LibGuides: Preface- Reading Program: 2019

Library Held Book

Border Child by Michel Stone
Call Number: ELECTRONIC BOOK- Limited to 1 User. Please click EPUB Full Text to Read on Computer Screen. Make sure you close the window when you are finished reading so that others may use this book as well.
ISBN: 9780385541657
Publication Date: 2017-04-04
For Héctor and Lilia, pursuit of the American Dream became every parent's worst fear when their infant daughter vanished as they crossed from Mexico to the United States--now they must try to get her back. With great empathy and a keen awareness of current events, Michel Stone delivers a novel of surpassing sensitivity and heart. Young lovers Héctor and Lilia dreamed of a brighter future for their family in the United States. Héctor left Mexico first, to secure work and housing, but when Lilia, desperate to be with Héctor, impetuously crossed the border with their infant daughter, Alejandra, mother and child were separated. Alejandra disappeared. Now, four years later, the family has a chance to reunite, but the trauma of the past may well be permanent. Back in their sleepy hometown of Oaxaca, the couple enjoys a semblance of normal life, with a toddler son and another baby on the way. Then they receive an unexpected tip that might lead them to Alejandra, and both agree they must seize this chance, whatever the cost. Working increasingly illegal jobs to earn money for his journey north, Héctor seeks more information about his long-absent daughter. Meanwhile, a bedridden Lilia awaits the birth of their third child, but cannot keep herself from reliving the worst mistakes of her past. In luminous, compassionate prose, Michel Stone drops readers into the whirlwind of the contemporary immigrant experience, where a marriage is strained to the breaking point by the consequences of wanting more for the next generation.

This fall, first-year writing students will read Border Child, a novel by Michel Stone. This award-winning author also lives in Spartanburg and published her first novel with the local Hub City Press. Border Child, which offers a sequel to Stone's Iguana Tree, explores the quest for the American dream and the nightmare of losing a child. It alternates points of view among different characters in order to tell the complicated story of past pain, present survival, and an enduring hope for the future. The events of the 2019 Preface series will explore visible and invisible borders around the world and in ourselves.

Preface Goals

The intent of this series of programs is to help USC Upstate first-year students make connections to each other and to the university and community, to practice skills and explore ideas that contribute to success in college, and to discuss how a deeper understanding of a shared reading can inform the way we make personal decisions and influence public policy today

Preface 2019 Events

Thursday September 12, 2019

Speaker Name: Speaking Down Barriers

See Speaker Bio

Session Title: “What's the Difference between You and Me?”
Session Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Tuesday September 17, 2019

Speaker Name: Dr. Araceli Hernandez-Laroche

See Speaker Bio

Session Title: “Building El Nuevo Sur: Latina/X Voices, Community & Chingona Leadership”
Session Time: 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Thursday September 19, 2019

Speaker Name: Office of Service Learning and Community Engagement

Session Title: “Boots on the Ground: Students and Service Learning”

Session Time: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Tuesday September 24, 2019

Speaker Name: Rep. Neal Collins

See Speaker Bio

Session Title: “DACA Students and South Carolina Law”
Session Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Tukey Theater

Thursday-Sunday October 3-6, 2019

Speaker Name: Upstate Theatre

Session Title: “Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iiuzuka”
Session Time: Thursday- Saturday 8:00 p.m., Friday 10:00 a.m., and Sunday 3:00 p.m.
Location: Humanities and Performing Arts Center, Main Stage Theatre

Tuesday October 8, 2019

Session Title: “Don't Tell Anyone”

Session Time: 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Tukey Theater

Thursday October 10, 2019

Speaker Name: Dr. Karma Chavez

Session Title: "HIV-AIDS and the Rhetoric of Immigration

Session Time: 1:40 - 2:55 p.m.
Location:Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Keynote Speaker: Tuesday October 15, 2019

Speaker Name: Michel Stone

See Speaker Bio

Session Title: “Borderlands: Opposition and Opportunity”
Session Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Tuesday October 22, 2019

Speaker Name: Alianza Hispana of Spartanburg Panel

Session Title: “Children and Immigration”
Session Time: 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Tukey Theater

Tuesday November 5, 2019

Speaker Name: Dr. Jason Hansen

See Speaker Bio

Session Title: “Berlin Wall 1989: Historical Ruptures and Continuities”
Session Time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Wednesday November 6, 2019

Speaker Name: Dr. Matthew Placek

Session Title: “The Lives of Others”
Session Time: 1:30 - 4 p.m.
Location: HPAC 120

Thursday November 7, 2019

Speaker Name: Dr. Alex Lorenz

Session Title: “Life Behind Bars in Communist East Germany: Public Interview of a State Security Prisoner”
Session Time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Sansbury Campus Life Center Ballroom

Wednesday November 13, 2019

Speaker Name: Lindsay Grainger and Friends of Refugees

Session Title: “The Refugee Resettlement Experience in America”
Session Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Location: University Center Greenville Campus