Gazmend Kapllani will read from and discuss his A Short Border Handbook: A Journey Through the Immigrant's Labyrinth, a poignant and comical journey told from the perspective of strangers in strange lands who must recede into the background to fit in, but be exceptional to survive. Kapllani reveals and explains the countless visible and invisible borders that immigrants must perpetually navigate, and offers anecdotes and insights that are unforgettable.

Gazmend Kapllani teaches creative writing and European history at Emerson College. He was previously a fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute and a writer-in-residence at Wellesley College. Born in 1967 in Albania, he crossed the mountainous border into Greece on foot in 1991. In Greece he worked as a builder, a cook, and a kiosk attendant while earning a doctorate at Athens University. A Short Border Handbook, written in Greek, was a bestseller in Greece and translated into several languages.

The Norwich Bookstore will be on-site to sell copies of the book at the lecture, and the author will be available to sign books during the break.

This event is free and open to the public.