A Reading: Sandra Marquez Stathis on The Search for a Haitian Boy, Reyna Grande on The Distance Between Us: A Memoir and Naomi Benaron on Running the Rift
Sunday, Nov. 18, 12:30 p.m., Room 8501 (Building 8, 5th Floor)
Author(s) and Guest(s)
Sandra Marquez Stathis
Writing as a mother, journalist, and former human rights observer, Sandra Marquez Stathis takes readers on a powerful journey to post-quake Haiti in Rubble: The Search for a Haitian Boy (Lyons Press, $16.95) she embarks on a quest in search of Junior Louis, a little boy who was seven years old and homeless when she first met him many years before. Marquez is determined to find out if he has survived the quake and to express her gratitude for his enduring friendship. In doing so she learns that Junior’s story is Haiti’s story and that it is possible to create something of beauty and meaning from the hardships of life: to make art—to make life—out of rubble. Stathis has worked as a staff writer for People magazine, the Miami Herald, the Associated Press, and Reuters.
Reyna Grande
When a young Mexican girl’s father leaves his wife and three children behind to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. Things aren’t that easy for Reyna Grande in, The Distance Between Us: A Memoir (Atria Books, $25.00), which captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, especially one spent torn between two parents and two countries. “A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.”—Kirkus Reviews. Grande is the author of the novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies.
Naomi Benaron
Naomi Benaron’s highly praised debut novel, Running the Rift (Algonquin, $14.95), follows sprinter Jean Patrick Nkuba from the fearlessness of his youth to representing Rwanda on the international stage. As tensions mount between Hutu and Tutsi, Nkuba must act to save his family, his best friend, his Olympic dream, and the woman he loves. “. . . a novel full of unspeakable strife but also joy, humor, and love . . .”—O, The Oprah Magazine. Benaron, an Ironman triathlete, teaches a UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and mentors for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.
Schedule
Location
Miami Book Fair International * Miami Dade College
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132
Room 8501 (Building 8, 5th Floor)
Share
Email
