Henry Holt has inked a deal with Diane Guerrero, an actress with roles on the TV shows Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, for her memoir, In The Country We Love. The book will be, per Holt, a "personal, heartbreaking story of her family’s nightmarish struggles as undocumented residents seeking citizenship--but ultimately deported--in the United States." Publication is scheduled for early 2016.
Senior editor Serena Jones acquired North American (English and Spanish language) rights from Steve Ross, of the Abrams Artists Agency. The memoir will be co-written with Michelle Burford, who most recently, co-wrote Finding Me, the bestselling memoir by Michelle Knight, one of the women abducted by Ariel Castro in Cleveland.
Guerrero, born in the U.S., was 14 in 2000, when her parents and brother were arrested at their Boston home and deported to Colombia. She remained in the States to continue her education. In November, the actress--who plays the character Maritza Ramos on OITNB--penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, telling the story of her family's deportation.
Also a volunteer with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Guerrero will, Holt added, "cast a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families likes hers and on a system that failed them over and over."
