You might call him the migrant whisperer, because he hears voices that others don’t.

Specifically, author Mark Lyons has spent decades of his life listening to and giving a voice to Spanish-speaking migrant workers who seldom have a chance to speak for themselves.

“I live attuned to people’s voices,” said the award-winning author in a Chestnut Hill Local report by Constance Garcia-Barrio. “When I meet people, I listen for their tone, choice of words, and accent. Listening to someone’s voice is like listening to music.”

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Lyons’s work has won him 2003 and 2009 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and a Kirkus Reviews Book of the Year honor.

Among those prized works of art is the 2001-2004 oral history project of Kennett Square Mexican migrant farm workers that resulted in Espejos y Ventanas/Mirrors and Windows: Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and Their Families.

“While spending eight years in farm worker camps, I heard many stories of people who took great risks to come to this country and ‘work like burros’ to create a better future for their families,” he said.

Read more about Mark Lyons’s work telling the stories of migrant workers in the Chestnut Hill Local here.