Roots
On Language and Heritage: A Conversation with Naomi Shihab Nye
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4379787 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kate Long (0009-0009-4773-7097), Naomi Shihab Nye |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 31-34 |
| Publication date | 2009-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Literature Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0196-3570 • E-ISSN: 1945-8134 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/wlt.2009.0357 |
| OpenAlex | W4298250554 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
INTERVIEW Roots: On Language and Heritage A Conversation with Naomi Shihab Nye Kate Long In herpoetryand novels,Arab Americanwriter Naomi ShihabNye exploresthe boundariesand intricacies of languageand place as thetethers thatultimately connect us all.Her work isunique in itsabilitytocapture thehuman spiritand appeal toan audience ofall ages.Nye agreed to talkto WLT aboutwritingand heritage. Kate Long:When I heard you speak at the 2008 Sigma Tau Delta Conference in Louisville, Ken tucky,you said, "Always carry a plant; always stay rooted to somewhere." You have lived in the Middle East and traveled extensively.What is your plant? To what do you stay rooted? Naomi Shihab Nye: The stemofmy plant isa pen cil, and the flowers and leaves are thewords that emerge.No matter what one is living through,or i where one findsoneself,words help us navigate the place, scene, experience. W. S. Merwin speaks about writing on the backs of envelopes and scrap paper?lessens the pressure. Sometimes just scribble a phrase, then carry it inside all day? sometimes nothing more than a scrap of someone else's conversation, an announcement heard in an airport, a remembered phrase?it doesn't have to be much. Writers are the original frugal art ists,our toolbox truly inexpensive. Air? Fading signs on brick buildings? That broken pencil that looks likea pale bone of a bleached skeleton? I'm packed?let's go. KL: Doors, walls, and windows are recurring images in your poetry and fiction.After having lived in somany places, it isvery interestingthat you choose to communicate through "home" imagery. What is thesignificance ofhome toyou? And where orwhat do you consider tobe home? NSN: I have really only lived three places?St. Louis, Jerusalem, San Antonio?not many consid ering the migratory livesof somany in this world. San Antonio feelsmost likehome as Ihave lived here the longest.But everywhere can be home the moment you unpack, make a tinyspace that feels agreeable. The moment you walk outside, take a deep breath, listen to themusic of the language wherever you are, feel the pace and cadence. Even in these light-travelingdays (carry-ononly please!) Ialways pack a tinycloth tospread out on Poet and novelist Naomi Shihab Nye grewup inSt. Louis and Jerusalem. She has published manybooksof poetry,including 19Varieties ofGazelle:Poemsof the Middle East, Red Suitcase, You and Yours, A Maze Me, Honeybee, and Words under theWords. After compiling This Same Sky, which includes poems from sixty-eight countries and is still inprint after seventeen years, she edited seven more poetry anthologies. Nye earned a bachelor's degree inEnglish andworld religions at Trinity University. Inefforts to encourage peace through the arts, Nye has traveled to the Middle East, Asia, and Europe on multiple occasions. Currently, she lives inSan Antonio and travels to read, speak, and conduct writing workshops. November-December 2009 i31 INTERVIEW There isa field insideour bodies that has no age attached to it but ina certain light,bears a golden sheen. A quietude. A calm. That's what I write to, and where I write from. thedesk or tablewherever I findmyself. Make a space that feels comforting. It's sad to thinkhow "military actions" upset the homes of others without enough consider ation?what happened in Gaza in December 2008-January 2009, for example?such an out rageously oversized "response" to ongoing con flict. Devastating destruction of homes, schools, nonmilitary targets, hundreds of civilians?how cruel must human beings become to allow them selves to commit such acts and feel righteous about it?One forfeitshumanity, Iwould think. One forgetswhat home ever felt like anywhere. How much harder or less expensive would itbe to say, "Look, we've all been cruel to one another and made horrible mistakes. What do you need to feel safe? What do we need? How can we negotiate?" My father'sentire life was shadowed by grief over loss of his home in Palestine in 1948.Mil lions of refugeesworldwide have known a simi lar grief. I never have. But I have tried tomention theirsagain and again in some ofmy writings. KL: "Half-and-Half" is the title of one of your poems and a phrase you use to discuss having two inheritances, two cultures. Can you talk
Art · Art history · Conversation · Literature · Nothing · Sociology · Visual arts · Communication · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.27 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2022 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |