The Good Immigrant 26 Writers Reflect on America

by Shukla, Nikesh; Suleyman, Chimene

• ISBN13: 9780316524230
• ISBN10: 0316524239
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780316524285
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-02-04
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• More Book Details

Summary

By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, troubling and uplifting, these "electric" essays come together to create a provocative, conversation-sparking, multivocal portrait of modern America (The Washington Post).

From Trump's proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of white supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as "lively and vital," editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack.

• Chigozie Obioma unpacks an Igbo proverb that helped him navigate his journey to America from Nigeria.
• Jenny Zhang analyzes cultural appropriation in 90s fashion, recalling her own pain and confusion as a teenager trying to fit in.
• Fatimah Asghar describes the flood of memory and emotion triggered by an encounter with an Uber driver from Kashmir.
• Alexander Chee writes of a visit to Korea that changed his relationship to his heritage.

These writers, and the many others in this urgent collection, share powerful personal stories of living between cultures and languages while struggling to figure out who they are and where they belong.

Author Biography

Nikesh Shukla is a British writer and diversity activist who conceived and edited The Good Immigrant, the acclaimed collection of essays about race and immigration by 21 writers of color. He is the editor of Rife Magazine, an online magazine for young people, and the author of the novels Coconut Unlimited, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and Meatspace. He has also been shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and named as one of Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers 2016. His third novel The One Who Wrote Destiny and his first YA novel will be published in 2018.

Chimene Suleyman is a writer from London who is now based in New York. As well as contributing to The Good Immigrant she has written on race-politics for The Independent, International Business Times, The Debrief, The Pool, and Media Diversified. TV and radio appearances include BBC Newsnight, BBC, and LBC. Her poetry collection, Outside Looking On, was included in the Guardian's Best Books of 2014 list.