My latest novel, Walking Home, was on a blog tour from September 4th to 13th. Book blog tours are the inexpensive alternative to driving from city to city with a box of books in the trunk of my car or, of course, to flying first class. The interviews are not conducted on stage or in real time. For this recent blog tour, the blog tour host emailed me various sets of interview questions in advance. I wrote my responses and submitted them. The great thing about doing blog tours for me is that I have the opportunity to think about the questions and respond, hopefully, somewhat articulately in my favored form of communication: writing.
I loved my interview with Maria Grazia Spila at Fly High! She impressed me with her strong, pointed questions about the underlying
issues behind Kidane's story. Her photos are terrific as well. Here's the interview:
The
new overwhelming flood of immigration to
Europe is present–day breaking
news. Thousands and thousands of desperate human beings are fleeing from their
countries at war and coming to our countries in search of safety and freedom. Your
book is a perfect chance to focus and reflect on this urgent matter. So many
thanks, for accepting to answer my questions, Arleen!
It
is my pleasure, Maria. Thank you for reading my work.
My
first question is: what led you to
write “Walking Home”?
I've
been working with refugees and immigrants at a large urban community college
for thirty years. As an ESL instructor, I find myself in frequent conversations
with students dealing with the extreme hardships of leaving homelands they may never see again while also trying to
adjust to the challenges of a new culture and language.
I
feel fortunate for the trust my students give me, and I am very aware of how
rare my experiences are, the experiences of dealing on a daily basis with what
most only read in newspapers or see on the evening news. I wrote Walking Home,
and entire The Alki Trilogy (Running Secrets and Biking Uphill) to share the
insights I have gained.
How
much has your work as a teacher influenced your writing it?
Walking
Home is directly influenced by my work with immigrants and refugees. Kidane is
an amalgamation of a number of young men who have shared their stories with me
both through assigned compositions and private conversations. Some of those
students entered the U.S. legally, others crossed the border from Mexico after
years of treacherous migration from East Africa to Europe, then Central America
to the United States. Some have learned English, continued their education and
found rewarding work, often in the health care services. Others simply
disappeared. A few faces come to mind. Does deportation and possible death
explain those disappearances or were their immigration attorneys successful? I
will likely never know.
I
still believe words can work magic. But, as a teacher to a teacher, do you really
think tolerance and openness of mind can be taught at school? How?
I
do. We teach through our words and behaviors. We model and discuss the
tolerance we want our students and our children to learn. We teach by refusing
to allow inappropriate behaviors - slurs or jokes, misunderstandings or ignorance
- by drawing attention to them and talking them through. Ignoring something
does not make it go away. We are all teachers. We teach not only as teachers,
but also as parents and other family members, as neighbours and community
members, as coaches, athletes and idols.
Back
to “Walking Home”! Is Kidane, the protagonist of your book, a fictional character or is his story inspired
to someone you met?
All
my characters are fictional. They are also created by bits and pieces of people
I have known, others I would like to know, and still others I never want to
meet.
How
can understanding the life and tribulations of migrants help us built a new
awareness?
I
believe that by understanding others, we become more empathetic, more human. In
the United States, we often seem to forget that we are a nation of immigrants,
that the only "true" Americans were the First Peoples. Is it just
that we now insist on building walls and locking the door behind us? Perhaps we
need to take a deeper look at the conditions that are causing these horrific
migrations and see what can be done to make life safe in homelands across the
globe.
Is there any specific
message you wanted to convey through your story?
I
can't say I really thought about a "message." Kidane and Gemi and the
other characters simply appeared and demanded that their story be told. That
said, I hope readers enjoy a glimpse into worlds they might not be familiar
with and become a bit more open the next time they have dealings with a sales
clerk with an accent or an elder care specialist wearing a headscarf.
What can each of us do
for all the Kidanes in the world?
I
think we can all be more open to and appreciative of people different from
ourselves. We can be curious and empathetic. And we can stop allowing ourselves
to be controlled and manipulated by fear.
Let’s go back to
present-day international issues. The majority of the latest arrivals come from
countries deeply traumatised by dictatorship and violence. How blurred is the
distinction between a refugee and migrant?
These
words are very difficult, even more so when we add illegal and alien into the
mix. Ruud Lubbers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees states
the distinction in this way: "Migrants,
especially economic migrants, choose to move in order to improve the future
prospects of themselves and their families. Refugees have to move if they are
to save their lives or preserve their freedom."
The challenge I see with that definition lies in the rarity of granting refugee
status to anyone coming from an ally nation.
How can we overcome our
prejudices and fears and see the world as a place with no boundaries? (or How
can we realize that all those strangers are human being like us? )
I
wish I knew. Education. Communication. I suppose I'd go back to my prior
response and say that we need to teach not just tolerance, but empathy and
appreciation of cultures and peoples who are different from ourselves. And
hopefully we can stop allowing ourselves to be controlled by fear.
Do you think it will
ever be possible to really go from borders to bridges?
My
mother used to say that change begins at home. There's also the ripple effect
of the pebble thrown in the pond. Cliches, I know, but perhaps some truth lies
there as well. Perhaps bridges are built when each of us, individually and
privately, reaches out to others. Not for fame or riches. Not to save the
world, but just to make one new friendship, to make one person smile.
I read this sentence in
a report from Calais, where thousands of
refugees try desperately to find a way to reach Britain every day: “However tall the fences, however sharp the
barbed wire, however fierce the dogs, however hostile the public opinion, they
will keep coming”. How does such
statement resonate with you?
As
absolute truth. What seems to be ignored in so many refugee/immigrant discussions
and media coverage is that people don't leave their homes and cultures,
families and friends, or risk their lives and those of their children without
good reason. Ensconced in our comfortable lives, we seem unable to imagine the
horrors of life in the worlds from which folks are desperately trying to
escape. When we wrap ourselves in fear of losing the comforts that we enjoy,
and we lose our humanity.
I’d love to make my
students work on your book. I teach English as a foreign language to Italian
teenage students. Any suggestion on which pages/excerpts to use? (they are not
proficient enough to read a whole book yet!) Any suggestions in general?
Thank
you for your interest in using my book in your classes! I hope all my books
provide plenty of stimulus for meaningful conversation.
Walking Home is Book 3 of The Alki Trilogy,
which also includes Running Secrets
and Biking Uphill. All three books
deal with cross-cultural, multi-generational friends, and redemption. Each
novel is a stand-alone, but I connected them by character, setting and, of
course, theme.
I
would suggest using the opening chapter of Walking
Home in your classes. Who knows, your students' interest may inspire them
to try more!
Another
idea would be to take a look at the books and curricular materials at NoTalking Dogs Press. My writing partner, Pamela
Hobart Carter, and I have written a dozen short books in easy English for
adults (and young adults!). These are not textbooks. They are easy to read,
inexpensive, mini novels that my ESL students truly enjoy!
