Tejana author living in Middle East wins prestigious award

Zoom in: Published in September by Broadleaf Books, Saldaña's book follows the lives of six people as they seek to save family histories and languages after leaving their homeland.

• Saldaña introduces her readers to Muslim and Yazidi refugees who refused to forget stories of inter-religious friendship, and to a woman who recreated her fallen city of Qaraqosh, Iraq, through artwork on a dress.
• Saldaña spent years traveling to nine countries and conducted dozens of interviews.
• Her book is one of 12 winners of the Christopher Awards, which celebrate authors, illustrators, writers, producers and directors whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit."

Flashback: In an interview with Axios Latino last August, the San Antonio native-turned-Bethlehem resident says she sought to tell the stories of refugees "who are agents of their own stories."

• "There are over 100 million people who are displaced in the world and the diversity of these stories is as diverse as these 100 million people."
• She was moved to write about people fleeing violence in Mosul, Iraq, and Aleppo, Syria, because their stories resonated with her own family's history.

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