To be home is to belong. Home is a place, but it is also a feeling: one increasingly absent for tens of millions across the globe, whether refugees or settled immigrants. These three internationally lauded writers probe this concept in their most recent works. Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not the Heart follows three generations of Filipino women struggling in the United States “and reads like a seismograph of the aftershocks of trading one life for another.” New York Times writer and author Amitava Kumar passionately depicts the life of a young Indian student living in New York as he tries to fit in. And Sisonke Msimang’schildhood of travelling in exile through Africa and North America beautifully articulates our deepest need for home.

Kathryn Gretsinger is the lead instructor in UBC’s Integrated Journalism program for which she has been recognized with the Killam Teaching Prize.