Born in a Second Language (Button Poetry Contest Winner) - Softcover

Afiriyie-Hwedie, Akosua

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1943735921 ISBN 13: 9781943735921

Publisher: Button Poetry, 2021

Synopsis

2019 Button Poetry Prize Winner

Born in a Second Language investigates how translation shapes and alters both language and identity as speakers travel through space and time.

In this book, languages are a means of conjuring an existence, of full expression and of defining who one becomes. Home exists on a spectrum: Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, one's body, music, mother, mother tongue etc.

Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie's book is an exploration of African and female identity, navigating what it means to be in-between identities, languages and homes and how those in-between spaces brush up against each other, and are in themselves, a home too.

About this title

About the Author

Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie is a Zambian-Ghanaian poet who was raised in Botswana. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is a Hopwood and Meader Family Award winner. Akosua has received fellowships from Callaloo and the Watering Hole. Her work has appeared in Bettering American poetry, WusGood?, The Felt, and is forthcoming in Platypus Press.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

my parents met in English / a language learned / alongside each of their mother tongues / this to
say i was born / in a second language / born because of English

in English / i have voice but no culture / in Nyanja / my ears say to my feet /
how come this body does not recognize its own tongue?

Edition details

• Publisher: Button Poetry
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1943735921
• ISBN 13: 9781943735921
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 48