A Map Is Only One Story

From rediscovering an ancestral village in China to experiencing the realities of American life as a Nigerian, the search for belonging crosses borders and generations. Selected from the archives of Catapult magazine, the essays in A Map Is Only One Story highlight the human side of immigration policies and polarized rhetoric, as twenty writers share provocative personal stories of existing between languages and cultures. Victoria Blanco relates how those with family in both El Paso and Ciudad Juárez experience life on the border. Nina Li Coomes recalls the heroines of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and what they taught her about her bicultural identity. Nur Nasreen Ibrahim details her grandfather’s crossing of the India-Pakistan border sixty years after Partition. Krystal A. Sital writes of how undocumented status in the United States can impact love and relationships. Porochista Khakpour describes the challenges in writing (and rewriting) Iranian America. Through the power of personal narratives, as told by both emerging and established writers, A Map Is Only One Story offers a new definition of home in the twenty-first century. Cheng, a multi-award-winning author whose collection, House A, was selected by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the Omnidawn Poetry Book Prize; Victoria Blanco, finalist for the 2016 PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers Prize; Jamila Osman, short-listed for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize; Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, producer of the Peabody Award–winning show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj; and many more A Map Is Only One Story includes a twelve-page, full-color comic by Shing Yin Khor (https://shingkhor.com/comic), and examples are available in our sales materials now Contributors are located in the following areas: Austin, TX: Natalia Sylvester Brooklyn, NY: Nadia Owusu, Niina Pollari, Nur Nasreen Ibrahim Charleston, SC: Cinelle Barnes Chicago, IL: Nina Coomes Gaithersburg, MD: Nicole Chung Los Angeles, CA: Soraya Membreno Minneapolis, MN: Victoria Blanco Portland, OR: Jamila Osman Salt Lake, UT: Kenechi Uzor San Francisco, CA: KJennifer S. Cheng San Leandro, CA: Lauren Alwan Springfield, NJ: Krystal A. Sital Los Angeles, CA: Shing Yin Khor CANADA: Steph Wong Ken (Calgary, Alberta), Sharine Taylor (Pickering, Ontario) PORTUGAL: Deepti Kapoor (Lisboa) Bookseller Praise for A Map Is Only One Story "A Map Is Only One Story is an anthology that perfectly encapsulates what Catapult creates on their online platform—diverse voices telling complicated, beautiful stories. These stories on immigration are so important for our time, and each story is as engaging and original as the last." —Liesel Hamilton, Old Town Books (Alexandria, VA)