Stories from the Borders: Francisco Cantú & Lauren Markham

Two debut books push past the headlines to craft two intimate portraits of American immigration—one of life at the border and one of a journey to cross it.

FEATURING

• Francisco Cantú, 2017 Whiting Award–winning author of The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border


• Lauren Markham, journalist and author of The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life


• in conversation with John Washington, contributor to The Nation on immigration and border politics

In The Line Becomes a River, Francisco Cantú examines his  years spent working as a Border Patrol agent in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico and the toll exacted on immigrants and agents alike by life at the crossing. “If you think you know about immigration and the border,” Luis Alberto Urrea wrote, ”you will see there is much to learn. And you will be moved by its unexpected music.“ Lauren Markham’s The Far Away Brothers reports with clarity and compassion on the journey of identical twin teenage brothers away from their family in an impoverished El Salvador farming community to life in Oakland, California, where they struggle to raise themselves and obtain citizenship. Rebecca Solnit said that the “book goes so deeply into the lives of its protagonists and is so beautifully, movingly written it has some of the pleasures of a novel—but all the force of bitter truth.”

Cantú and Markham will speak with John Washington, who writes for The Nation on immigration and border politics.

Presented in partnership with Guernica.

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED
For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released 15 minutes before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form one hour before the program.

PRESS 
Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Ayofemi Kirby at ayofemikirby@nypl.org.