Politicians and TV pundits talk endlessly about how we should change America’s immigration policy. But the voices of immigrants are missing from this debate.

What is it like to leave everything you’ve known behind to flee from a war zone? Find out when you interview rising young author Kao Kalia Yang.

Yang is a member of the Hmong community. Although 300,000 Hmongs were displaced after America’s “Secret War” in Laos and found refuge in America, their stories have remained largely untold — until now.

Born in a Thai refugee camp, Yang emigrated to Minnesota with her family in 1987. She is one of the first authors to share the complex history of the Hmong in America, as well as her own family’s courageous journey.

Don’t miss her inspiring, poignant stories, including:

• Her family’s narrow escape from Laos: they swam across the Mekong River pursued by Communist soldiers.

• What the American dream means to new immigrants.

• Living in a housing project — the hidden dignity in an impoverished life.

• The challenge of growing up as a Hmong daughter in contemporary America.

• Lessons learned from caring for five younger siblings while helping her
elders negotiate a new language and culture.

CREDENTIALS: Kao Kalia Yang is the author of a critically acclaimed new memoir, THE LATEHOMECOMER (Coffee House Press, 2008). A Carleton College and Columbia University graduate, Yang runs an agency with her sister dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating and business services.

AVAILABILITY: Minnesota, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Esther Porter, (612) 338-0125 (MN), esther@coffeehousepress.org; www.kaokaliayang.com