A book announcement, and a query for our Migratory Notes community

Introducing The Wanderers

Jan 15, 2026

I had planned to reach out individually to share exciting personal news: My first book, The Wanderers, is coming out this spring. But I am also writing for another reason. Along with the rest of the Migratory Notes team, I have felt called to reconnect—at this brutal time for immigrants—because we want to see how we can remobilize this community to support each other.

First, the book. Since we sent out the last Migratory Notes five years ago, I shifted gears to reporting and writing The Wanderers. At its core, it’s a love story. When I met my future wife, immigration attorney Talia Inlender, at a picnic in LA, I assumed she’d be a good source since she was then working with people in immigration detention at a local jail. Then we discovered Talia’s grandfather and my own were once neighbors in the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands before fleeing to the Soviet Union. I’m thrilled that the early reviewers get how I sought to unravel our intertwined history, while connecting our family’s refugee journeys to broader issues of forced migration and displacement.

“In crisp, unadorned prose, Gerson restores a neglected history; notes its contemporary resonances, as people are uprooted by violence across the globe; and tenderly chronicles the relationship that brought this history to light. It’s a profoundly moving account.

-Publisher’s Weekly

Though etched in local detail, this is really a global tale for our own time…Today, when many Americans face questions to their citizenship, this book lets us know that true belonging lies less in the ink of a passport than in the blood of family.”

-Kirkus Reviews

“[Gerson’s] impassioned tale spans decades, continents, languages, and coping mechanisms, and it provides a significant voice to a lesser known experience of Polish Jews. Gerson doesn’t shy away from the hard realities their families faced and the legacy and consequences that remain for current and future generations worldwide.”

-Booklist (starred review)

As The Wanderers comes out, I’d love to connect with Migratory Notes readers. (I have events lined up so far in DC, San Antonio, LA, SF - and will be sharing a lineup in a month or so). A few requests:

It would be great to meet you in person and to visit your book clubs, festivals, etc. If you have an idea for a forum where I could share the book, I’d love to hear it.
If you’re a reporter and would like a galley, I have a few left to distribute.
And as my publishing team keeps reminding me, pre-orders make a huge difference in getting the book out in the world: consider ordering a copy of The Wanderers online or at your favorite bookstore.

While I’ve been writing The Wanderers, my co-conspirators at Migratory Notes have also been busy. Elizabeth had a Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Michigan, became a professor at LMU, and is writing a column at Capitol and Main, Yana moved to Arizona to report for the Republic and now Luminaria, Anna-Cat left Central America for Houston and then began as an editor with the AP in Mexico City.

It’s hard to believe that this month marks nine years since we sent out the first of 218 Migratory Notes newsletters, the week of Trump’s first inauguration. In the years since our funding ran out and we stopped publishing, we have been encouraged to see other immigration newsletters and collaborative reporting efforts grow. We don’t envision a return to publishing Migratory Notes as a newsletter, but at this acute moment, we are interested in your thoughts on how we might fill gaps and again serve you in a different capacity at a different time. We have been considering ideas such as hosting another immigration reporters’ town hall, creating a collaborative effort to recognize exceptional reporting, or a hub for resources. We would love to hear from you (simply reply via email or in the comments):

As immigration reporters, lawyers, advocates, and concerned citizens, what are you using, reading, listening to that’s most useful to keep up right now and understand immigration developments?
And what more do you need? What do you wish you had as a resource on immigration news? Or to support immigration journalism?

Thank you in advance! We have missed our Migratory Notes community. At this harrowing time, connections are critical to resilience, and we look forward to reconnecting.

Daniela (and Elizabeth, Yana, Anna-Cat)