Written On the Body: One Family’s History By Krista Stevens Highlight “We, as family, got so much from their trash. I never wanted to forget that I was the janitor’s kid before I was anything else.”
How the Border Patrol Threatens Civil Liberties Far from the Border By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight While ICE makes headlines, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency continues to detain and search American citizens far from the actual border, and it doesn’t need a warrant.
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story By Martha Pskowski Feature In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
The Horse Was a Lie (The Horse Is Here With Us Now) By Levi Vonk Feature In Mario Chard’s “Land of Fire,” was it the truth or a lie that killed the migrants in the desert? And what if that’s the wrong question? What if we say it was a horse?
Smooth Spaces, Fuzzy Lives By Rachel Andrews Feature The border of Northern Ireland was one Rachel Andrews thought she could never cross. Then it began to dissolve.
Politics and Prose By Marie Myung-Ok Lee Feature Marie Myung-Ok Lee finds herself conflicted about attending a controversial author’s reading and wonders: what does “speaking up” actually mean?
‘Like Floating Through a Library’: An Interview with Nick Paumgarten By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary The New Yorker writer takes readers through the riparian heart of Big Bend National Park.
The American Dental Refugees of Mexico’s ‘Molar City’ By Michelle Legro Highlight Los Algodones is a popular destination for people in search of cheap dental care — many of whom voted for Trump.
Poets Talk to Poets about the Border Wall By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In this roundtable, poets from around this world discuss the role borders play in their lives.
The Lost Art of Getting Lost By Pam Mandel Highlight Pam Mandel’s absurdly earned travel resume is why she always have time for the same sentiments from other voices of this rootless era.
Building In the Shadow of Our Own Destruction By Colin Dickey Feature Those who would build enormous structures—skyscrapers, bridges, border walls—should do so with an eye toward their eventual ruin.
You Just Can’t Find a Good Deal in Kreuzlingen These Days By Michelle Weber Highlight In Roads & Kingdoms, Milan Gagnon tells the stories of Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, and Konstanz, Germany — one city full of empty storefronts, and the other full of empty souls.
Death in the Desert By Pam Mandel Commentary “The number of migrants crossing illegally from Mexico to the U.S. has declined dramatically. Yet the rugged borderlands of southern Arizona have become a death zone.”
Georgia: Asian, European, or Just Georgian? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Joshua Kucera travels to the nation of Georgia, along the border of Russia and Europe, to examine the longstanding debate about whether it belongs to Asia, Europe, or the Middle East, and why it matters.
Borders: A Reading List By Emily Perper Reading List In reading for this list, I read about all sorts of boundaries—in jazz music, in science fiction and in desert landscapes. Borders are implicit in the designation of which bookshelves belong to me and which are my partner’s.
