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The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

Javier Zamora’s memoir chronicles the harrowing solo journey he made from El Salvador to the US at age nine.

All of these human aspects lie underneath real political, social, and economic issues. They demand our recognition and sympathy.

On April 6, 1999 Javier Zamora woke at dawn. He put on the clothes his grandparents had laid out for him: A dark blue dress shirt, dark blue jeans, a black belt, black dress shoes. Nearby sat his backpack–it held his toiletries and more black clothing. The backpack was also black. Everything had to be dark, that was what the Coyote had told them. In his new memoir, Solito, Javier Zamora recounts his three-thousand mile journey from a small fishing village in El Salvador to the United States. He made the trip alone, without family, relying on the help of strangers. He was just nine years ol...

Javier Zamora's book, as touching as it is sad, and as full of hope and kindness as it is harrowing, is the kind of narrative that manages to bring a huge debate down to a very personal space.