LibGuides: ENGL 204/205 Raica-Klotz: Collections

Books

My Slipper Floated Away: New American Memoirs by Justine Hope Blau (Editor)
An anthology of essays written by students at Lehman College in the Bronx.
Essays by immigrants
~ Pray Without Seasons by Gertrude Kobbah – Ghana
~ My Slipper Floated Away by Steven Ngin – Cambodia
~ Makeshift Barbie by Alfiya M. - Russia
~ Working at the A & P by J.G. – Peru
~ Emotions and English by Nabeela Van – India
~ Chaos on the Grand Concourse by Eric Agyenim-Boateng – Ghana
Immigrant Voices by Thomas Dublin (Editor)
Publication Date: 2014-03-31

Final chapters include an interview with a Vietnamese refugee family living in Chicago in the 1980s, writings from an immigrant who escaped the civil war in Liberia during the 1980s, and letters that crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the late 1980s and early'90s.
American like Me: Reflections on Life between Cultures by America Ferrera
Call Number: Popular Reading F (1st floor)

Publication Date: 2018-09-25

America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures.
Essays by immigrants
~ Jenny Zhang – China (p.21)
~ Kumail Nanjiani – Pakistan (p. 117)
~ Geena Rocero – Philippines (p.133)
~ Wilmer Valderrama – Venezuela (p. 207)
The Displaced by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018-04-10

Viet Thanh Nguyen, himself a refugee, brings together a host of prominent refugee writers to explore and illuminate the refugee experience. Featuring original essays by a collection of writers from around the world.
Essays by refugees to the United States
~ Last, First, Middle by Joseph Azam - Afghanistan
~ Perspective and What Gets Lost by Thi Bui - Vietnam
~ How Succulent Food Defeated Trump’s Wall Before It Has Been Built by Ariel Dorfman - Chile
~ The Parent Who Stays by Reyna Grande – Mexico
~ God’s Fate by Aleksandar Hemon – Bosnia
~ 13 Ways of Being an Immigrant by Porochista Khakpour – Iran
~ The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri - Iran
~ A Refugee Again by Vu Tran - Vietnam
~ Refugee Children: The Yang Warriors by Kao Kalia Yang - Laos

Interviews and Oral Histories

These websites can be browsed or searched by the country of origin or ethnicity of the immigrant/refugee.

First Days Project
Stories of immigrants’ first experiences in the United States. Find stories by date, country of origin or stated of arrival.
Immigrant Archive Project
The Immigrant Archive Project is an independent national initiative dedicated to preserving the life stories of America’s immigrant population.
Contains over 300 Videos.
Immigrant Stories
The collection contains digital stories from people living outside their country of birth as well as stories created by their children and grandchildren.
Minnesota Immigrant Oral Histories
Immigrant Oral Histories presents a collection of over 360 oral history interviews conducted between 1967 and 2012 with recent immigrants to Minnesota and their American-born children, including both streaming audio and written transcripts.
StoryCorps Archive
Contains over 300,00 brief interviews. Search for “first impression of America”, immigrant, “immigration stories”

These are smaller collections to browse.

Archive of Immigrant Voices
82 interviews of recent immigrants to the United States conducted 2015-2020.
Contains audio, transcripts, and images.
Migration and Immigration to NYC
Narratives collected by community college students, largely from immigrant households.
Contains audio and transcripts.
Refugee Lives Oral History Project, 2015-2018
7 interviews with refugee families from Iraq and Sudan living in North Carolina