Migrant Writing | Karen Kao
migrant ˈmʌɪɡr(ə)nt noun a person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions I am a migrant. I moved from the United States to the Netherlands because my husband got the job of his dreams in Amsterdam. My parents are migrants, too, leaving China for America for education (in the case of my mother) or to flee the Communists (in the case of my father). I’m an imaginary migrant. In my writing, I complete my parents’ journey by returning to my father’s birthplace in my Shanghai Quartet . Britta Marakatt-Labba, Historja. Photo credit: Karen Kao Migrant writing comes from that place between homes. But where is home? It may be the place you were born, through no choice of your own. Or, it’s where you happen to live now. I write my best inside that halfway house between cultures and languages, too. In this one respect, it’s not such a bad thing to be a migrant. We writers are gifted with an embarrassment...