S Saldaña Wins Christopher Award “What We Remember Will Be Saved"

Stephanie Saldaña, originally from San Antonio, has won a Christopher Award for “What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry,” (Broadleaf Books/1517 Media). The author and graduate of Antonian College Preparatory, has lived in the Middle East for most of the last 20 years.

The book is one of 12 for adults and young people as the Christopher Awards program marks its 75th year.

Saldaña introduces readers to six men and women-- Catholic, Muslim, and Yazidi refugees--from the wars in Iraq and Syria, how they are keeping their culture alive in their new countries, and how they maintain kindness towards others despite their losses and hardships. She sets out on a journey across nine countries to meet refugees and learn what they salvaged as they escaped from the ruins. We discover that the little things matter a great deal. They provide a window into a religiously diverse corner of the Middle East on the edge of unraveling, and the people keeping it alive with their stories.

Saldaña is a journalist and religion scholar who studied religion at Harvard Divinity School and is the author of “A Country Between” and “The Bread of Angels,” hailed by Geraldine Brooks as "a remarkable, wise, and lovely book." Her work has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, America Magazine, and Plough, and she has been featured on National Public Radio. Saldaña also lives parttime in France.

Christopher Awards were also given to creators of 11 TV/Cable shows and feature films.

The Awards celebrate authors, and illustrators as well as writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit” and reflects the Christopher motto, “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications, said, “We’re often told that we can better understand a person if we walk a mile in their shoes. While that may not be physically possible, our book, film, and TV winners allow us to do that through engagingly told stories that introduce us to people and places different from our own, yet relatable in a variety of ways.”

The Christophers, a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.