Diya Abdo’s American Refuge: True Stories of The Refugee Experience was selected by North Carolina Reads, an annual reading program sponsored by North Carolina Humanities. Twenty-four books were nominated; the book club asked Tar Heel readers to select five for the list.

“I’m looking forward to getting the message out there about what refugees experience when they arrive in North Carolina and how North Carolinians can come together as communities, especially at higher education institutions, to support our newest neighbors,” says Diya.

American Refuge, which was released last year, tells the stories of several refugees who now call Greensboro home. It's a book about the spectrum of the refugee experience – leaving loved homes, the conflict that necessitates flight across a border, life in a refugee camp, and then the journey to and resettlement in North Carolina -- grounded in the personal stories of new North Carolinians from Palestine, Burundi, Iraq, Syria, Burma, and Uganda.

Diya says the forced displacement of refugees “is one of the most pressing global crises of our time.”

Diya’s book will be the third book members of the club will read in 2024. Here’s a list of the books and authors that were chosen (and the month the books will be read and discussed):

• Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt by Phoebe Zerwick (February 2024)
• Poster Girls by Meredith Ritchie (March 2024)
• American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience by Diya (April 2024)
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (May 2024)
• Welcome to the Circus of Baseball by Ryan McGee (June 2024)

North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is the leading nonprofit organization charged with advancing public access to and support for the humanities across the state.

In 2022, the organization resumed North Carolina Reads, a statewide program in which participants read and discuss five books dealing with issues and concerns that face North Carolina residents.

Book club event details and online registration information will be available in early 2024 at nchumanities.org