{"product_id":"9781555979645","title":"Afterland","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe 2016 winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Carolyn Forché\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter what\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe current gives. When we reach the camp,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ethere will be thousands like us.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roads\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eand waiting pastures of America.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWe will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffalo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eas we used to many years ago, nor will we forage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003efor the sweetest mangoes.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—from “Transmigration”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfterland\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful, essential collection of poetry that  recounts with devastating detail the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate  of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Mai Der Vang is telling the  story of her own family, and by doing so, she also provides an essential  history of the Hmong culture’s ongoing resilience in exile. Many of  these poems are written in the voices of those fleeing unbearable  violence after U.S. forces recruited Hmong fighters in Laos in  the Secret War against communism, only to abandon them after that war  went awry. That history is little known or understood, but the three  hundred thousand Hmong now living in the United States are living proof  of its aftermath. With poems of extraordinary force and grace, \u003ci\u003eAfterland\u003c\/i\u003e  holds an original place in American poetry and lands with a sense of  humanity saved, of outrage, of a deep tradition broken by war and ocean  but still intact, remembered, and lived.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47128609030384,"sku":"9781555979645","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555979645_p0.jpg?v=1763755721","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555979645","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}