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“The Optimist” by Raquel Melody Guarino
I packed my bag upstuffed it fullSeams burstingas Itryto pullzipand pushdown the pileto make it easier tocarry
it doesn’t matter what you putas long as you can bear itwithout their help
you may limp or even tripbut you brought those bagsyou brought them for a reason
you will pull those bags up the stairs
one by one.
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“Interview with Helon Habila” by LaVonne Roberts
Helon Habila‘s fourth novel, Travelers, is a novel about African Diaspora in Europe. Told through a series of interlinking narratives, an unnamed Nigerian scholar’s experiences with migrants in transit, the real question Travelers asks is: what is home? Originally from Nigeria, Habila lives and teaches creative writing in the US at George Mason University and is the author of Waiting for an Angel, Measuring Time, Oil on Water,
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“Travelers by Helon Habila” Reviewed by LaVonne Roberts
What is it like to be a refugee? Around the world, 70.8 million people have been forcibly displaced. It’s hard to fathom the terrible extent of the refugee crisis, but Habila captures the humanity of his characters in a way that newspapers can’t. Travelers comes at a time when Americans are being forced to reckon with what our country is becoming, what values we truly hold dear. Habila’s stories parallel anti-immigrant narratives being espoused in the U.S. and globally today.
Helon Habila started working on Travelers in 2013, when in Berlin on a one-year fellowship.
