Hope on the Border

A powerful work of narrative nonfiction that humanizes the immigration crisis in the United States through the lens of undocumented, unaccompanied minors and the teacher who provides hope through poetry.
With unprecedented access, poet Seth Michelson takes readers inside the most restrictive maximum security detention center in the United States, where undocumented, unaccompanied youth are held in isolation. As the reader meets several children who are part of the author's poetry workshop, we hear from the children in their own words, and learn the harsh reality of the lived experiences of migrating people who are trying to escape violence and poverty in their home countries. Their pasts, their struggles, their hopes, and their dreams are highlighted through the medium of poetry. The author shares these stories, as well as those of mothers and children at a different facility in Dilley, Texas, infamous site of the death of 20-month old Mariee Juarez, whose death made front page headlines in 2018.
Each chapter is grounded in the voices of migrating people from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and Cuba. Through these stories, the reader learns the intricacies of our immigration system and the challenges migrants face as they work toward a better life. Armed with this knowledge, readers may be inspired to act on behalf of these powerless children, whether by implementing a model poetry workshop in their own community or working with advocacy groups or legal aid groups to champion for change.

Seth Michelson is an award-winning professor who has gained recognition from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Fulbright Foundation. He is the author of academic articles, book introductions, film and book reviews, and fourteen books of poetry and poetry in translation. His work has been published in English and Spanish in Argentina, Mexico, England, and Italy, among other countries. He currently teaches at Washington and Lee University in Virginia where he is the chair of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.