{"id":10312,"date":"2015-04-13T09:58:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T14:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10312"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:21","slug":"wagnerhaiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10312","title":{"rendered":"UNC Alumna Writes Young Adult Novel Inspired by Haitian Earthquake of 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Surviving the 2010 earthquake in Haiti inspired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumna Laura Wagner to write the young adult novel Hold Tight, Don\u2019t Let Go<\/em>, published by Harry N. Abrams in January 2015. The novel is Wagner\u2019s first.<\/p>\n

The novel follows Magdalie, a teenager whose adoptive mother dies during the earthquake. Magdalie and her cousin Nadine, who is as close to her as a sister, go to live with their uncle in a camp in devastated central Port-Au-Prince. When Nadine joins her biological father in the United States, Magdalie is left behind to find her own way in her devastated city, coping with her grief, her community\u2019s poverty and the challenge of paying for her schooling. The novel charts her ups and downs as she sets a course for her own future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Wagner explains that the 2010 earthquake \u201cliterally felt like the end of the world.\u201d Wagner was rescued by neighbors and friends after several hours trapped in rubble. She later wrote an article in Salon<\/a> about the experience, which led to the writing and publication of Hold Tight, Don\u2019t Let Go<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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Wagner was in Haiti studying the Creole language and working on a doctoral research project when the earthquake struck. She was about halfway finished with her program, funded by Foreign Language and Area Studies<\/a> program and International Dissertation Research Fellowship Program<\/a> awards.<\/p>\n

\"wagner_laura-159x300\"<\/a>\u201cHaiti was already a place where the superstructure of society was not strong. People really immediately knew that if people were going to be saved, they would have to be doing it themselves,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThere were a few days that social class didn\u2019t exist, and people shared what they had. Quite literally, the walls came down, and I think that\u2019s why as many people survived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folklore and children\u2019s literature expert Brian Sturm, associate professor in the UNC School of Information and Library Science, adds that adolescence is typically full of upheaval and chaos, but the earthquake\u2019s destruction of Magdalie\u2019s city and family gives credence to the intensity of her emotional journey.<\/p>\n

Sturm added, \u201cMagdalie makes her own decisions, thinks critically about the world around her, copes with life and is strong inside herself. Wagner shows these characteristics beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magdalie\u2019s story includes the years after the earthquake, giving Wagner time to explore her protagonist\u2019s new relationships and to share the language, food and rituals of Haiti.<\/p>\n

Wagner earned her MA in 2008 and her PhD in anthropology in 2014.<\/p>\n

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Surviving the 2010 earthquake in Haiti inspired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumna Laura Wagner to write the young adult novel Hold Tight, Don\u2019t Let Go, published by Harry N. Abrams in January 2015. 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