AGNI has a history of assembling portfolios that bring attention to rich and often underappreciated categories of writing. Associate poetry editor Esteban Rodriguez, guest editor Jennifer De Leon, and assistant fiction editor Ben Black are coediting the latest of these: “To Never Have Risked Our Lives”: An AGNI Portfolio of Central American and Mexican Diaspora Writing.

This portfolio gathers Central American and Mexican poets and writers, as well as descendants who identify as such, who seek to document a shared existence that transcends geographic, physical, and spiritual borders. Historic and current patterns of Central American and Mexican immigration to other countries, including the United States, are often prompted by economic uncertainty, climate change, social unrest, governmental instability, and the goal of reunification with close and distant family members. This portfolio will seek work that addresses migration, diaspora, identity, and how one comes to terms with traumas, triumphs, and uncertainties. In addition to fiction, poetry, essays, and hybrid pieces written in English, we welcome translations, including from indigenous languages and from earlier writers who, in the words of Salvadoran poet Javier Zamora, “Make it easier / to never have to risk our lives.”

PLEASE NOTE all submissions should be made through our Submission Manager under the “Diaspora Portfolio” category. No reading fee will be charged. Submissions close January 15, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.

For all portfolio inquiries, please contact agni@bu.edu, Re: “To Never Have Risked Our Lives.”