Delighted to have “Plea” get a Sippy Award. It’s a story that’s dear to my heart, as so many of my own family members fled to Canada as refugees after Black July. So glad that it resonated with others.
“This story brings viscerally home the realities of trying to flee conflict, of trying to flee hatred. Especially with family. Especially with children. The story is about the way that safety can be lost, the way that hope can be crushed, only to bloom regardless. It’s a story that is for me incredibly difficult to read but also incredibly important. I might weep as the story winds its way through the harsh cruelties of life and war and bigotry, but it is an unflinching look at what it can mean to be a refugee, what it can mean to have your family torn apart. It is wrenching and it is brutal and it is amazingly done.”