Reyna Grande author talk: “Beyond Borders: Writing as Activism & Healing”

Events  |  

Wednesday, February 5
6:00pm – 7:00pm
UWM Library Conference Center (4th floor)
2311 E Hartford Ave

Book signing at 7:00pm (no cost)
Free and open to the public – please register below

Hear from Reyna Grande, author of the bestselling memoirs The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012) and A Dream Called Home (Atria, 2018). In these memoirs Grande writes about her life before and after she arrived in the United States from Mexico as an undocumented child immigrant, shining a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. In her lecture Reyna Grande will discuss her personal and professional journey: discovering inspiration in books and writing in her youth, finding her place as a first-generation university student in the US, and building home and hope in her writing through today.

Grande has also authored several novels (including Dancing with Butterflies and A Ballad of Love and Glory) and co-edited an anthology by and about undocumented Americans called  Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival and New Beginnings (HarperVia, 2022). Reyna has received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, and the International Latino Book Award and was honored with a Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature, a Latino Spirit Award, and a Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers.

This event is free and open to the public; the lecture will be immediately followed by a book signing at no cost. Boswell Book Company will have books available for purchase at the event (credit, debit, Apple and Google pay).

Presented by the UWM Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, supported in part with grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Resource Centers program.

With the UWM Center for International Education, College of Letters & Science, Department of English, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies with support from the Mellon Foundation, Institute of World Affairs, Sociocultural Programming, the Vilas Trust, and Boswell Book Company.

Questions may be directed to Monica VanBladel at vanblade@uwm.edu.