Own World" by Anthony Mielke

"Un extraño en mi propio mundo" by Anthony Mielke

Translated into Spanish by Nieves Martín López

Artist Statement by Dawson Davenport

"Black Thunder: A Meskwaki Story" by Dawson Davenport

In collaboration with Andrea Wilson

A Note on the Meskwaki Language

Glossaries

Bios

Resources

Editorial Reviews

“...In the quest of all people to find freedom, it is heartening that Antonia and others can find a home in Iowa, which has not forgotten its own immigrant story.” —Art Cullen, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper

“What a beautiful, moving, haunting collection of stories. This project, and the Bicultural Writers’ Fellowship that produced it, gives me hope for what’s possible in the future. By crafting the stories of their lives and sharing their struggles and accomplishments, these writers offer a generosity of spirit and the kind of insight that creates connections—with readers, with strangers, with the many different people who make up Iowa, the U.S., the world. This book is a triumph.”

—Michele Morano, author of Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain

“We the Interwoven is exactly the sort of antidote we need to the kind of othering that could lead to catastrophic future outcomes. It accomplishes the vital mission of humanizing issues that are all too often relegated to abstract or overly politicized realms.”

—Melissa Studdard, author of I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and host of VIDA Voices & Views

“We the Interwoven brings together different perspectives from marginalized communities whose voices we don’t often hear. It gives them a face and name and a voice. This work is significant and needed.”

—Ingrid Bejerman, Programming Associate, Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival

“These voices map a landscape, and in language both intimate and poetic, they reveal the many words for home.”

—Inara Verzemnieks, author of Among the Living and the Dead

From the Publisher