5 Authors Of Books About The Immigrant Experience

5 Authors Examining Life Across Borders

Nina McConigley Discusses Writing About the American West

Organizations Helping Immigrants And Refugees

Kenny Fries Discusses In the Province of the Gods

Facts About Disabilities in America

• 1 in 4 adults in the United States have some type of disability
• The total civilian non-institutionalized population with a disability in the United States is 40,678,654
• 2 in 5 adults age 65 years and older have a disability
• 1 in 3 adults with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 44 had a health care need that went unmet within the past year because of the cost
• 37% of U.S. civilians with disabilities aged 18 to 64 have a job, compared to 77.2% for people without disabilities
• The median earnings over a 12-month period for the civilian non-institutionalized population aged 16 and over with earnings and a disability is $23,006
• 15% of school-age children have some degree of hearing loss
• Roughly 8 million people in the US have an intellectual disability, including 425,000 children
• There are more than 4 million veterans living with a service-connected disability
• Workers with a disability are more concentrated in service occupations (19%) than those with no disability (17.2%)

In Depth

Stories that share insight into the lives of immigrants can be powerful and illuminating. The exploration of new cultures, search for acceptance, and unlikely friendships often make for compelling narratives. Here, in no particular order, are authors penning fascinating and engaging books about what it means to be an immigrant.

Coming in at #1 is Nina McConigley. Born in Singapore and raised in Wyoming, she holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston, where she was an Inprint Brown Foundation Fellow. Her story collection, Cowboys and East Indians, explores the American West as seen through the eyes of outsiders, and was the winner of the PEN Open Book Award.

McConigley has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the 2011 Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award. She has served as both a scholar and fiction fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, Salon, and Puerto del Sol.

She has served as both a scholar and fiction fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

Entering the list at #2 is Aine Greaney. Born and raised in County Mayo, Ireland, she is a resident of Boston's North Shore. Her book, Green Card & Other Essays, details her experience as an immigrant writer in America. Savvy Verse & Wit hails it as a must read, while Merrimack Valley Magazine praises the author's voice as heartfelt, honest, and intimate.

Greaney leads a complimentary workshop on advocacy writing for nonprofit immigrant and refugee support organizations throughout New England. She attended the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, where she studied fiction with Canadian author Douglas Glover, who penned the acclaimed novel Savage Love.

At #3 is Kenny Fries, author of In the Province of the Gods, which explores his experience as a disabled foreigner in Japan, as well as his HIV positive diagnosis and encounters with a one-eyed samurai and blind chanting priests. The book received the Creative Capital Award in Innovative Literature, and Foreword Reviews praises its elegance and rawness.

The book received the Creative Capital Award in Innovative Literature, and Foreword Reviews praises its elegance and rawness.

Fries wrote the Disability Beat column for How We Get To Next, and developed the Fries Test for disability representation in popular culture. He is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts and Literary Arts Fellowship, and has been a Fulbright Scholar in Japan and Germany. In addition, he has written pieces for Kyoto Journal, Washington Post, and Catapult.

In the #4 spot is Rhea Tregebov. Born in Saskatoon and raised in Winnipeg, she attended the University of Manitoba and did graduate work in literature at Cornell and Boston Universities. Her novel, Rue des Rosiers, follows the story of a young Canadian woman's search for her own identity in 1982 Paris. Dana Gee of the Vancouver Sun calls it gripping.

Tregebov taught workshops in poetry, translation, children's literature, and fiction in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She serves as First Vice Chair of the National Council of The Writers Union of Canada. She has also edited numerous anthologies, including Arguing with the Storm, a collection of stories by women writers which she co-translated from Yiddish.

Tregebov taught workshops in poetry, translation, children's literature, and fiction in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Finishing up the list at #5 is children's author Victoria Williamson. A native of Glasgow, Scotland, she has worked as an educator in a number of different countries, including China, Cameroon, and Malawi. Her debut novel, The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, examines the friendship between Glaswegian bully Caylin and Syrian refugee Reema. It was chosen as an USBBY 2019 Outstanding International Book.

Williamson holds degrees in physics and Mandarin Chinese, as well as a masters in special needs in education. She is an author in residence at Forrester High School in Edinburgh, where she helps fifth year students enrich their creative writing. She has written articles for Teachwire Magazine, BookTrust, and The Scotsman.