To read Illegal Woman is to straddle a vintage motorcycle behind a gorgeous young Gypsy woman and ride like hell through France in freewheeling 1965. It is a coming of age nostalgic trip that captures the excitement of empty-pocket, youthful travel. Circumstances force our suddenly broke writer, Kelly, to hitchhike from the French Riviera to Paris, where he hopes publishers' checks await him at the American Express office. Six hundred miles and only a thumb, a pair of Keds and $30 to get him there. On the way Kelly catches the eye of a beautiful Gypsy, Kalina, who teaches him to travel by his wits alone. To be Gypsy. This is a spicy romp told with energy, passion and humor. The reader will enjoy a riveting ride through Gypsy camps, Gypsy culture, French history and American folk music. Hop on the bike with Kalina and Kelly and venture into the life of the Rom at your own risk. You won't want the ride to end.

Martine Kalaw recounts her odyssey as an undocumented minor of African parents in the United States. Kalaw sought to discover her true identity and persevered through an arduous path to U.S. citizenship.

The purported guidebook used by tens of millions of illegal immigrants to enter the United States successfully and prosper once there, a satire on Americans who have lost control of their borders and not on foreigners.

“Olivarez steps into the ‘inbetween’ standing between Mexico and America in these compelling, emotional poems. Written with humor and sincerity” (Newsweek). Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek and NPR. In this “devastating debut” (Publishers Weekly), poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in, with a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch. “The son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez celebrates his Mexican-American identity and examines how those two sides conflict in a striking collection of poems.” —USA Today

"When a priest suggested to one of the first governors of Louisiana that he banish all disreputable women to raise the colony?s moral tone, the governor responded, “If I send away all the loose females, there will be no women left here at all.” Primitive, mosquito infested, and disease ridden, early French colonial New Orleans offered few attractions to entice respectable women as residents. King Louis XIV of France solved the population problem in 1721 by emptying Paris?s La Salp?tri?re prison of many of its most notorious prostitutes and convicts and sending them to Louisiana. Many of these women continued to ply their trade in New Orleans" -- inside cover.

Examining the dynamics of the sex trade in both Europe and Asia, this study identifies the role of organized crime and considers the counter measures which governments and law enforcement agencies must take to combat this global problem.