“Silence Became My Mother Tongue”: A Conversation with Sulaiman Addonia, by Anderson Tepper

Interviews Photo of Sulaiman Addonia by Alexander Meeus. For me, one of the most astounding books of this past year—which may have slipped your attention due to the pandemic—was Silence Is My Mother Tongue, the second novel by Ethiopian Eritrean writer Sulaiman Addonia (@sulaimanaddonia). Published last September by Graywolf Press, the novel is just now beginning to get the recognition it deserves: it was recently shortlisted for the Firecracker Award for Independently Published Literature and is a 2021 LAMBDA Literary Award finalist. Set in a refugee camp in Sudan, the novel defies expectations—shimmering with sensual detail, it charts the daily encounters and erotic dreams of an extraordinary cast of characters, with the inseparable siblings Saba and her mute brother, Hagos, at its center. Of course, since war erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray region this past winter, Addonia’s work has only taken on more resonance. “I have been looking at the pictures of refugees fleeing Tigray and waiting outside the United Nations refugee agency office at Hamdayet in Sudan,” Addonia wrote in a New York Times editorial in late November, “the place through which my family and I passed decades ago, on our way to a refugee camp further inland. I was struck by the eyes of young children. Their gazes retreat and shift, as if their wide eyes have already become the trenches into which they will hide their childhood.” We spoke by email—Addonia... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-05-18 13:43:22 UTC ]
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Translation in Service of More Empathy, Less Fear: A Conversation with Megan McDowell, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Veronica Esposito Photo by Camila Valdés Megan McDowell has translated many contemporary authors from Latin America and Spain, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, and Lina Meruane. Shortlisted for the Man Booker... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-22 15:20:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary forms #rewarding experiences #long history #american exceptionalism #real problem #reading books #books written #literary fiction #american literature


“We Are Always Revising Our Stories — and Ourselves”: A Conversation with Maya Shanbhag Lang

GIVEN THE LONG TRADITION of memoirs written by men of a certain age and stature looking back on their life and accomplishments, the surge in memoirs by women in recent years has been quite a breakthrough. What We Carry, the new memoir by Maya Shanbhag Lang, is nothing short of radical, not just... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-21 12:30:36 UTC ]
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Publishers want more black authors. Why have they silenced us for so long? | Candice Carty-Williams

As Black Lives Matter protests take place across the world, the publishing world is rushing to support those ‘ignored by the mainstream’. Who is the mainstream, then?The publishing industry is stilted and archaic. I worked in it for seven years, and left due to reasons I can’t legally talk... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-11 09:44:22 UTC ]
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In Zaina Arafat’s ‘You Exist Too Much,’ a child of the Palestinian diaspora tries to heal the psychic wounds passed down by her mother

As the lost Palestinian motherland haunts one woman, so does an unavailable mother torment her daughter Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-08 13:00:00 UTC ]
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In Conversation with Golden Voice Narrator Julia Whelan

Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Host Michele Cobb speaks with narrator Julia Whelan, one of AudioFile’s 2020 Golden Voices,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-08 09:15:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #editors recommend #audiobook listening #audiobook clips #featured listens #audiobook


Temporary Permanence and Forced Detention: In Conversation with Stephanie Malia Hom, by Andrea Bryant

Interviews Andrea Bryant Published by Cornell University Press in 2019 and awarded the 2019 American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize (20th and21st Centuries), Stephanie Malia Hom’s Empire’s Mobius Strip: Historical Echoes in Italy’s Crisis of... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-26 12:48:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #migrant children #native americans #book prize


Celebrate with a Feast: A Conversation with Irina Georgescu

A COOKBOOK IS a kind of invitation to its author’s table. So it is with Irina Georgescu’s book Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania, which draws overdue attention to the food of her native country. Of course, the culinary world is crowded and chaotic at the best of times. Turmoil such as it... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-23 17:00:06 UTC ]
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Weird, Funny, Delicious Books Wanted: A Conversation with Emma Ramadan, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Veronica Esposito Emma Ramadan is a literary translator based in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is the co-owner of Riffraff, a bookstore and bar. She is the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and a Fulbright... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-18 18:20:27 UTC ]
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Darran Anderson’s granular memoir of the Troubles

“We are only sheltered from tragedy”, he writes in “Inventory”, “by the thin ice that we call time.” Continue reading at The Economist

[ The Economist | 2020-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Fate Worse Than Gravity: A Conversation with Ellen O’Connell Whittet

IT IS ONLY IN the second half of Ellen O’Connell Whittet’s poignant and exquisite memoir about ballet (and other causes of female pain), What You Become in Flight, that it dawns on the reader — or on this reader, at least — that she’s invoking the word “flight” in two senses: the balletic sense... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-07 17:00:08 UTC ]
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Darran Anderson’s granular memoir of the Troubles

“We are only sheltered from tragedy”, he writes in “Inventory”, “by the thin ice that we call time.” Continue reading at The Economist

[ The Economist | 2020-05-07 14:55:41 UTC ]
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A quest to understand the parent-child bond, driven by a mother’s self-doubt

Bethany Saltman sets out to settle her worries about her daughter and her own upbringing. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-07 13:10:46 UTC ]
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Rekindled: Amy Meyerson in Conversation with Vanessa Hua

On this episode of Rekindled, award-winning author Vanessa Hua talks with Amy Meyerson about her new book, The Imperfects, a story about a priceless inheritance that leads one family on a life-altering pursuit of the truth. Meyerson talks about the process of researching for her new novel, using... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-06 20:00:35 UTC ]
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Mother’s Day book picks by Delia Owens, Jennifer Weiner, Kiley Reid and more

We asked 16 authors to pick their favorite books about mother-child relationships. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-06 07:46:44 UTC ]
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Intimate portraits piece together the puzzle of Natalie Wood, the person and mother

Natalie Wood's daughter, actress Natasha Gregson Wagner, has written a memoir of life with the legend and produced an HBO documentary about her career. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-05 15:00:49 UTC ]
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The Abnormalizing of the World: A Conversation On Mental Illness

Two celebrated memoirists of mental illness—Marin Sardy, author of The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia, and Sarah C. Townsend, author of Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis—discuss writing, families, and the struggle to make meaning out of madness. * Sarah Townsend:... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-01 08:47:51 UTC ]
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Portal From Facebook Salutes Moms With Mother’s Day Campaign

The new campaign for the Portal From Facebook video-calling devices salutes mothers and their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic as Mother's Day approaches. Facebook said the integrated campaign will include a new television spot, digital content (both on- and off-Facebook) and partnerships... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2020-04-27 19:15:41 UTC ]
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A Genealogy of Style: A Conversation with Douglas Glover

I FIRST CAME INTO CONTACT with Douglas Glover when he was the editor of a literary magazine I admired very much, Numéro Cinq. I persuaded him to take me on as a writer by offering him an interview with Gabriel Josipovici, whose work I knew we both loved. I’d become interested in the creative... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-04-20 19:00:19 UTC ]
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The Poet Laureate and Her Mother

Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey’s memoir tells a tragic and inspiring story that shaped her life and work. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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