Alabama and Argentina. Cleveland, Columbus, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia. Guinea, Haiti, and Kent. Mauritania and Mexico. New Jersey, New York, and Romania. Sierra Leone and South Sudan. Youngstown and Vietnam. 

What do these places have in common?

Find out as you read Far From Their Eyes, Ohio Migration Anthology (Volume I). Each story, essay, painting, and poem in this anthology is rooted in at least two worlds – the physical place where its creator lives, today, and the place from which they and their ancestors came.

Sign up here to get first notice and please share and support this work: https://bit.ly/OMAVolumeOne.

Far From Their Eyes: Ohio Migration Anthology, Volume I is a collection of essays, short stories, poems, interviews, and artwork from people with connections to Ohio and to migration. Hear from a descendant of African Americans who moved to Cleveland during the Great Migration, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, a future leader of Sierra Leone, and a fifth grader who wrote her grandpa’s life story.

Paintings from Cuban-born Eldis Rodriguez-Baez and Bol Aweng of Sudan line the cover and pages are stunning (pictured above).

“It’s been a long haul but after two years, the Ohio Migration Anthology, Volume I is about to be published!” announced Ohio Immigrant Alliance director Lynn Tramonte on Facebook. “I am beyond grateful to our project manager Awa Harouna, contributing editors Shari Nacson Kevin Tasker, and all of the amazing contributors! Houleyeet Thiam Katie Salup Jodie Skillicorn (Skye), Luis Héctor Pérez Oliveros, George Shadrack Kamanda, Bol Aweng's art - Journey of Hope, Michele Rudolph, Nanette C. Auerhahn and the others who are not on Facebook.”

Fans of the Free Press know Lynn Tramonte of Cleveland has worked tirelessly for Ohio and Columbus immigrants. And where would Columbus be if not for immigrants? They’ve transformed Columbus from “Cowtown” into the Austin of the Midwest. From the Germans who built beautiful and historic German Village during the 1800s to the East and West Africans who came here over the previous two decades and toiled in local warehouses to reinvent Central Ohio into one of the world’s most important import and export hubs.

The anthology will be published in August 2021 in e-book format and “hold in your hands” formats. Journalists can request a free review copy at this link.

Contributors are being paid for their work with every sale, and donations are also being made to Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers and Brian Hoffman’s Ohio Center for Strategic Immigration Litigation & Outreach.

Anyone who has met Lynn Tramonte will tell you she is gracious, patient and fiercely dedicated to advocating and protecting immigrants who choose Ohio as their final destination. Immigrants who have decided that Ohio is where they can thrive as they seek their own American dream.

“Special thanks also goes to the world’s best interns Emma Gerber (not on FB) and Isabel Coyle (in a four-way tie with Nick Hearing + Isabel Coughlin),” Tramonte wrote on Facebook. “And my mentor/friend/boss Lisa Bess Kramer who has generously guided and offered me numerous opportunities over the last three years, so I can come home to my passion from the earliest of days – reading, writing, and editing books. Thank you, everyone!”