Solito by Javier Zamora
This year’s selected title, Solito by Javier Zamora, is a New York Times bestseller and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography. In this book, a young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this moving, page-turning memoir.
Library visitors can pick up copies at Robbins or Fox Branch libraries, or request a copy online via the MLN catalog. The title is also available as a digital download ebook or audiobook via Libby. Book discussions and other events will take place throughout March. A full schedule of events and programs is available at robbinslibrary.org.
Robbins Library will host Zamora on Saturday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. for a virtual author talk. Community members are invited to attend in person or via Zoom for a moderated discussion about the book. To register to attend online, please visit http://tinyurl.com/ART-Javier-Zamora. No registration is required to attend in person.
Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. Civil War forced both of his parents to flee the country before Zamora was five, leaving him with his grandparents. When he was nine Zamora migrated unaccompanied by family through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert to rejoin his parents in the United States.
Zamora was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Stanford University (Stegner), among other honors. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign.
The Arlington Reads Together community read program launched in 2002 as a way of bringing Arlington together through literature. The goal is to address issues, understand differences and create connections through shared experience. The program is made possible by the generous support of the Arlington Libraries Foundation and The Friends of the Robbins Library.
Questions can be directed to Lara Vilahomat at lvilahomat@minlib.net or 781-316-3202.