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A Nomadic Life Draws Writer To Borderlands, Meet Stephanie Elizondo Griest

Stephanie Elizondo Griest grew up between two cultural identities: her father is white from Kansas, and her mother is Chicana, or Mexican-American.

Meet author Stephanie Elizondo Griest.

As a young child she discovered that when she identified as Chicana, she had access to fewer opportunities, and doors that were once open seemed to close.She later spent decades re-discovering Mexican-American culture and fought to highlight the stories of those living at both cultural and physical borders.

She is an award-winning writer whose work and essays have been featured in publications including the New York Times, the Oxford American and The Texas Observer. Her latest book “All the Agents & Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands” (UNC Press/2017) documents art and activism happening along the United States borders with both Mexico and Canada.

She currently teaches creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Note: this segment is a rebroadcast from August 28, 2017. 

Stephanie Elizondo Griest biking across the U.S./Canadian border
Betsy Kepes /
Stephanie Elizondo Griest biking across the U.S./Canadian border

Copyright 2018 North Carolina Public Radio

Laura Pellicer is a producer with The State of Things (hyperlink), a show that explores North Carolina through conversation. Laura was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, a city she considers arrestingly beautiful, if not a little dysfunctional. She worked as a researcher for CBC Montreal and also contributed to their programming as an investigative journalist, social media reporter, and special projects planner. Her work has been nominated for two Canadian RTDNA Awards. Laura loves looking into how cities work, pursuing stories about indigenous rights, and finding fresh voices to share with listeners. Laura is enamored with her new home in North Carolina—notably the lush forests, and the waves where she plans on moonlighting as a mediocre surfer.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.