The Fraught Nature of Belonging: Nathalie Handal’s Life in a Country Album
Each poem opens a window into cities and vocabularies of exile.
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Posts Tagged: English
We Are Natural Creatures: Talking with Karen Solie
“At the limit of language we meet our mortality.”
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Concealed Histories: Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not the Heart
America is Not the Heart offers Filipinx-Americans the gratification of being seen, and a way of seeing.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Achy Obejas
Achy Obejas discusses her new collection, The Tower of the Antilles, what she’s learned from translating works of others, and why we should all read poetry every day.
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Reading across Cultures: A Conversation with Ratika Kapur
Ratika Kapur discusses her latest book, The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma, the disappointing romance of affairs, and how people carry on after doing the unthinkable.
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A Meer-Kin in Paris
Her face lit up, and I checked to make sure the man’s scowl had returned. It wasn’t enough for me that heaven should exist for the wife; her husband had to end up in hell.
...moreTranslating the War in Syria
At Lit Hub, Lina Mounzer discusses the Syrian women bearing witness to the war through writing, her own complicated relationship with the English language, and translation as a symbolic act: [War] reshapes your vocabulary. It becomes part of your language. A barrel will no longer ever be a barrel again; shrapnel will always explode from […]
...moreShakespeare Didn’t Make up as Many Words as We Think
For the Guardian, Alison Flood writes on the bias of the Oxford English Dictionary towards “famous literary examples” instead of the actual origin, resulting in the incorrect attribution of several still-used words and phrases to Shakespeare. Flood writes that there are multitudes of evidence showing earlier usages of phrases such as “wild goose chase” and “it’s Greek […]
...moreDisliked Words around the World
Sworn haters of the word ‘moist,’ now is your chance to be heard. Oxford Dictionaries has launched a worldwide vote to find English language speakers’ least favorite word, the Guardian’s Alison Flood reported. Other top contenders include “no,” “like,” and “phlegm.”
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: There Are No Good Muslims
I say I am Catholic because it is easier than telling the truth.
...moreCountries, Languages, and Writing
But what about those writers who move to another country and do not change language, who continue to write in their mother tongue many years after it has ceased to be the language of daily conversation? Do the words they use grow arid and stiff? Or is there an advantage in being away from what […]
...moreLanguage as Both Salve and Poison
What I have seen, what we have seen, is language forced into the service of violence. A rhetoric of desperation and devastation molded into the incomprehensible, then vomited out in images and words that we cannot ignore though we have tried. Lit Hub shares a beautiful, heart-rending essay by Maaza Mengiste, a meditation on Chinua Achebe, the […]
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Nerozumieš: You Don’t Understand
The best thing about living in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language is the ability to slide into solitude wherever I am.
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The Rumpus Interview with Jay Rubin
Author and translator Jay Rubin talks about his new novel, The Sun Gods, translating Haruki Murakami into English, and the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II.
...moreThe Right Balance
New Common Core standards adopted by over forty states require member schools to begin teaching more nonfiction in English class. The Times looks into the pros and cons of pairing literature with legal documents: “We do so much nonfiction,” Karma said. “I just want to read my book.”
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Reading Don Quijote with My Mother
“That’s the anthem I would have sung at my original graduation if the university had stayed open,” my mother said.
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The Rumpus Interview with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho
Author Antonio Ruiz-Camacho speaks about his new collection, Barefoot Dogs, breakthrough stories, the writing process, and why translating his book for readers in Mexico feels like a homecoming.
...moreImpending Death of a Dictionary
Much like the parochial vocabulary it strives to catalogue, the Dictionary of American Regional English is in danger of extinction. A stopgap crowdfunding campaign is currently open to support the project in the short term, but the long-term forecast for the entity protecting such gems as “flumadiddle” (nonsense), “slippery jims” (pickles), and “rantum scooting” (going […]
...moreWord of the Day: Suppalpation
(n); gaining affection by caressing; the act of enticing by soft words; from the Latin suppalpari (“to caress a little”) Simply put, written English is great for puns but terrible for learning to read or write. It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring […]
...moreFrequent Letters
Electric Literature has featured a cool infographic on the usage of letters in the English language. The results? Not all letters are used equally. Check it out here.
...moreLife Is Not Karaoke Booth
In this debut novel, an American woman running from personal tragedy falls headlong into the confusions and solaces of Japanese culture.
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