Thanks to Undocupoets, poets don’t need papers to be heard

Anyone can write a poem. Flatiron Books incurred widespread backlash last year after releasing Jeanine Cummins’ “American Dirt,” a novel about Mexican migrants for which the white author reportedly received a seven-figure advance. “We’re always the subject of people’s stories,” said Yosimar Reyes, a 2017 Undocupoets fellow and DACA recipient. “At least for the Asian American community in Queens … it’s too shameful a subject matter to reveal that you are undocumented or that you used to be,” Lin said. “When you’re undocumented, or when you live in a mixed status family, one of the unspoken contracts that you sign with this country is silence,” Valles said.