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Ni de aquí, Ni de allá: A multi-perspective account of the Dominican diasporic experience.

 

"Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá is a fresh collection of diverse voices from the Dominican Writers community that offers a balance of contemporary writers from multiple generations of the Dominican diaspora. The world of Dominican literature we grew up in taught us how stories become a fierce tool that serves to amplify the realities of some while muting and many times erasing the experiences of many. This anthology includes stories that are a product of those generations. In their writings, you will find people who navigate homesickness, nostalgia, assimilation, identity, immigration, and so many other societal factors created by the systems of both the United States and the Dominican Republic. While these individuals grapple with full acceptance or a sense of home in both societies, this community of writers put words on paper so that we can find our own full selves in their words. Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá attests to the vibrancy, power and force of our sentimientos encontrados in the balance of both the here and the there.

 

Reviews:

Arguably nobody but the Dominican Yol understands that once you’ve left Quisqeya and set foot in Nueva Yol or anywhere else in the U.S., you belong to nowhere but yourself. Ni de aquí, ni de allá explores that looking back at La Patria through the lens of immigrants and of the Dominican-American experience and makes plain the accompanying feeling of being untethered. 

—Roberto Carlos Garcia, author of [Elegies], black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric, and Melancolía.

 

Ni de aquí, ni de allá is the most current and multi-perspective creative account of the Dominican diasporic experience. The many representative voices, all bilingual and bicultural, living their aquí y allá (their transtierro) on their own terms, have immigration as their currency, and each contributor, in their own creative way, delves into issues of identity, activism, creativity, and service (giving back), all intertwined in the everyday living and surviving with dignity while trying to make a difference aquí y allá.  

---Keiselim (Keysi) A. Montás, author of De la emigración al transtierro

 

Ni de Aqui Ni de Alla is a powerful collection on the search for identity and belonging in the in-between spaces of "neither here nor there". Dominican writers embody belonging through the power of their narrative and their language. The narratives address immigration, displacement, and inclusion/exclusion in diasporic spaces through poems, stories, and micro-fiction. The mixed-use of language--English, Spanish, and Spanglish--works as a bridge to reconciliation and healing. By combining intermixed genres and languages, localizing the body as home, Ni de Aqui Ni de Alla offers readers a path through which to regain a sense of belonging. A great collection for creative writing and bibliotherapy.

---Annecy Baez, author of My Daughter's Eyes and Other Stories: Stories

 

Ángela Abréu brings us a compilation of short stories, poetry and prose that explore multiple experiences and sentimientos of being Dominican who is “ni de aquí, ni de allá.” The writers in this anthology share multigenerational experiences specific to our diasporic culture, language, race, and identities. Ni de aquí, ni de allá gives us multiple perspectives of what it feels like to be part of a diasporic community. It captures the manifestations of in-betweenness meanwhile challenging who and what decide where we belong. From living between languages, between hair treatments, cultural traditions and multiple citizenships—this anthology adds further layers and textures to the ongoing internal collective conflict of competing spaces of belonging. The writers in this anthology blur the boundaries of citizenship by forging new spaces of belonging aquí and allá.

--Omaris Z. Zamora, Ph.D, Assistant Professor in the Depratment of Latino, Caribbean and African Studies

 

For some people, belonging may be a choice, a sacrifice, or an escape. In either circumstance, there is the struggle of making the decision to be where you are at the moment, like yearning to go back in “Nostalgia” or failing math’s class on purpose as is told in “Un verano en Nueva York.” A sweet and sour journey to dreaming, longing, and being aquí o allá. Here, wherever that decision took you with a new language, new food, and a different built environment without a tree or a glimpse of the ocean. And there, where your mind wanders to the remedios of your abuel@s and the generosity of the vecin@s. ¿Y, cómo me voy o cómo me quedo se preguntan muchos? Pues agarro un lápiz y apunto say the creators of Ni de Aquí Ni de Allá putting together a piece that allows readers to go back and forth between joyful, and triste experiences of being neither here nor there.

--Lissette Acosta Corniel, Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Race and Ethnic Studies, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. 

Ni de aquí, Ni de allá

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