Chaucer’s Books will host New York Times bestselling author Reyna Grande (“Migrant Heart”) in a conversation with María Larios-Horton, the executive director of Diversity, Equity, and Family Engagement for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, 6 p.m. Wednesday, May13 at 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

Grande’s “Migrant Heart” is a memoir in essays that illuminates the hidden cost of the American Dream, and the complex journey of healing that follows survival, Chaucer’s said.



“Grande has spent her career powerfully capturing the raw reality of life across borders,” Chaucer’s said. “Her memoirs laid bare the trauma of family separation and celebrated her journey to become a college graduate and a writer.

“Now, in ‘Migrant Heart,’ she offers her most probing and intimate work yet, turning her gaze inward to expose the scars left by migration and the ongoing work of stitching herself back together.”

Grande interrogates how living between two nations, two languages, and two identities has shaped the woman, mother, and writer she has become.

In the collection, Grande confronts the deepest questions of the immigrant experience: How do we bridge the two worlds we live in? What does it cost you to lose your language?

How do we turn pain into power? And when traumatic memories threaten to define us, how can telling our story help us heal while honoring our boundaries?



“’Migrant Heart’ is a testament to Grande’s role as a storyteller and cultural witness. It is an essential, moving read that continues to expand what we understand about the U.S. and the complex people who cross and live within its borders,” event organizers said.
 
Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the U.S.–Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in “The Distance Between Us,” a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Among her other books are the novels “A Ballad of Love and Glory,” “Across a Hundred Mountains,” and “Dancing with Butterflies.”

Grande lives in Woodland, California. Visit ReynaGrande.com for more information.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 
 
 




 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
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