Translingual Writing :
Non-Native English Writers Group

writing in english?

what language do you dream in?

a weekly meeting in NYC for writers in all genres. reading/discussion/workshop.

The plan is to group writers of some experience for a weekly gathering in which we will explore our writing, read published work by translingual authors, consider our situation within a hegemonic environment, have tea, and have fun. I have collected some reading material over the last two years, including include work by Ahdaf Soueif, Angela Carter, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Vladimir Nabokoov, Salman Rushdie, Raja Rao, and James Joyce. I have also planned some related excercises for us to play with. So I have a plan for the first few meetings. After those, I expect participants to plan meetings, come up with reading material, and, of course, share some of their writing.

There is no limitation on genre and style, and, of course, no agism, racism, sexism, anyism.... but spaces in my living room are limited, and before we begin i would like to learn something about you, and read something you wrote.

email me (link disabled), introduce yourself, describe your experience as a writer, why you are interested in joining the group, and paste a sample.

I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Background

I suspect that for all of us it "begins" with the post-colonial situation, but, to be more specific, in the spring of 1998, having come to San Francisco from Israel, I felt as though everyone was gathering around identities to which I did not belong, and I had no wish to "gather" with other Israelis, in fact, that was one reason I went away. On the other hand, there were so many "foreigners"... and some of them had to be writers...

My U.S. friends were wonderful although many could not pronounce my name. I worried about the future as though were I to stay here I would become narrow-worlded out of the need need to account for things obvious, supply background information about my region, reply to questions raised on televeision news - a challenging and teaching experience - while filling my own gaps on things USan, references to shared schooling experience, the constant deciphering of new words and syntactic formations and everything else about (the) language - and I could not always comfortably share this angst... so I made a flyer, similar to this one, and posted it in every bookshop and cafe in town.

There was one response, from a woman who had come to SF from Brazil two years earlier. We began meeting once a week, to read together, talk about lit here and elsewhere, show our work and comment, we became very good friends.

Some weeks later a veteran immigrant (eight years already) from Germany responded to my posting on an internet news-group. Although she lived quite a drive away from the city, she joined us often. So we were three. We did some writing games on the spot at various coffeshops until the Cafe Macondo, "The best food for your taste, health, and politicis, presented favorite writers (Vladimir Nabokov, Clarice Lispector, Joseph Conrad...), one of us had an actual novella in progress to share, others just short stories and scribbles.

After some months we really wanted more participants and decided to open our doors to U.S.ers, but (oh! how sweet that 'but') only if they have a proven and sincere interest in other cultures. And so, one new participant was American, but had spent eleven years in Japan and knew Japanese, another was American, but had majored in French, spent a year in Montreal, and could also speak/read Sapnish and Portugese. Now we were five. The group was attentive, and supportive, and comments on pieces we shared were insightful and helpful.

In the spring of 1999 I left SF to go to school in NYC. The group, we are all still in touch, still learning together when we talk, or virist.

Oz Shelach lives in NYC and is a contributor to Israeli newspapers and magazines.