Born in a Second Language

$16.00

Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie, 2021

WINNER, 2019 Button Poetry Prize.

M
merylmakreads
02/02/22
Born in a Second Language by Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie [a review.] For such a short book, this one is one of the most powerful poetry collections I have ever read. Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie has an incredible and unique voice of someone with beautiful identities (complex in the way they intersect). The words written speak with intention, urgency, loss, joy, sorrow, confidence, and beauty. I cannot adequately review this to the level it deserves so I will leave you with a few excerpts. Please go read this. You won't regret a single minute of it. "i am a non-citizen/in a country/ with its bootstrap down my throat/ 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦/ is written in my passport as a visa expiry date/𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦/ is afraid to be questioned/ in a back room at immigration/ 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦/ reminds me while I am here/ I need/to train myself constantly/ to make room to leave" "Home is often explained by distance/ because distant things in view are smaller/ supposed to make home/ easier to pick up and carry - put down and leave/ 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦,/ 𝘒𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘨 means 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦..." And of course, the cover art and design by Lebohang Motaung and Victoria Alvarez, respectively, are perfection. CW: xenophobia, grief ID: The front cover of the book depicting a blue background, young Black person with long braids tied and running down their back, with a mirror in front of them, and looking off to the left is shown. The book lies on a green, leafy plant with a white background. Photo is taken from a bird's-eye view. 🏷️ #BornInASecondLanguage #AkosuaZimbaAfiriyieHwedie #Poetry #PoetryReview #Chapbook #ButtonPoetry #ExplodingPineconeBooks #ChicagoPublicLibrary #ChicagoBookstagram #ChicagoBooksta #ReadDiversely #ImmigrantBooks #PoetryRecommendation #PlantsAndBooks #BooksAndPlants #PoetryOnIdentity #ImmigrantAuthor #AfricanPoetry #ReadThis #PoetryBooks #ipreview via preview.app #PoetryChapbook #FebruaryReads #2022Reading
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V
victoriaalvarezdesign
07/06/21
Happy release day to afrokanomics 💙 I had the pleasure of designing the cover for this uber talented poet, adapting the incredible artwork of lebohanglang. Designing a book cover had always been a dream of mine and couldn’t be happier with the results. Get your copy buttonpoetry
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V
victoriaalvarezdesign
07/06/21
Happy release day to afrokanomics 💙 I had the pleasure of designing the cover for this uber talented poet, adapting the incredible artwork of lebohanglang. Designing a book cover had always been a dream of mine and couldn’t be happier with the results. Get your copy buttonpoetry
READ MORE...
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Description

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.

Awards

Praise for Born in a Second Language

Born in a Second Language by Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie is a book of beautiful poems, yes, but it is also a journey in time, in space, in a body. “I / look beyond God / for a woman / like my mother” says this poet, and I am hooked right away. It is a book that speaks in a full voice, a book that is unafraid of inventiveness, unafraid of play, unafraid also of telling it like it is–full truth. And what does this truth do? It asks tough questions: of itself, of us, of this very language: “How can I trust God In the language / in which He first forsook me” asks this voice. “How can I when / English makes a sentence sink, / iron gags and fastens mouths?” This is a powerful, necessary debut.

– Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic

“As if somehow my open / mouth and this day’s English could unscramble Africa / and rejoin what was cut,” Afiriyie-Hwedie reminds us of one of the many labors of writing in English: the paradoxical hope that the language that makes you then breaks you over and over will yield itself long enough to build you. Holding trust and distrust in a singular pen stroke, she gives us words that welcome us home despite the persistent threat of refusal. She builds. And is building….

– Marwa Helal, author of Invasive Species

About Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie

Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie is a Zambian-Ghanaian poet who grew up in Botswana. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is the author of Born in a Second Language, winner of Button Poetry’s 2019… MORE

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