HOME Book Discussion Group: Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us

5 sessions, 7-8:30 pm:
January 19, 2023
February 16, 2023
March 16, 2023
April 20, 2023
May 18, 2023

Fee: Free.
Registration: This discussion takes place via Zoom; advance registration required. Click here to register.

The Lynden/HOME Refugee Steering Committee book discussion group, moderated by Lynden’s Kim Khaira, is for those interested in firsthand accounts of displacement. We consider works of non-fiction and fiction, including autobiographical and semi-autobiographical works, by writers who have faced or are facing forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. Where stories of persecution, historical trauma, and loss of livelihood are effortlessly conveyed by storytellers, journalists, and humanitarians who search out or stumble upon the lives of refugees, we seek out the words of those to whom these stories belong: the narrators who are the closest to their own stories, and the stories of their people, friends, family and, of course, refugees. Starting in January 2023, we read the award-winning novelist and memoirist Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us (2012).

After publishing two novels drawn from her immigrant past, The Distance Between Us is Grande's first memoir about her account as an undocumented child crossing the Mexico-United States border in the 1980s. Deemed as a coming of age story, Grande discusses poverty, immigration, policy and family ties from the unfiltered eyes of a child. Grande has received an American Book Award, International Book Award and Premio Aztlán Book Award, amongst many accolades.

We encourage you to read each section in advance (see information below on acquiring the current book). Then join us for a virtual discussion moderated by Lynden’s Kim Khaira. The group meets monthly, and we seek the input of group members on titles to consider in the future. With a modest reading pace, the group takes three to four sessions to read and discuss a chosen title, so newcomers are welcome and encouraged to join at any point!

As part of our HOME work at Lynden, we are making the book available without charge to book discussion group participants. If you would like us to purchase a copy of the book for you, please indicate this when completing the registration form. We will contact you when the book is available and you will be able to pick it up at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 West Brown Deer Road, Milwaukee, WI 53217. If a digital or audiobook is preferred, please contact kkhaira@lyndensculpturegarden.org for more details.

PREVIOUS READINGS
Dina Nayeri's The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You January-February, 2021
Kao Kalia Yang's Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir March-May, 2021
Emmanuel Mbolela's Refugee: A Memoir June-August, 2021
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, Edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen, September-December, 2021
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence January- April, 2022
Homeira Qaderi’s Dancing in the Mosque May-August, 2022
Sonya Bilocerkowycz’s On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine September-December, 2022